June 9, 2025 
There’s a certain level of guts required by Spruce Meadows’ sprawling grass fields and notoriously stout fences. For humans as well as horses, it’s a facility that doesn’t exactly cater to shrinking violets.
The good news is, for those that can master the Meadows, the sky is limitless—as it was on Sunday, June 8 for Canadian rider Mario Deslauriers and the 9-year-old S&L Quatro Van De Meerputhoeve. Fourth to jump in the field of 25 combinations during the CSI5* Duncan Ross 1.60m Grand Prix presented by Rolex, the pair only just squeaked in under the time allowed in Round 1.
But that hardly mattered on the shortened course, with Deslauriers making the most of his horse’s big, galloping stride to stop the clock at 43.63 seconds—just pipping fellow Canadian Kara Chad and Igor GPH on 43.83 seconds. Conor Swail of Ireland was third aboard Casturano on 43.90 seconds.
“I have a scopey, lopey horse that has a big step. We were a little slow on the clock, as you saw in the first round—I was just a tick under—so it was good management there,” Deslauriers joked. “But horses are impressed out here, so you can ride forward to the jumps. It makes a tough job for the course designer. They all respect the material, and they jump forward.”
Deslauriers should know. The 60-year-old Olympic veteran—who famously returned to the world stage at the Tokyo 2021 Games a full 33 years after his last Olympic appearance in Seoul in 1988—has been competing at Spruce Meadows for 46 years.
“It’s a bit different riding here. You can ride forward and the horses learn tremendously going that way,” Deslauriers explained, noting even the dimensions of the jumps at Spruce asks different questions of the horses.
“We just got here, so we’ve been jumping at other facilities. We came from [Langley, B.C.] at Thunderbird, and I came from the New York area, so for some time [we’ve been jumping] poles that are 10-feet wide. Thunderbird was a little wider, and here, they’re even wider.
“Horses react differently to it, and they ride [differently]. So you have to adjust and the horses have to know [it’s different] also.”
Thankfully for the Canadian rider, Spruce is practically home turf for S&L Quatro Van De Meerputhoeve, the Belgian gelding that Deslauriers has produced since his 6-year-old year. “[Quatro] came here as a 7-year-old [and] started in the 1.30m. He knew nothing, [but] he learned very quickly. That same year, he jumped 1.40m in the International Ring as his last class, and then after that, he took off,” Deslauriers said.
“[As] an 8-year-old, he did some 3* Grands Prix already, and in Florida this year, he did some [WEF Saturday Night Lights classes] and [was] jumping some big [courses]. To keep them steady at the 5* level, they have to learn they can’t overjump all the time, because it’s hard on them.”
When asked, after his four decades of experience at Spruce Meadows, what advice he would give to riders competing there for the first time, Deslauriers recommended the Girl and Boy Scout motto: “I think you have to come here prepared,” he said.
“You have to be a little aggressive, you can’t be passive, and you need to come here and have experienced horses [to learn on] your first few times. A lot of amateurs sometimes find it hard, but you have to stick with it, and you can really learn to ride here.”
And, if Quatro is any indication, you can also use Spruce’s unique questions to produce a pretty standout Grand Prix partner. “He loves to jump here,” Deslauriers said of his horse’s first 5* win. “[Quatro is] learning the ropes—he’s going to be a great horse.”
