Talking about Rodrigo means talking about his parents to start with. Nelson (Neco) and Regina are 'cariocas' ( born in Rio de Janeiro). The father, fascinated with horses, and the mother with dogs and plants. They moved to France, Chantilly, in 1965, and it was in Paris where Rodrigo was born in the year 1972.

Rodrigo always lived surrounded by several cultures: the Brazilian carioca family, his studies in France, besides the European culture in general experienced in trips since Neco was always involved with horses and he took his family along in the numerous trips he used to take.
  Neco has won numerous titles in Brazil and in Europe, where he became known as 'The Wizard', and it was from him that Rodrigo inherited the passion for horses, for equestrian sports, and learned to ride.

At the age of 9, Rodrigo took part ih his first competition with ponies in England, and at 12 he conquered the title of Champion of Pony Class in Belgium, his first title of the many that would come ahead.
At 16, he started competing in the most important GPs in Europe, and in 1988 he won the first he won the junior European Championship competition, but could not take the title home because of his Brazilian citizenship.

In fact, Rodrigo's first great year was 1992, when he joined the Brazilian team for the Olympic games in Barcelona, with Carlos Vinicius da Motta, Nelson Pessoa, Vitor Teixeira and Lucia Santa Cruz da Motta (as standby). He was only 19 and was the youngest rider disputing the Olympic Games, reaching the 9th place individual count, riding Special Envoy.

In 1993 Rodrigo conquered the Wiesbaden - Paris (France) and Aachen (Germany) GPs and in the same year he won his first Derby, in Eindhoven, his father's trade mark.

In order to participate in the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata in 1994, he won the GPs at Aachen and Aarhus riding Special Envoy, thus earning a place in the team with Nelson Pessoa, André Johannpeter and Vitor Alves Teixeira. And in the Pan, the Brazilians were the gold medal winning team.
    In 1997, Rodrigo started getting prepared for a major objective, and won the GPs at Geesteren, Mannheim and Aachen, reaching the World Cup in Helsinki, Finland, with true chances of winning. And so it was that riding Baloubet they became champions in the 1998 World Cup. In that same year, this time riding Lianos, he disputed the World Championship in Rome, and after a most astonishing performance, he became World Champion! AStill in 1998, he won the Rotterdam GP of and received the "Show Jumping of the Year" trophy as the world's best rider. That was indeed a very remarkable year in Rodrigo's career.

Riding Baloubet in 1999, Rodrigo conquered the bi-championship of the World Cup. Then, in that same year, he won Paris-Bercy, Berlin and Amsterdam GPs, and Derby at La Baule, and with all these victories the reached the top of World Ranking.

2000 was a year full of celebrations for, after all, Rodrigo conquered for the third time in a row the Equestrian World Cup with Baloubet, besides bringing to Brazil the bronze team medal at the Olympics, Sydney riding Baloubet, after a hard decision against France's team.
All was going on well, but on the second round of individual final, Rodrigo and Baloubet ended up losing the chance of bringing an individual medal to Brazil. Despite the great disappointment, Rodrigo overcame and again won several competitions with Baloubet.
At the end of 2000, Rodrigo had already conquered 23 victories, 10 second places, 1 World Cup, 1 Olympic Medal and also ended the year as the number of the World Ranking FEI/BCM.

  
    2001 was a fantastic year, the fourth in a row disputing the World Cup and, despite the excellent performance riding Baloubet, Rodrigo unfortunately could not conquer the title. Anyhow, he celebrated his participation at the final. He did not win the World Cup, but he conquered the GPs of Spruce Meadows and Aarhus with the horse Lianos, La Coruña with Taylor Made, Fontainebleau with Bianca d'Amaury, and Milan with Baloubet.
   

In 2002 Rodrigo took part of GPs in Europe and North America and managed to accumulate good results in both continents.

Altogether there were 175 competitions in 2003, of those he won 21, got second place 12 times and 6 times in third place.

2004 was one of the best years of Rodrigo's life. He conquered 14 victories, 13 second places, 7 third places and 6 GPs. In the Olympics of Athens, riding Baloubet, he conquered the indiviaul silver medal.

