Talking about Rodrigo means talking about his parents to start with. Nelson (Neco), the father, fascinated with horses, and the mother with dogs and plants. From an early age Rodrigo was very precocious and curious. He traveled along with Neco to the shows, his love for the sport growing stronger at each stop. Although he was encouraged to pursue his education in the early years, it was clear that Rodrigo would follow Nelson's famous footsteps into a show jumping career.

As his own career began to blossom, Rodrigo and Nelson became teammates for several Championship events and even jumped off against each other for the prestigious title of the Grand Prix of Aachen in 1994. It was Nelson's selfless support that truly catapulted Rodrigo into the winner's circle. Forty years of worked passed on to the next generation to continue to run with.

Rodrigo Pessoa now is an accomplished rider backed by his 70 Grand Prix wins and a total of 7.000.000 Euros in prize money during his career. Rodrigo first competed in 1981 at Hickstead. In 1984 he claimed his first title as champion of the pony class and again in 1985. In 1988 he competed in his first Grand Prix.

He continued to his triumphant career by competing and winning many Grands Prix. In 1992 he rode Special Envoy in the Olympic Games in Barcelona for Brazil, making him one of the youngest rider to compete in the Olympics at the age of 19. In 1996 he again rode in the Olympics in Atlanta and helped Brazil win the bronze medal with Loro Piana TomBoy.

In 1998 he rode Gandini Lianos to be the youngest World Champion at 1998 FEI World Equestrian Games in Rome. Pessoa took his career further by winning the World Cup Final on Baloubet du Rouet three times in a row and finished as the reserve champion the fourth year, a world record. In his fifth and final World Cup, Rodrigo and Baloubet du Rouet finished in third place. He later claimed the title and prize for the world's best rider and in addition to the Show Jumping Year trophy.

In 2000 at the Olympic Games in Sydney, he again won the bronze team medal. In the 2004 Olympics in Athens he won the individual silver medal but after disqualification of the Irish rider Cian O'Connor and his horse Waterford Crystal for doping, he was awarded the Gold medal in an award ceremony in his home town of Rio de Janeiro. In 2010 he won the Grand Prix on a horse named HH Ashley.

Starting in 2004, Nelson and Rodrigo began organizing a CSI show in thier adopted hometown of Brussels, Belgium. The show ran very successfully up through 2008 and was even the host of the Rolex I.J.R.C Top Ten Final. The year 2009 brought new challenges as they changed venues and hosted their show in Paris.

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Baloubet du Roubet is considered to be the best horse of all times, even mentioning Milton, which was one of the only horses to win as many competitions as Baloubet.

Baloubet conquered during three consecutive years in the World Cup and had great achievement in the Olympics.

Baloubet started with Nelson. His from French origin, son of Galoubet (very famous as well) and came to us at the age of 5. NElson mounted him from 5 to 9 years old and then Rodrigo started participating.
Nelson won some GPs with him, and when Rodrigo started mounting him, he had amazing victories. There was a counter performance at Sidney Olympics, when the victory was nearly in their hands, there were only 3 obstacles missing, and "Something came to Baloubet's head" and he wouldn't jump.

He is a perfect horse, a reproducer, and had many foals who are reaching international level nowadays. He certainly will also build a reputation as a reproducer; he's absolutely extraordinary, a wonderful blood line, a fantastic genealogy.

Sources: 
Wikipedia.org 
RodrigoPessoa.com

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Tattini's Pessoa & Wintec Brochure with all the Pessoa products in our range 
Pessoa Jumping Saddle Gen-x Elite 
Pessoa Girth Zig-zag 
Pessoa Flash/combined Headstall with Rubber Reins