July 10, 2026 
“Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?”
Martin Fuchs enters the ring. He and his horse, Lorde, are fresh, having skipped the first round.
They were able to do this because the Swiss team executed perfectly in the first round of the five-star Agria Falsterbo Nations Cup.
But they weren’t the only ones. The home team of Sweden threw down three consecutive clears so that their anchor rider Henrik von Eckermann stayed with Fuchs lazing in the rider’s lounge, wondering if they’d even be needed for round two.
A third team, Belgium, was also on a score of zero, but with all riders going.
We’re in Sweden and the crowd is restless, feeling jolly by the sea, waving flags and jumping to their feet to dance and cheer for their faultless countrymen.
Well, that was round 1.
Let round 2 begin and the first Swedish rider up goes from faultless to 12 faults, while the third gets 8, and suddenly Von Eckermann has to mount up. But he’s too little, too late. Although the team gets to drop the 12 faults, they still end the day in 7th with a score of 16.
Belgium is feeling cocky. They’ve been on a tear ever since FIFA revoked a red card after unprecedented (and some say corrupt) interference, and they, no matter what the athletic discipline, are determined to hit back.
The Swiss are feeling less so, after their second rider, Gaëtan Joliat, got stuck in the triple.
The troublesome triple. What was up with that triple anyway? It looked pretty normal. It was mostly white, with standards that celebrated Falsterbo. It was vertical-vertical-oxer and I don’t know if the distance was awkward from A to B or what. Someone in my yard suggested it was the built-in liverpool, not used in the class, waiting for the derby, that the horses had to swing around to approach the triple. They were eyeing it, imagining all sorts of crocodiles or water snakes or leeches or something to come flying out and who can concentrate on a triple under circumstances like that?
So all afternoon long we had horses and riders either trashing the triple or getting stuck in it, usually at the B element, often throwing off their rider with the abruptness of their stop. More than one rider gave it a second go only to get another stop at A, because—NO, we are not doing this triple!
And that’s what Joliat’s horse said and so the perfect Swiss suddenly didn’t even have a drop score but an elimination and would have to take whatever the other three riders would give them.
Wake up, Fuchs! To quote the late and great Bonnie Tyler:
“Where’s the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?”
Well yes there is, there’s Martin Fuchs and fiery Lorde, but neither has seen the course because neither knew the most crucial round of the day would be thrown at their feet with Belgium on zero (the second round garnered only 4 faults for Belgium and it was the drop score)!
“He’s gotta be strong and he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight!”
Fresh they are, and fast too, and they lay down the clear round the Swiss need to force the competition to a jump off.
“Do-do, do-do
Do-do, do-do
Do-do, do-do
Ah, ah!”
We got our hero and we got our jump off, set between Switzerland and Belgium. Team USA has had a good day and will round out the podium in third, with a score of 8.
Now the teams must pick their heroes for the jump off. Who else are the Swiss gonna pick than Fuchs, who showed such grace under pressure. The Belgians pick Pieter Devos and we wait.
While we wait the livestream camera goes to the warmup, where we see Devos’ horse, Primo DV, stopping at a warmup jump!
Maybe if someone had been watching the warmup they could have unspooled in their mind what was about to happen in reality.
Devos starts out smooth and beautiful but at the fourth jump, a swan-standard vertical, the horse ducks out with a quick swerve. Devos is forced to circle, adding time, and also adds the last fence for good measure.
This puts Belgium on a score of 13.
And suddenly Fuchs and Lorde are standing there, all pressure released like a balloon let free to eject its air and fly around the room.
The dude needs to literally fall off to lose this thing, which, had the troublesome triple been left standing for the jump off, might have been possible, but as things are, it’s a slow and easy clear for Fuchs.
So slow he earns three time faults, but it’s the winning round!
“He’s gotta be sure and it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be larger than life!
Larger than life…”
