Dressage-News

July 19, 2024

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

The start of Olympic dressage in Paris at the end of this month will mark the 125th day since Marcus Orlob first rode Jane at Big Tour, a feat that is hailed as possibly the most rapid rise to the top of the sport in more than a century of Games history.

The 42-year-old rider had never ridden for the United States since arriving in America from Germany 16 years ago until after being selected along with Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper and Adrienne Lyle on Helix for the Paris team with Endel Ots on Bohemian reserve.

Getting the ride on Jane, a KWPN mare 10 years old (Desperado x Metall) owned by Alice Tarjan was itself as unexpected as making the Olympic team.

Marcus had gone to Alice’s barn in Loxahatchee, a community neighboring Wellington in south Florida, for what he thought would be a typical morning coaching last winter. As with so many of her horses over the years, she had selected Jane as a three-year-old online.

By the time the 2024 Global winter circuit was underway, Alice had been undefeated in riding Jane to 11 international Medium Tour victories over the previous two years and was looking at starting Grand Prix. She had already taken four of her horses–including Serenade to the World Cup Final in Omaha and the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany in 2023–to international Big Tour.

“Usually I come to Alice and she’s warming up the horse and then we are ready for a lesson with many different horses,” recalled Marcus.

“And I remember that morning I walked in and Jane was beside the mounting block without Alice, just Alice holding her in hand. And I’m like, ‘why are you not riding?’

“She said, ‘No, you’re riding.’

“And I said, ‘why, are you okay?'”

Alice replied: ”Yeah, I’m OK, but I think you have a better shot than me, so you try and see if it works with you.”

“Are you sure? She’s like, ‘yeah, 100%.’

“That’s how it started.

“And I rode it and I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing, this horse. Because it was just like, I would say, how you try a horse when it’s for sale. I played a little bit with the canter, the trot, the piaffe, and I was like, ‘Wow, it’s amazing.’ And Alice says, ‘I like what I see. I think you will be fine’.”

First came a national Grand Prix in early March, followed by a national Intermediate II to qualify for a circuit-ending developing Grand Prix finale.

Then a decision to seek to earn a place in a group of riders and horses to go to Europe to vie for a place on the Olympic team, a wide open opportunity with several new last-minute partnerships, with Marcus and Jane the newest.

At Global’s international arena on March 28 Marcus and Jane made their CDI Grand Prix debut, a 3* with 23 riders and horses in the lineup.

Confidence grew and the scores started climbing even as the deadline grew shorter. Over the next five weeks with two CDIs at Terra Nova on Florida’s west coast and one at Orlando’s World Equestrian Center the pair made it on to the U.S. short list of seven riders on eight horses to go to Europe. A first for Marcus as an American and with scant Big Tour experience.

At events in Europe, he and Jane excelled.

On June 25, he was named to the U.S. Olympic team along with multi-Olympians Adrienne Lyle on Helix and Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper with Endel Ots on Bohemian named as reserve.

‘I think I’m really under shock still,” he said. “I don’t know really how to put everything in words because this was always a childhood dream to ride first in Aachen because you see all the superstars, they ride in Aachen. And then on top of it to go to Olympics, to fill in a couple of months, two dreams, it’s unbelievable.”

Marcus grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, schooled in classical dressage.

He met a young American woman while undergoing testing for his rider’s certification who convinced him to move to the U.S., he figured for a year. Instead, the relocation to New Jersey became permanent.

As with many trainers trying to pay the bills while pursuing their love of horses, “I always had opportunities to ride good horses and make them good,” he explained. “But right before I could shine and show them in public, they got sold or the owners took them back. So I have to say I always believed in my own riding and now it’s amazing that I can actually show the world that I can ride and have the right dance partner.”

And since he’s been back in Europe, he has continued with his longtime coach, Johan Zagers, who will guide him through Olympic competition with support from team chef d’equipe Christine Traurig.