Edoardo Zara, the blue dressage rider

We can say that Edoardo was born in a dressage ring. His mother, Paola Lerma, is an instructor and rider in this discipline and the family stud farm, in Rocca Grimalda, in the province of Alessandria, is dedicated exclusively to this speciality. There were therefore only two possibilities for Edoardo Zara: either he could not stand horses and become a footballer, or love them madly and become a rider. Luckily for Italian dressage, the second hypothesis came true and, with his 18 years still to go, the young Italian rider is making a great entry into the ranks of the Young Riders. The qualification to take part in the internationals is already in his tails pocket, and the 2025 objective is the European Championships scheduled from 10 to 13 July in Kronberg, Germany.

Do you remember your first time in the saddle?

I was really little, just four years old, and my mum took me to the stable where I found a wonderful surprise, a Shetland pony, my first four-legged companion. Since then I have never stopped riding. After him, who stayed with us until the end of his days, there were many ponies with which I began to ride more and more consciously, until I won the Regional Championships in all categories, medalled at the Italian Technical and Freestyle Championships and participated in the European Championships together with the ‘Yellow Pony’, alias FS Coco Jambo.

What is your relationship with your horses?

They are part of the family, we are lucky enough to have a stable and there is no shortage of space, so they stay with us, my ponies are now companions of the newcomers to the stable, so our relationship does not change and continues over the years. Now my top horse is Donatelli, a very sensitive horse with whom I initially struggled a bit. But efforts always pay off and, when there is quality, it shows in the end. Now Donni and I are a pair and I ‘feel’ it great time after time, figure after figure when we are in the rectangle. That sensitivity that initially put me off a bit is now one of our strengths. A few weeks ago, Uncle Sam, a colt only five months old, arrived in the stable and will one day be alongside Donatelli in the races. It’s a nice challenge that stimulates me a lot.

You are passionate about music, go to school and have an international sporting career, how do you reconcile all this?

I am now in the fifth grade and I have always combined school, sport and various passions, including music. You have to organise yourself but you manage to do it all. Luckily I go to a school where they are quite open-minded, I’m not the first athlete in the school, so thanks to the sports pact I can manage everything. I’m an athlete of national interest, so I have the opportunity to excuse absences, schedule questions and, if I can’t be there, I have the chance to take classes via DAD (distance learning), just to make everything easier we have provided the school with a tablet, and every now and then it’s my substitute in class. Next year I would like to enrol at university and follow in dad’s footsteps to become a dentist, but horses are and always will be my focus.

You are a boy with a head on his shoulders, but you are a teenager, what is it like, at your age, to be both son and pupil at the same time?

Mum has always been my coach, everything I know and have done I owe to her, but obviously the relationship has changed over the years. It’s hard to separate the relationship when you’re on the court, I know she’s my instructor, but she’s also my mum and it can happen that I answer to her, which I would never dream of doing with an external coach. Having said that, though, I have a wonderful relationship with mum, we share the same passion and have always done everything together. There are so many kilometres that we have shared and will continue to cover side by side. Whole weeks together, maybe in the van, in the heat or the cold, always with the same desire that drives us on with a smile and complicity.

Have the dynamics between you changed over the years?

Now I’m growing up and the relationship is more and more ‘on an equal footing’, Mum trusts me and my feelings and we talk about them a lot, plus for some time now I’ve been working alongside her with the girls who ride in the riding stables, I’ve started doing lessons and this is another point of comparison between us. Let’s say we have two strong characters but the balance is clearly positive.

So it is only Paola Lerma who is in charge of your equestrian training?

She is my constant and will always be there, but for a few months now I have been following with great pleasure the stages organised by the Federation and led by technicians Ghislain Fourage and Laura Conz and I am learning a lot.

Speaking of strong women, how are you getting on with Laura Conz?

Great! She’s a really well-prepared technician, she has an incredible ability to pass on knowledge to you, you always manage to do what she says. I get on really well with her, as well as with Fourage, and I’m really grateful for this collaboration that can enrich me as a rider.

We said that the goal, for 2025, is the European Championships, for the first time, in the Young Rider category, how do you plan the year towards this event?

Our goal is to focus on quality, not quantity. The first event of the year is in the Czech Republic in March and the aim is to take the first of the qualifications needed to take part in the European Championships. We have to make it go, we work hard for that and it is important to aim for the result. Then something can go wrong, of course. But in that case there are no excuses, you have to analyse what went wrong so that it doesn’t happen again. Dressage is concept, concentration and discipline, it is important to be cool, ready and ride one figure at a time so as not to lose points and aim for the goal.

You are now a young man, or as your category says, a young rider, but how do you see yourself when you grow up?

I’ll probably do other things in life besides horses, but as far as riding is concerned, I’d like to be one of the ones everyone remembers. It’s an ambitious project but I would like my name to be remembered for what I do in the saddle.

Finally, a curiosity, who is your ‘bedroom poster’?

There are many riders I admire both in Italy and abroad, but the one who, more than any other, makes me dream and inspires me is Isabell Werth, the queen of dressage, the only one who has been on the crest of the wave for so many years and with so many horses. By the way, if we’re talking about dreams, I wouldn’t mind a ride on her Wendy at all.

All that remains for us to do is peek around Europe’s rectangles to follow the exploits of this all-round young rider, with his polite manners that are never over the top and his open and sunny disposition capable of making him the ‘blue quota’ of Italian dressage beloved by all and awaited in every competition both on and off the competition fields.

ph Sassofotografie

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