2005 was the year in which Olympic Silver turned into Gold. The Irish group formed by Cian O'Connor and Waterford Cristal got disqualified from the Olympic Games due to doping and Rodrigo Pessoa received, on 29th of August in Rio de Janeiro, the long awaited Olympic Gold Medal. In the same year, Rodrigo won with Baloubet du Rouet the two main competitions at Lãs Vegas Invitational, both competitions of his circuit in Brussels and the TOP10 final in Geneva.

The year 2006 has been quite special. Rodrigo has received the horse Oasis, from entrepreneur Hunter Harrison, and has won Falsterbo (Sweden), Lanaken and Brussels (Belgium) Grand Prix mounting him. Mr Hunter Harrison's daughter, rider Cayce, rides a horse named Couer, of amazing qualities. Since she'll dedicate more of her time to her studies in 2007, Rodrigo will have the chance of riding Couer along the year, what gives him great hope to conquer important results.

Good news to end the year, since Belgian rider Judy Ann Melchior, daughter of the owner of one of the most important studs in the world, Zangersheide, has sent two important horses of the stud to be under Rodrigo's responsibility in 2007. They are Air Jordan Z and Balougran Z. Air Jordan Z is ready for the main competitions and Rodrigo is quite optimistic to conquer great results with him. Balougran Z is Baloubet du Rouet's son and has excellent qualities. He is only 7 years old and Rodrigo will dedicate his preparation for the main tournaments.

In 2007, Rodrigo Pessoa will count on a first class team of horses, including Air Jordan Z, Couer, Oasis, Cantate, Balougran Z and Palouchin. It will be a promising year of many tournaments and very good results.

2007 season will start in Winter Equestrian Festival, in Wellington, Florida, and Rodrigo intends to dispute the World Cup final in Las Vegas. This year will also hold the Pan American Games, in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the traditional competitions of the European circuit.

 
 
 
 

2004 was indeed a very intense year. With his father, Rodrigo had one of his dreams come true, bringing back to international calendar the traditional CSI of Brussels. Besides riding, he took the position of organiser, and the Tournament was beautiful, certainly filled with many discoveries and adjustments to be done for the following year. A group of entrepreneurs offered the space Tour & Taxis, an old, abandoned, very high ceiling and beautiful building, similar to Júlio Prestes Railway Station, in São Paulo.
warm up ring, the stables, the restaurant area and the audience properly. And despite the very cold weather, the tournament was great!

In 2005, they developed the CSI of Brussels again. More experienced, this time they could offer an even more special event, in visual, comfort and service terms, and fortunately the weatehr helped as well since it was not as cold as the previous year. And having Rodrigo as tournament organiser, 2006 CSI is already under development.


In 2006, the 3rd edition of the tournament in Brussels was a hit. One more year when Rodrigo had the opportunity of winning two of the three main sets of the event, including Audi Equestrian Masters grand Prix.

Audi Equestrian Master has got more and more relevant over the years and preparations for 2007 have already started full speed.

 
 
 
 
 
  To tell you a little about myself, let me start from what I enjoy doing. I love beaches in the summer and mountains in the winter to go skiing. When I go to Brazil I usually go to Rio de Janeiro, Angra dos Reis and São Paulo. I really loved the trip I took to Costa do Sauípe, in Bahia. But breaks are always too short since the horses and the tournaments call us all the time.

In 2004 I lived the most important moment of my life, the birth of my daughter Cecília with Kery Potter. Cecília was born beautiful, little. And they even say she takes after me, and that's so true, she looks like me very much indeed.

I live near Brussels, close to my parents and to Manège. My daily life is very busy, and if I'm not travelling for a competition, I'm between the Manège and home. Manège is nearly our second home, we are always there or at tournaments, and I end up spending a lot of time either on aeroplanes or in my travelling Motor Home.

I'm a busy but calm person: sport's discipline is a little hard sometimes, and the need of concentration makes me a bit austere, I guess. But when I can, I chill out.
    I have been learning how to separate these moments. I love being with my family, barbeques. Cecília also teaches me a lot, children are a constant learning.

I have a new 'toy', a Motor Home. As I travel nearly every weekend for competitions, most times to countries in Europe, and I love driving, then with a Motor Home we can be lodged at the competition's facilities themselves. This has granted me much more comfort"

Next challenges? Let's keep going.
All the best,