When Sam dos Santos was 8 years old, he got on a horse for the first time. And immediately sat down backwards. Riding a saddle neatly with reins and stirrups is not for him. His passion is the sport of vaulting, in which riders perform circus tricks on a horse at a gallop. Sam does somersaults and flips on the back of one of his two horses, Doe Maar and Chameur. “Vaulting is freedom. It always gives me a floating feeling. Like you’re flying.”
Sam is now 16 and has gotten so good that he can compete with the seniors. Soon he will participate in a World Cup competition in the United States.
He trains at vaulting club De Heerevelden in Handel. Only the best riders end up there to practice their acrobatic skills. It’s a sport with an edge. “If you want to become a good, you have to find this exciting. There is a lot of challenge in that,” says Sam.
This time it’s Doe Maar’s turn. A big horse with a mind of its own sometimes. “Pommel horses are always big,” explains Sam. “You need space to do the exercises. The horses have a shoulder height of 1.80 meters. The neck and head still stick out above that.”
“Sam fell asleep on the horse once.”
Doe Maar is curious. He regularly goes for a walk when he is brushed. “And if he starts walking, he will walk too”, laughs Sam. “That’s what makes this sport so challenging. You work with the horse. And the horse is just an animal.”
Doe Maar and Chameur never buck or prance. “Most horses can keep on galloping calmly. They are extra cool-headed.”
As soon as Sam jumps on his horse to train, compliments are already pouring in from the trainer. Sam has a natural aptitude for vaulting. “We saw that at a very young age,” says his mother Anne-Marie Kamp. “It just suits him. He once fell asleep on a horse. You also see a horse become calmer when Sam is there. Some children did an exercise fifty times. Sam mastered it in ten times.”
“Some exercises are hard enough on the floor.”
Sam is now fully training for a World Cup competition in the United States. He is already the junior world champion. Now he can go with the seniors and that is special. “These competitions are by invitation,” says Sam. “You can only go there if you are very good.” Sam is super happy with it.
Sam’s exercises during training take no more than a minute. Then he has to take a break. His freestyle during a competition lasts one and a half minutes. Vaulting is that intensive. The trick is to make it look easy. “You have to have a lot of strength and be very flexible,” says Sam. “You have to stay in the rhythm of your horse. Some of the exercises are hard enough on the floor.”
“Like you’re flying.”
Sam has never had a bad crash, although that is always lurking. “Sam is like a cat,” says his mother Anne-Marie. “He always lands on his feet.” It is not easy to be at the top in the sport of vaulting. It is very expensive and there are not many sponsors. “It’s just a small sport,” says Sam. “And it is always a struggle to pay for a trip.”
But Sam wouldn’t want it any other way. “Vaulting is freedom. It always gives me a floating feeling. Like you’re flying.”
