September 2, 2025 
Taylor Swift’s fairytale engagement may have stolen all the headlines last week. But for our money, France’s Nina Mallevaey has the far more interesting story.
Once upon a time, it all began with a fateful walk.
Back then, Mallevaey was 21 years old and watching the show at Knokke Hippique. At Stephan Conter’s suggestion, the self-described “shy” aspiring rider got up the courage to ask Eric Lamaze for a job at Torrey Pines. A friend had to literally push Mallevaey into action, closing the distance between her and Lamaze, and eventually asking him for a chance.
As it happens, Lamaze gave Mallevaey a trial, and after riding 10 horses for him, the job was hers. Weeks later, Mallevaey recalls, she was taking the then 8-year-old Nikka vd Bisschop to the Brussels Stephex Masters.
This week in Northern Belgium, Mallevaey’s moment of courage came full circle.
Not only did the world no. 1 U25 rider return to the Brussels Stephex Masters with another cache of talented horses owned by the Rein family, this year, she dominated it, earning not one but two, career-first 5* wins.
On Friday, she produced the only double-clear for France in the Henders & Hazel Nations Cup aboard Dynastie de Beaufour. And on Sunday, she and the same 12-year-old Selle Français mare took home the Rolex Grand Prix against some of the best names in the business—among them Gilles Thomas and Ermitage Kalone, and Steve Guerdat and Dynamix Belheme.
According to Jumpr, Mallevaey and Dynastie currently boast a 55% top 10 finish rate in 29 rounds at 1.60m+. Which helps to explain why, since January, Mallevaey has climbed more than 70 placings to #28 in the world. Not bad for a 25-year-old who’s age is now within just a few digits of her Longines Rankings number.
From Ponies to Podiums
It was Mallevaey’s father that first instilled a love of horses in her, keeping a Shetland pony for her in the backyard in Hauts-de-France, near the Belgian border. Throughout her junior years, she’s said, her parents sacrificed to support her talent; driving for hours to horse shows each week, and trying to find good horses they could afford in order to keep their daughter in the sport.
Mallevaey competed in her first European Championship at 13 in the children’s classes, and later returned to compete in two more European Championships in the pony divisions. After finishing high school, she took her first riding and grooming job at Ecurie Chev’el, where she had the good luck to work under Julien Epaillard.
From Epaillard, Mallevaey says she learned to pay fastidious attention to the details in her program, including her tack and equipment. By contrast, Epaillard also emphasized the need to be natural and fast in her riding. “He would tell me: ‘If you think you’re fast, go faster,’” Mallevaey told World of Show Jumping in April.
But Epaillard also set the example for Mallevaey of letting horses be horses, hacking out in the forest, and allowing them to spend time in the paddock. “He is so natural with his horses, and he still wins the World Cup Final,” she has said.
New Horizons
After a few months at Torrey Pines, the doors officially began to open for Nina Mallevaey.
During that first winter in Wellington, she jumped her first 5* class. But she also struggled to learn English—so much so that she worried about her first in-person meeting with owners Tara and Mark Rein. But Mallevaey’s English, like her proficiency in the big classes, would come with time.
As the season progressed, the French rider cut her teeth on the Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) as the U25 rider for the Rome Gladiators Global Champions League (GCL) team, then owned by the Rein family. Not long after, Tara and Mark purchased three horses for her, including Cartier SR, who she’s since campaigned up to the 1.60m level.
Perhaps most importantly, Mallevaey had opportunities to learn from some of the sport’s best. In addition to her time training under Epaillard and Lamaze, Mallevaey has been lucky enough to work with Nick Skelton and Laura Kraut, and currently trains under top international coach Helena Stormanns.
Fast forward to last winter, and Mallevaey has once again taken over the reins of the now-experienced 12-year-old championship horse, Nikka VD Bisschop. In the intervening years since Mallevaey first rode her, the Belgian mare competed in a World Championship and Pan American Games with Beth Underhill, and the 2024 Paris Olympics with Canada’s Erynn Ballard.
Nikka VD Bisschop is just one of a handful of top mounts—among them Dynastie de Beaufour, Destine to Be, and My Clementine—that Mallevaey hopes will propel her to the very highest echelons of the sport. By all accounts, she’s well on her way.
The French rider recently dedicated her first double-clear Nations Cup victory, in fact, not just to her country, but to Stephan Conter. After all, it was Conter who helped to open that door for her, four years ago, when Mallevaey screwed her courage to the sticking place, and walked up to Eric Lamaze to ask for a job.
“My two clear rounds were for France and for Stephan, to whom I am forever grateful,” she said. “At a time when I was looking for work, he gave me opportunities through his connections. Thanks to him, I am now competing at five-star level.
“I’m enjoying this period a lot.”
