The five-star winner who defied the odds by going from a paralysed arm to riding at the European Championships in 26 days
Felix Vogg talks about the rehab regime that took him from paralysis to the Europeans in 26 days, an autumn to remember and a theme of quirky rides in this exclusive article for H&H subscribers
Don’t ever tell Felix Vogg he can’t do something. On 23 August last summer, his arm was paralysed in a fall. Just 26 days later, against all medical prognosis, he was riding for his country in the European Eventing Championships. A month after that, he won Maryland five-star, the first Swiss rider to record two victories at the highest level.
“When I got up from the fall, I thought I was fine although it was hurting a bit,” describes Felix, 35. “I tried to get on to my next horse, but needed two people to help me and then I really couldn’t ride.”
Things deteriorated rapidly as the adrenaline wore off, until he was unable to move his entire arm – bar the hand.
“It was very scary, because until you experience it, you cannot imagine how it is to try everything to send the signal to your muscles to make them function but it just doesn’t work, it’s incredible,” he says. “It was even harder when I was able to make it move a little bit, because I had to put so much mind and energy into it just for a tiny movement. After one session of physio I felt like I’d ridden 15 horses.”
But Felix had places to go. Burghley was looming at the start of September and he had a fighting chance of a top placing with his five-star specialist Cartania, who was storming round Badminton in May when they were eliminated late on after a peck on landing.
“I told the physios I needed to be better the Sunday before Burghley, but they said ‘no chance’ of riding there or at the Europeans,” he says. “I didn’t hear that part.
“I did four painful hours of physio a day at a great clinic in Geneva, with electrostimulation and a lot in the swimming pool. It was fast-track rehab; they tortured me a lot and I put everything into it – I even begged the physios to come into the clinic on Sundays.”
Felix kept up his goal of riding at Burghley, and he did manage to get into the saddle the weekend before.
“But I still couldn’t connect the brain with the arm,” he says. “I could hold the reins but not move my arm forward.”
The Blenheim Euros were only two weeks later, by which time Felix was back riding. He had an early run-out on championship debutante Frieda, but a top-10 dressage and clear showjumping. Switzerland, as in Paris, finished fourth as a team.
Felix Vogg’s victory at Maryland
Come Maryland in October, Felix was no also-ran: third after dressage, second after cross-country and the victor on the final day, adding just 0.4 of a showjumping time-fault to their dressage score.
“It sounds weird, but I had the feeling before Maryland that something was different that week,” says Felix, currently sporting a buzzcut after a deal with this groom that she could cut his hair if he won. “I had the same feeling when I won Luhmühlen with Colero.
“As I’d lost all that time with injury, and missed Burghley, I really focused on Cartania – which I’d also done with Colero. I did everything with her, groomed her, tacked her up, took her to the field. I went out to Maryland three days before my groom, so I had those days alone with her. It just helps us to connect better.
“And with all that time together, I just had a feeling, even before the dressage, that it would probably happen – if I didn’t do anything crazy, the win was there for the taking.”
Felix’s hunches are intriguing if not always spot on.
“It was similar in Paris with Dao De L’Ocean. I called my girlfriend Lea Siegl from the training camp and said, ‘I will lead the dressage.’ She laughed, saying, ‘A week ago you didn’t know the test or how to ride a half-pass with him!”
His premonition didn’t quite work out that time – they were fifth, 0.1 behind the joint thirds – but scored a massive personal best of 22.1 and eventually finished eighth.
Back to Maryland, there were other signs that this was Cartania’s moment to shine.
“She isn’t usually nice to ride on a daily basis because she has so many opinions, but there she was so soft, smooth and listening,” Felix says. “We even checked that there was nothing wrong after the long journey. She was just in a good mood.”
Felix’s hopes for a tough cross-country were fulfilled when only seven jumped clear: “I was worried it wouldn’t be tough enough. Not to be arrogant, but I know I have more chance to move up to the top spot.”
And when it came to showjumping, historically Cartania’s weakest phase, a hackamore this season has revolutionised her record.
“I used to ride her in it for dressage schooling and hacking, but she started leaning on it, so now I only jump her in it at competition – it’s a game changer,” he says.
“I do really like a tricky horse”
Cartania clearly likes things done her way – Felix was apologetically late for our Zoom meeting because “she’d been left inside when she wanted to be outside” – and this is a theme.
“I do really like a tricky horse; somehow I pick them,” Felix says. “I’m not going out looking for them, but I like the extra challenge.”
From his first international ride, his European pony ride Connection D, to his top campaigners today, each one has a certain edge.
