The Performing show jumper

Philippe Benoit

graduated from Alfort Veterinary School in 1989 Paris, France. He did a Master in Exercise Physiology from 1990 to 1992 and was Team veterinarian of the French Jumping Team from 1992 to 1999, and in 2000 for the teams of Saudi Arabia and Brazil. He established a clinic next to Versailles (France) in 1993 and monitors since 2012 constantly show jumpers of clients in USA. His main interests are orthopedics, shoeing and back problems of horses. He became Diplomate of the American College of Sport Medicine and Rehabilitation in 2014 and is now living in Cardiff (CA – USA) practicing as a consultant with local veterinarians and a large show jumping facility.

Sue Dyson

graduated from Cambridge University, United Kingdom. She was Head of Clinical Orthopedics at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England for many years until 2019 and is now an independent consultant. She has a passion for the investigation of poor performance using a holistic approach to the horse, tack, rider triad to try to maximize potential. Sue has also ridden at top British level in Eventing and Show Jumping and has trained horses that have competed at the Olympics and World Championships.

Lars Meyer zu Bexten

surrounded by horses since birth, it was more than obvious that Lars would dedicate himself entirely to equestrian sports. In 1988 he celebrated his first S-level victory and in 1990 became European Team Champion of the juniors. One year later, at the age of 17, he received his Golden Riding Badge. With „Don“, his first Nations Cup victory followed in 1996. Lars has been an official FEI tutor since 2004 and is therefore responsible for international coach training and further education. As team manager, he successfully coached the Hong Kong team at the China Games in 2009 and 2013 as well as at the Asian Games in 2010 and 2014. As a globally sought-after coach, the master of horse management has so far given courses in more than 30 different countries and was a member of the national jumping trainer team of the German Olympic Committee for Equestrian Sport for several years. In 2025, Lars has taken over the role of national coach of the Greek show jumping team. In addition to training and coaching, he markets highly talented show jumpers and hunters, so that customers from Germany and all over the world have found their successful horse through him.

Agnes Olivier

as a sports science researcher, she specializes in the sensorimotor approach to movement as applied to horse riding. Her work focuses on how expertise, sensory information and inter-individual differences influence riders‘ postural coordination and the quality of their interaction with horses.

With a PhD in Sports Science (University of Caen), she initially studied the role of visual information in riders‘ postural control. This research combined postural analysis, eye movement recording, equestrian simulation and sports expertise. She continued this research as a postdoctoral fellow at the CIAMS laboratory (University of Paris-Saclay), expanding the study to include different sensory information and physical preparation in optimizing the rider-horse interaction, using protocols in the laboratory and in an ecological environment.

After two years in the R&D department of the Voltaire group, focusing on the impact of saddle design on posture, Agnes has been working since 2021 as a researcher and head of the Institut français du cheval et de l’équitation in Saumur, France. There, she develops research projects focusing on the training, health and well-being of sport horses, with a major focus on optimizing rider-horse interaction, particularly through perceptual training.

Lars Roepstorff

graduated in 1985 from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala. He worked as equine clinician at different equine clinics, SLU and as private practitioner. In 1997 he joined the Equine Studies program at SLU focusing his research on horse locomotion and is since 2011 professor in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry in the Equine Studies Unit of SLU.

Jan-Hein Swagemakers

studied veterinary medicine at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Ghent, Belgium, and was licensed to practice medicine in 1987. His professional career began in a small German veterinary practice. Later he spent nearly ten years working at Paul Schockemöhle’s stables, where he and colleague Mark Koene treated countless top sport horses. In 2001, the pair founded their own equine clinic in Luesche, specializing in orthopedics and surgery. Eight years later, he became team veterinarian for the German showjumping squad, a role he still proudly fulfills today. “It’s a privilege to work with such exceptional animals,” he reckons. “They are like elite athletes: everything revolves around health, routine, and mental balance.” Jan-Hein is a specialist veterinarian for horses, FEI veterinarian and chiropractor (IAVC, IACV certified). He is particularly interested in sport horse medicine, orthopedics, surgery and purchase examinations.

Emma Thorén Hellsten

is an expert in equine breeding and genetics with broad international experience. She has an academic background with solid experience from both research and practical breeding work. Emma studied Animal Science at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and completed a PhD focusing on the genetic evaluation of sport horses using international data.

From 2008 to 2022, she was the Breeding Manager for the Swedish Warmblood Association (SWB), where she developed breeding strategies and programmes that combined scientific evidence with practical application. She co-founded and chaired the WBFSH Scientific Advisory Committee from 2017 to 2022, strengthening international collaboration between breeding organisations and researchers.

Emma currently works at the Swedish National Equestrian Centres Flyinge and Strömsholm and runs her own consultancy in international sport horse breeding.
www.emmathorenhellsten.com

Tim Worden

is an equestrian sports performance consultant. He specializes in the translation of human high-performance training concepts to equestrian athletes, with a special interest in the jumping discipline. He has worked with numerous FEI 5* riders to provide detailed performance analytics and guidance on training program design. Dr. Worden has been an invited speaker for the American College of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Symposium – (Naples, USA – 2024), the Sports Science Seminar for the Olympic Disciplines (Ocala, USA – 2024 & 2025), the Locomotion in Practice Meeting (Utrecht, NED – 2023), The United States Eventing Association Annual Meeting (Boston, USA – 2019), and for the Equestrian Canada High-Performance Coaching Program, to name a few. He previously Co-Hosted the Sport Horse Podcast and was a Board Member of Ignite for Equine Athletes as well as the Sport Horse Research Foundation. He is a frequent writer for online equestrian platforms and has been interviewed by numerous leading publications. Dr. Worden completed his MSc (Human Biomechanics and Neuroscience) and PhD (Human Biomechanics) at the University of Guelph. In addition to his work in the equestrian community, he is Business Development Manager at Inteligex Inc. and a member of the Spinal Cord Injury Clinical Research Unit at Toronto Western Hospital.