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Source-checked editorial dossier

Show jumping

Hickstead

Eric Lamaze's compact bay stallion paired Olympic precision with a global Grand Prix record, then became the first horse inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as part of a horse-and-rider team.

Dossier04reviewed sources
Eric Lamaze riding the dark bay stallion Hickstead past cheering Canadian supporters at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Documentary photographEric Lamaze and Hickstead compete in the individual jumping final at the 2008 Olympic Games in Sha Tin, Hong Kong.
Eric Lamaze and Hickstead at the 2008 Olympic Games, photograph by WiNG, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Resized and converted to WebP; no crop. (opens in a new tab)License (opens in a new tab) · Resized and converted to WebP; no crop
DisciplineShow jumping
Evidence modelSource-linked editorial
Last reviewedJuly 25, 2026

At a glance

Identity snapshot

Verified biographical fields, separated from interpretation.

Foaled
1996, Belgium
Died
November 6, 2011, Verona, Italy
Sex / color
Stallion / bay
Studbook
KWPN (Dutch Warmblood)
Height
16 hands, as recorded by Canada's Sports Hall of Fame

Profile

The story

Hickstead was not an obvious prototype for a global championship horse. Canada's Sports Hall of Fame records him at sixteen hands and describes how other riders considered the Dutch Warmblood stallion undersized and difficult before Eric Lamaze took a chance on him in 2004. Lamaze built the partnership around confidence and trust, while Hickstead's Hamlet-Jomara pedigree and unusually quick way of reading a course became part of a record that stretched across championships, Nations Cups, World Cup sport, and major outdoor Grands Prix.

The defining round came in Hong Kong at the 2008 Olympic Games. Canada had already earned team silver when Lamaze and Hickstead met Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and Ninja La Silla in the individual jump-off. The FEI history records both combinations at exactly 38.39 seconds; Ninja touched the final wall, while Hickstead stayed clear for individual gold. The pair later took individual bronze at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, where Hickstead was named Best Horse, and finished second in the 2011 World Cup Final. Hickstead died after an aortic rupture at the Verona World Cup later that year. His record is commemorated through a Spruce Meadows statue, Equestrian Canada's annual Hickstead Trophy, and the pair's 2020-21 induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

Editorial analysis

Why this horse matters

Hickstead's importance lies in both the results and the shape of the partnership behind them. The 2008 jump-off is a clean example of elite show jumping's unforgiving margins: identical times, one rail, and a championship decided at the final fence. His later Grand Prix wins in Calgary, Geneva, Aachen, La Baule, and Rome show that the Olympic title was not an isolated peak. Just as important, his Hall of Fame induction treats horse and rider as a single sporting team, a rare institutional acknowledgment that the horse is an athlete and partner rather than equipment.

Selected record

Career highlights

A concise chronology of documented championship and major-event performances.

  1. 2007

    Pan American Games

    Won team silver and individual bronze with Eric Lamaze in Rio de Janeiro.

  2. 2008

    Olympic team silver

    Helped Canada earn its first Olympic team medal in jumping since 1968.

  3. 2008

    Olympic individual gold

    Stayed clear in a 38.39-second jump-off to win at Sha Tin.

  4. 2010

    World Equestrian Games

    Earned individual bronze and was named Best Horse in the Final Four format.

  5. 2011

    World Cup Final

    Finished second at Leipzig.

  6. 2020-21

    Canada's Sports Hall of Fame

    Hickstead and Lamaze entered the Hall together in the team category.

Live name watch

News mentioning Hickstead

Exact-name matches from this horse's discipline only. No fuzzy matches, recycled stories or unrelated fallback headlines.

Checked Jul 27, 2026, 9:12 PM EDT. No match means only that the current monitored feed window contains no exact reference; it is not a claim that no coverage exists elsewhere.

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Reference desk

Research record

Pedigree, people and career facts remain grouped by type for quick comparison.

Career record

Olympic record
Individual gold and team silver, Beijing 2008
World championship
Individual bronze and Best Horse, Lexington 2010
Pan American record
Team silver and individual bronze, Rio 2007
World Cup Final
Second, Leipzig 2011
FEI database window
70 starts and 18 wins from January 2010 onward

Pedigree

Sire
Hamlet
Dam
Jomara
Damsire
Ekstein

Connections

Rider
Eric Lamaze
Represented
Canada
Partnership
Lamaze began developing Hickstead in 2004
Hall recognition
Inducted together into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, class of 2020-21

Reading the record

Research context

Technical and historical notes, presented as context rather than instruction.

  1. FEI's displayed totals of 70 starts and 18 wins cover only results from January 1, 2010; they are not whole-career totals.

  2. FEI displays the birth date as 01/03/1996, while Canada's Sports Hall of Fame records March 2, 1996. The profile therefore publishes the uncontested year and birthplace rather than silently choosing a day.

  3. The 2008 gold-medal jump-off was tied on time at 38.39 seconds. The result turned on the final wall: Hickstead was clear and Ninja La Silla incurred a fault.

  4. Grand Prix claims are reported as named victories, not converted into a proprietary rating or cross-era ranking.

Provenance

Detailed source trail

Open the institutional record behind the dossier and see exactly what each source supports.

  1. Fédération Equestre Internationale

    Hickstead (NED06921) (opens in a new tab)

    Identity, KWPN pedigree, limited-window FEI statistics, 2008 Olympic medals, 2010 World Championship bronze, and 2011 World Cup Final result.

    Accessed July 25, 2026

  4. Canadian Olympic Committee

    Eric Lamaze (opens in a new tab)

    Olympic record, major Grand Prix venues, World Championship Best Horse recognition, and Hall of Fame context.

    Accessed July 25, 2026

Data boundary

Unknown is not a blank to fill

This dossier publishes reviewed fields and source-backed editorial analysis only. A field that is not shown remains not established in this source-checked dossier. EquinAtlas does not infer missing results, ownership, health, availability, or commercial terms.