“I mostly had to ride horses my brother didn’t want, so maybe that’s why I ended up with the difficult ones. For me, it’s not such a challenge to win a competition, but to gain the trust of a horse is much more of an achievement. I never like to give up on a horse, and sometimes I feel I can help them.”
Quirks haven’t stopped these horses reaching the top, quite the contrary. But it took Felix a lot of patience and time to earn the trust of Colero and Dao, his rides at the past two Olympics.
“Colero needs his people to like him – he didn’t come to the stable door for two years, he’d hide in the corner,” Felix says. “It’s not a good idea to target his weakness, he takes it personally, but once he’s on your side, he tries his heart out.
“Dao is similar. I initially thought he didn’t want to do the job. He got eliminated twice at two-star only two years before the Olympics, but it wasn’t the height or difficulty, just that he was scared. So for six months, I’d pop over tiny logs and houses almost every day until he realised nothing bad would happen.
“Once he switched, he never ran out again, but it took me time to trust him! He is like me, once he understands how to do something he can repeat it.”
Frieda is another conundrum.
“She was my favourite horse when she was young, but she has a weird body – the front is completely different to the hind so it feels like you’re riding two different horses,” Felix explains. “Her mind isn’t ideal either as she’s terrified of other horses.”
This horse-shyness became so limiting that the mare’s owner sent her away to be “fixed”.
“She came back worse,” said Felix. “But I thought back to when I liked her so much and thought she’d be a great horse, so I decided to work with her and never put her in a position where she is scared. I ride her early in the morning, never with other horses, and not near any mirrors as she’s even scared of the reflection. It’s working out well.”
How Felix Vogg developed his system
Felix’s unorthodox approach is rooted in his upbringing. With a grandfather, Roland Perret, who evented at the Stockholm Olympics, Felix and his brothers Ben and Christian were drilled in horses as kids – with winters spent in the mountains ski-racing (the ponies came too).
“We were allowed to play football, but my mother made us feel like it wasn’t what we were supposed to be doing,” Felix smiles. “It was always riding and sometimes it was tough. We learned that if you have a pony, you take care of it every day.
“My grandfather was really strict with us in the dressage. We had to ride the ponies for two hours or more and run through our tests a lot before the competition, something I never do now. Before his dressage in Stockholm, he warmed up for five hours!”
Felix has guarded admiration for his grandfather, who was fifth after dressage in Stockholm.
“He liked to lean forward over drop jumps, so he was always falling off – he fell off twice at the Olympics,” Felix says. “A German rider overtook him, then fell off himself and asked my grandfather to catch his horse and bring it back – so the German team won silver and The Queen gave my grandfather an award for fair play.”
But while Felix hasn’t inherited his cross-country position, he follows the same schooling system.
“Where I grew up, in Germany, it’s arena, arena, arena – but my grandfather did all his training in the woods and fields, which I found interesting,” says Felix, now based in France, 10 minutes from Geneva. “I too work mostly in the fields and woods, maybe only once a week on the sand. If you can do a half-pass in the woods, why shouldn’t it work in the arena? If a horse is correctly ridden you should be able to ride any line anywhere.
“I think horses get tired of the arena, but the main reason I do it is because I think the horses stay sounder. For me, the worst thing is if a horse is injured. My number one priority is to keep horses sound and healthy, the results are second or third.”
Felix adds that a stint with Michael Jung taught him the art of test-riding.
“He trains his horses so they are always ready to do any movement on any occasion. It applies to cross-country too, so if you want to make a flying change, it happens, you don’t waste three strides and concentration on the fence because the change isn’t coming.”
For all that Felix is a stickler for details, he insists he’s “not competitive, not at all”.
“I don’t always want to win, but I do always want to get the most out of a horse – which can be annoying for the people around me! I am definitely not relaxed, I’m very picky.
“I just think there are negative aspects of running fast every time. For example, I wouldn’t be able to handle Cartania if I always rode her fast.”
He points out that Cartania has been inside the time three times in the past five seasons, precisely when it mattered: the two championships she’s contested and Maryland.
“I do it for the good of the horse,” he says. “What’s the point of winning €400 at a four-star short? I prepare everything to peak at the right moment, like riding for my country.”
And so thoughts turn to the World Championships in Aachen, where Switzerland will keep pressing for their first medal since 1981. Colero will be 18 and although he’s “in better shape now than when he was 10”, Felix treats every competition as though it were his last. Dao De L’Ocean hasn’t been seen in public since Paris but the 12-year-old looks his likely ride.
“I made a mistake giving him too much time off after Paris, and he lost too much muscle, which has taken time to build up,” says Felix. “He’s ready now and I hope he’ll get his chance in Aachen.”
If past form is anything to go by, the best thing to do is tell Felix Vogg is that he has no chance at all.
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.