Bruce Springsteen’s daughter Jessica in US Olympic showjumping team
A performer called Springsteen is set to take centre stage in the Olympics showjumping this week, but it is Jessica, not her father, Bruce.
A performer called Springsteen is set to take centre stage in Tokyo this week but it is Jessica, not Bruce. The Boss’s daughter is representing the US in showjumping, and in contrast to her father’s famously long rock concerts she will have less than two minutes in the arena to earn the chance of a medal.
Olympic showjumping is notoriously unpredictable with years of hard work compressed into a matter of moments. If a horse knocks a pole or refuses a jump, riders lose points or are eliminated.
The key is to keep a cool head, says Jessica. “You’re feeling nervous, and that’s natural,” the 29-year-old says. “But when you’re riding you really need to be focused. You have to be calm because your horse is feeling everything. So it’s all about just having the courage to really go for it when you’re in the ring.”
Her father summed up the pressure on riders when he quipped: “Musicians get to sing it again, riders get just one shot.”
Do glory days beckon? Jessica’s team is tipped for a podium place but win or lose she is delighted to be on board for the US.
“It still feels surreal to me, to be honest, a bit crazy,” she says during a break from training at stables near Brussels, where she is now based.
She will be cantering round the Tokyo arena on a 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood stallion called Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, which is set to be air-freighted to Japan, rock-star style, in a luxury horse transport plane.
She describes him as her pride and joy. “Whenever I’m riding Don — the horse that I’m going to the Games on — I have zero fear,” she says.
Unlike the packed stadiums that her father plays to, the public stands at the equestrian arena will be empty, thanks to Covid-19. But even without spectators, she will relish the moment: “When that bell goes off, any outside pressure really goes away and it’s just all about you and your connection with your horse. You have to have a lot of trust in your horse and he has to trust you.”
The genteel world of showjumping may seem a million miles from the gritty, blue-collar America portrayed in Springsteen songs such as Backstreets and Born to Run. Yet there is an undeniable resemblance between Jessica’s will to win and her father’s steely determination as a teenager to be the best guitarist on the block, honed through battle-of-the-bands showdowns.
Finally making the Olympic squad is the realisation of a 10-year career ambition that follows an unsuccessful bid for the Rio Games in 2016 and reaching the shortlist for London in 2012.
“Been dreaming of this since I can remember!” she wrote on Instagram when she got the news last month.
“Endless gratitude for my team, friends and family for helping me make this a reality. We are Tokyo-bound!!”
She added: “There’s no horse in the world I’d rather be on this journey with, thank you Don! You’re my horse of a lifetime. Let’s go USA!”
Springsteen grew up on her parents’ 120ha horse ranch at Colts Neck, New Jersey, surrounded by animals, including a three-legged goat called Tripod. Her family kept quarter horses, an American breed that excels at sprinting, and she felt an immediate affinity.
“Our farm was right across the street from one of the top junior training facilities in our country, Beacon Hill Show Stables, so it was just fate — I started when I was about three or four years old,” she says. “My mum (Patti Scialfa, a member of the E Street band) had always wanted to ride so she began taking lessons. When I saw her ride, I wanted to do the same and, yeah, I just kind of never stopped.”
Bruce told her as a youngster she was lucky to have a passion, she recalls, and it is a phrase that has stuck with her. “I watched my parents work very hard at their passion for many years and it’s been incredible for me to apply that in my own career. I’m grateful that I get to do something I love so much every single day as my career.”
These days her parents are her biggest fans, she says. “They’ve really been with me kind of every step of the way throughout this process and it’s become a passion for them as well so they were so excited when I told them the news (of her Olympic selection).”
Showjumping involves tackling a serpentine course with as many as 15 obstacles including fences up to 1.65m and a water jump. Successful riders face a jump off against the clock. The other equestrian events are dressage, in which horses are judged on precise movements, and three-day eventing, which combines elements of both, plus a race over cross-country jumps.
The smart attire of blazer and white jodhpurs belies the fact that equestrian events are physically demanding and sometimes dangerous. More riders are said to be killed or injured in training than any other summer Olympics sport.
Springsteen, who is 167cm tall, broke her collarbone in a fall last year and started wearing a protective vest for security. Despite that, she has risen steadily through the world rankings from 74th in 2019 to 27th this year and 14th today, helped by strong finishes in tournaments in Rome, Windsor and Saint-Tropez.
That she was selected for the Olympics from a rarefied subset is perhaps the best measure of her tenacity. Princess Anne competed in eventing in the 1976 Olympics on the Queen’s horse Goodwill and later her daughter Zara Tindall followed in her hoof prints and won silver at the 2012 Olympics.
More recently the sport has attracted the scions of wealthy families from across Europe, including Charlotte Casiraghi (daughter of Princess Caroline of Monaco) as well as the daughters of the new moneyed aristocracy. Georgina Bloomberg (daughter of Michael), Eve Jobs (daughter of Steve), Jennifer Gates (Bill), Sofia Abramovich (Roman) are all part of the scene.
It is not surprising when you consider how expensive it is. Horses can cost $200,000 and the annual maintenance bill can be half that again. That is without the cost of jetting round the world to international events. Sponsorship and prize money help. Jessica’s winnings have totalled more than $1.9m. She was an “equestrian ambassador” for Gucci and for Parlanti which makes riding boots that magnetically grip stirrups and cost upwards of $1300.
When I speak to her, it has yet to be decided who will be vying for individual medals. “There is an individual and a team event and I’m not quite sure what each of us will be jumping but we’ll all be competing once we’re there,” she says.
Her first competition, riding a pony at five at a New Jersey show, was recounted in her father’s 2016 memoir, Born to Run. Describing the moment he recognised in her his own competitive streak, he says: “She captures a green ribbon and places sixth. The ride home is quiet still in her riding gear, then come two questions: ‘What was the name of the girl who won?’ and ‘What did she do to win?’”
Much of the past five years has been spent training and competing in Europe. She keeps horses in Wellington, Florida, where the Springsteens have a home. Lockdown has prevented her from visiting the New Jersey farm and she has missed her parents and her dogs.
Before then, she was often “living out of a suitcase”, flying between international cities with the Miami Celtics, a team with which she competes in the Global Champions League.
“I’m normally travelling every week to a new show and it can be difficult to be away for so long.”
Fans of her dad may be disappointed that Jessica will not be riding Hungry Heart, a horse she rode in the Royal Windsor Horse Show and named after a song from The River.
Given the high stakes she is playing for at the Olympics, a lyric from another of Bruce’s albums, Lucky Town, may be more appropriate. “It takes a leap of faith, you got to show some guts.”
The Sunday Times
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