We’re just a month away from the return of the Rolex Grand Prix at CHI Geneva.
If you’re a true fan of showjumping, a sucker for sports anniversaries, or you simply could use a few extra feels these days (we see you), now’s the time to re-watch last year’s goosebumps-inducing, near-perfect performance by Germany’s Richard Vogel and United Touch S.
Setting aside the superhorse-levels of scope and ability, what is truly special about this performance is the clear bond of trust and the partnership between horse and rider. It’s almost as if the the connection between Vogel and the 12-year-old Westphalian stallion was predestined.
Except for the fact that it wasn’t.
“When he first came to us, [United Touch S] was actually meant to be a horse for my girlfriend, Sophie Hinners,” Vogel revealed.
Don’t mistake him. Vogel is the first to call Hinners—who recently took home the 5* Grand Prix in Verona in her second-ever FEI World Cup qualifier—an amazing rider.
But with horses, as with people, not every personality is destined to gel.
“Pretty early, actually, we saw it wasn’t going to be a match,” Vogel explained.
Fortunately for Vogel that meant that United Touch S began to fall under his name on the ride list, and the rest is history.
Together, the pair has earned four, 1.60m *5 wins, including Stuttgart (GER) in 2022, CHI Geneva (SUI) in 2023, and Wellington (USA) and Lyon (FRA) in 2024. And though the pair’s Olympic debut in Paris was not what they had hoped for, Vogel and United Touch S helped the German team to back-to-back Nations Cup championships in 2023–2024, and finished in the top 10 at FEI World Cup Finals last year.
This season, they’ve amassed an impressive 60% clear rate at 1.60m, finishing in the top 10 85% of the time (Jumpr Stats).
In other words, if it sometimes appears that United Touch S is just toying with jumps the size of the average, fully grown adult woman, it’s not an illusion.
“Not every horse and rider [forms a strong partnership], but I think we’re a good example of that,” Vogel said of the stallion that officially joined his string two years ago. “With me [and him], the connection and relationship are better. You can feel it with any horse, but with him in a very extreme way.”
Yet no matter how seamless their relationship is in the ring, Vogel says there is one other person that will always come first in United Touch S’s world: His longtime groom, Felicia Wallin.
In fact, while Vogel was campaigning Phenyo van het Keysersbos and Levi Noesar earlier this month at the Royal Horse Show in Toronto, Wallin stayed back in Europe to take care of United Touch S.
“In theory, [Felicia] is my show groom, but now, actually, she’s really much more United’s groom,” Vogel smiled.
“Wherever United is Felicia is, basically. It’s not so often that he’s alone without her. And you really feel a difference with him—if he could pick between me and her, he always would choose her. They just have a very special relationship,” he continued, noting the vital role Wallin plays in United’s wellbeing.
“With those horses that are [so] intelligent, it makes a big difference. They travel a lot—in one month, you can be in three different countries—so they have to have a person where they feel like this person is home for me.”
And whether it’s Wallin holding United Touch S’s lead rope when it’s time to load in a Boeing-747, or Vogel guiding him around a towering championship course, the chemistry between a horse and their ‘people’ is everything.
“For sure, [at] this level, you have to find the match a little bit,” Vogel said.
“In our case, we really match.”