Every horse has a unique physiological signature

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“Gigant’s golden years are over.”

Almost everyone in the show-jumping community seemed to agree on one thing: Gigant’s prime was behind him. The horse who had been national champion in 2020, known for technically brilliant, beautiful jumps and considered one of the finest imported horses in the country, was now knocking rails. His jump quality had declined, and clean rounds had become increasingly difficult. But one person still saw the same champion: His trainer. We first met him at Azmoon Club. As he spoke about the championships and the years he had spent with Gigant, there was something more than hope in his eyes. He still believed in his horse. He asked only one question: Maybe what he missed wasn’t only another title. Maybe he missed those moments when he and his horse moved as one in the arena, the quality of jump that had once been Gigant’s signature. He couldn’t give up on his champion. He just needed a path back. But the National Championship was less than 50 days away. The path had to be focused and precise. Gigant entered a 50-day ZERO•ONE VIP program. Physiological testing was performed, a direction was defined, and his training response was monitored weekly leading into the National Championship. Then, fifty days later, in the competition arena... After years, every eye was on Gigant again. On the third day of the National Championship, the horse everyone believed had passed his prime approached one of the combinations. He took off. And the commentator’s voice rang across the arena: An exceptional jump. For a moment, it looked as though Gigant had left the ground behind and broken free of gravity itself. The harmony was back. The coordination, the quality, and the heart of a champion were beating again. Gigant and his rider fought for the title until the final round, recorded the fastest overall time across all five rounds, and ultimately finished third in the country, missing a higher position only after a single rider miscalculation. And the answer to his trainer’s question: was standing in the middle of the arena. On the podium. Perhaps the most beautiful image of the comeback came after the final round, when the rider leaned forward in the saddle and wrapped his arms around his horse. The harmony was back, in the hearts of two champions.

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“This horse makes mistakes even at 135 by the end of the course. Forget about 150.”

Even his name seemed to have a ceiling written into it: Corrado 135. For years, Corrado had competed at that height. He wasn’t a bad horse. Quite the opposite. He was technical, stylish over a fence, and beautiful to watch. But only up to a point. As the course went on, something changed. The horse jumping the opening fences was no longer quite the same horse by the final ones. Not long after Corrado moved to Jam Club, his trainer called me. He said: Then he made his request very clear: He wasn’t looking for someone to coach in his place. He simply wanted to understand where the feeling he had in the arena was coming from. This time, ZERO•ONE never even stood in the testing arena. We didn’t test Corrado ourselves, stand beside his trainer during training, or give him a training program. We only received the data: One test from training. One assessment from competition. And one question: Why couldn’t this horse remain the same athlete until the end of the course? Once the data came together, the pattern revealed itself. We gave his trainer exactly what he had asked for: Where the problem was. From that moment on, the rest of the story belonged to him. He took that insight back into training and used his own experience to decide what needed to change. Weeks passed. Three days before the National Championship, he called again. He said only: The assessment was repeated. When we saw the results, for a few moments we simply stared at the screen. Corrado was no longer the same horse we had seen in the original data. But one question remained: Would the change we could see on paper exist in the competition arena too? Three days later, we got the answer. Corrado entered a height that had seemed far beyond him for years. Not 135. 150/155 cm. He jumped the opening fences with the quality everyone already knew he had. Then came the middle of the course. Still the same quality. Then came the final fences. The place where Corrado’s story used to change. This time, it didn’t. He remained the same horse from the first fence to the last. Five rounds. Three days. Only two faults. And at the end: Fifth in the country at 150/155 cm. The horse who had carried “135” beside his name for years was now competing far beyond it. We hadn’t trained Corrado. We hadn’t told his trainer exactly what to do. We had simply made visible something he had already been feeling in the arena but couldn’t yet see. He built the rest of the path. And Corrado proved his decisions in the ring. Sometimes the breakthrough isn’t a new training plan. It’s finally knowing what you’re actually training for.

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“Everyone knew there was a champion inside him. No one knew if that champion would show up in the next race.”

This horse just needs more training. More power. More explosive work. His previous trainer gave the owner almost the same answer every time. If the horse didn’t perform well, the solution was simple: Train him more. And this horse had been trained more. He was four years old, recently purchased from England, fast, brilliant, and full of talent. Early in his racing career, he had already shown more than once that he seemed born to be a champion. Then something strange happened. One day he was exceptional. A few races later, he looked like a different horse. Then suddenly he would return with another brilliant performance. The champion was still there. No one knew why he only appeared on certain days. When a new team purchased the horse, his new trainer asked a different question: He understood physiology, collected data, and analyzed it himself. He knew that sometimes something was happening inside the athlete that couldn’t be seen from beside the track. When he contacted us, he was very clear: The assessment was completed. And what we found changed the direction completely. The assessment confirmed what his performances had been hinting at all along: The talent was real. The problem was never a lack of ability. His trainer chose to try a path almost completely different from what the horse had experienced before. Not more pressure. Not an attempt to create power that the horse already possessed. A completely different direction. From the first weeks, the trainer and his team could see changes. The first race passed. Then the second. But the trainer wasn’t looking for one good result. He didn’t want a horse who could occasionally become a champion. He wanted the same horse at every race. About two months later, a video was sent to me. His trainer was sitting beside the track, watching his horse. The horse crossed the finish line. The time appeared. Almost two seconds faster than his own previous record. And this time, the performance didn’t collapse again. The speed had always been there. Now, for the first time, it was becoming something his trainer could rely on. But for his trainer, the most important thing wasn’t only the record. This horse had already proved he could be a champion for a day. This time, he was learning how to stay one. Perhaps the greatest thing his new trainer did wasn’t asking more from his horse. Perhaps it was understanding that: And sometimes, understanding means seeing beyond what the eye can see on the track.

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“This horse is genuinely nervous. Jumping her at 145 cm is madness.”

That single label had turned jumping at a higher level into an ambitious dream. But Amore’s owner wasn’t willing to let a label decide her horse’s future. She had just bought Amore, a horse competing at 125 cm, energetic, naturally suited to jumping, but resistant and reactive under intense training. Her owner didn’t want to waste months following the wrong path, and she wasn’t the kind of person to give up without trying. She wasn’t afraid of calculated risks. And she believed in victories that others couldn’t see yet. She just needed a roadmap. The day after the 2023 National Championship, after watching one of our horses shine in competition, she called us with one direct question: For a horse like Amore, even asking that question took courage. On paper, it sounded simple. But finding the answer took three weeks. Amore went through a series of exercise tests and physiological assessments. And in the end, the answer was clear: Yes. One year later, the same horse once described as “nervous and unmanageable” jumped two clear rounds at 150 cm. Amore answered her owner’s dream with a flight higher than anyone had expected. But perhaps the most beautiful sign of her transformation wasn’t written on the results board. For years, Amore had worn a red ribbon, a warning to others that she could be reactive. Eventually, that ribbon was no longer needed. It came off for good. And perhaps one of the most meaningful parts of the story came from Amore’s trainer, about a year and a half into working with ZERO•ONE: Amore’s owner refused to let a label define the ceiling of her horse’s future. A year later, not only had the height changed. The label was gone too.