THE rider who first produced Carl Hester’s European team gold medal winner Fame, who he rode to a team bronze last week at the Paris Olympic Games, is Belgium’s Larissa Pauluis who herself rode Flambeau in Paris.

She began her campaign in last Tuesday week’s Grand Prix, scoring 72.127%. After her test that day, she showed the palm of her gloves which read ‘I promised you, I did it’ with a love heart. It was a message for her late husband who died from a heart attack four years ago.

Speaking through the tears afterwards, Pauluis said: “It’s really emotional. My husband died four years ago and when was I was with him (before he died), I made a promise to him.

“I said to him, I promise you I will be in Paris to the Olympics. I promise you, I promise you forever.

“It was a really big challenge because he never saw me riding Grand Prix but now I’m here, so it’s wonderful.”

It was her late husband who first believed in the horse she is riding in Paris.

“I bought him when he was was nine and he was so complicated and so difficult to ride. I said at the beginning ‘I don’t believe in that horse’ and it was my husband who said to me, you have to try because the horse has some quality and now we are here at the Olympics.”