January 14, 2024 
Mom’s Toupie de la Roque is not a winner, per se.
Under Pieter Devos’s saddle since 2021, the 17-year-old mare has jumped to just four podium finishes over 106 international rounds with the Belgian Olympian.
But what her record lacks in podium placings she more than makes up in earnings.
Since her international debut in 2015 with France’s Michel Hecart, the Selle Françias mare has accumulated an impressive €1,294,642 in prize earnings—82% of that in the last two years.
It’s a sleeper story judging by the mare’s Jumpr App stats. Mom’s Toupie de la Roque showed early promise when she won her first 5* 1.60m class in 2017, at age nine, under French speed specialist Julien Epaillard. They wouldn’t repeat the effort, however, until 2020. Over four years and 62 rounds, the pair would earn just €155,763.
The mare’s record took a dramatic turn under Devos.
Taking over the reins in October 2021, the pair jumped clear and into the top 10 in just 20% of five 1.60m classes that year (Jumpr App). The following year, 2022, however, told a different tale. They were clear in 50% of 16 rounds at the height with a 60% 10 ten finish average. They jumped from just €42,912 in earnings in 2021 to €409,985 in 2022, and into the 31 spot on the Jumpr App Horse Rankings for the year.
And the results just kept coming in 2023.
At 16, the mare earned a 52% clear round average and 57% top 10 finish rate at 1.60m—despite jumping twice as many rounds at the height. They ended the year with €650,440 earnings, climbing to no. 14 on the Jumpr App Horse Ranking. She’s the only 17 year old on the 2023 list and the oldest horse save one in the top 50. (HH Azur, now 18, is the only other at no. 39.)
At an age when the careers of most top show jumpers begin to wind down, Mom’s Toupie de la Roque just hit her stride.
Two weeks into 2024, all signs point to the trend continuing, too. On Sunday in Switzerland, Devos and the chesnut mare won the second ever Grand Prix title of their career, and logged their fifth podium finish, with the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Basel.
In an eight horse jump off, Mom’s Toupie was one of only two horses to jump double clear, finishing in an efficient 36.94 seconds, three and half seconds faster than runners up Germany’s Janika Sprunger and Orelie (40.19). Austria’s Max Kühner and Eic Cooley Jump the Q took third with four faults in 35.59.
The result puts Devos on 54 points and into third on the Western European League World Cup rankings and, with three legs remaining, assures him of a spot at for the FEI World Cup Final in Riyadh in April.
All of which is to say, Mom’s still got it. And Devos has high hopes.
“We bought her quite late,” said Devos. “She was already 14 years old but she is great. She is still very fresh so I think she has a good season in front of her. We will for sure do everything to go to the World Cup Final. We now have to make a good planning for that but also for the season and for Paris later this summer.”
The Western European League next stops in Amsterdam on January 28.
