Leone Jei Is a Force to Be Reckoned With—Here’s Why
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photo credit: © FEI/Leanjo de Koster
July 28, 2025
Martin Fuchs doesn’t like to make comparisons between his horses. At least he didn’t three years ago.
While acknowledging the superstar talent that his current grey mount, Leone Jei, had become after his Rolex Grand Slam win at CHI Geneva in 2021, Fuchs told World of Show Jumping he doesn’t expect him to fill the shoes of his other former grey phenom, Clooney 51.
“Many want to compare him with Clooney, which I don’t, because there is not going to be another Clooney—he was the most successful horse in Swiss show jumping history, so I don’t think a year later that I have the next one,” Fuchs said.
To which Leone Jei, quietly munching hay in a stable somewhere, must have thought, Hold my beer.
To date, the 13-year-old KWPN gelding has won eight, 5* Grands Prix, earning nearly €4,428,000 in total prize money according to Jumpr. He jumps clear in 94 rounds at the 1.60m+ height at 51%, finishing in the top 10 a whopping 68% of the time.
Having competed at major championships including the Paris Olympic Games and the ECCO FEI World Championships in Herning, Denmark in 2022 (pictured), Fuchs and Leone Jei recently took home their fifth major win at the Rolex Grand Prix at CHIO Aachen, making them once again the live contender for the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping. To date, no single horse has been in this coveted position more.
So just how does Leone Jei excel, consistently, on the world’s biggest and toughest tracks?
We went to Toronto-based sports scientist Tim Worden, PhD, to find out. According to Worden, six key principles separate Leone Jei’s seismic talent from the rest of the field competing today.
1. He has a need for speed.
“For me, what separates Leone Jei from other horses at the top of the sport is his speed at the base of the jump. He moves quickly and aggressively to efficiently convert horizontal velocity into vertical velocity—he is getting into positions that no other horse can consistently hit,” Dr. Worden says.
“If you put his Aachen 2025 jump-off round side-by-side versus his competitors, you will see that the time taken to complete the last stride before take-off is shorter, which results in him losing little energy and ‘exploding’ off the ground.”
2. He uses his feet.
“Leone Jei aggressively punches his hooves into the ground to maximize the power he generates (which results in the capacity to jump higher/further, leave from a variety of places, etc). The active ‘driving’ of hooves into the ground optimizes the tension in the legs and produces large forces, allowing the legs to act like springs.
“Most horses ‘wait’ for the ground to come to them, but this reduces the peak force that can be produced by the legs and body. Additionally, ‘waiting’ for the ground to come to the athlete will delay the application of force and attenuate the total energy available to jump.”
3. He has the right mechanics.
“Leone Jei has very good front-side mechanics (everything that happens as the legs swing forward and prepare to strike the ground). He has active movement, large ranges of motion, and an aggressive drive by the legs toward the ground.
“A lot of horses, especially at speed in the jump-off, will lose some of these mechanics due to strength deficits and become ‘flat’ at the jump or gallop on their forehand,” explains Dr. Worden.
“He [also] has great posture around the course. He has a strong core which ensures the effective transfer of force between the front and hind end when galloping and jumping.”
Martin Fuchs of Switzerland rides Leone Jei during Longines League of Nations in Ocala USA in 2024. ©FEI/ Richard Juilliart
4. The force is with him.
“Leone Jei synchronizes forces generated by the front and hind end very well. When he jumps, the time between the leading and trailing front limbs touching down is as minimal as possible. This allows him to maximize the power produced by the front end at the base of the jump. The same is true of the hind end.
“Conversely, in horses where there is a significant time gap between the leading and trailing legs touching down, some of the force generated by the trailing leg will ‘leak away’ before the leading leg is prepared to push against the ground.”
5. His efficiency creates stamina.
“For stamina or endurance, we are talking about having the horse efficiently produce ‘x’ amount of force for some number of canter strides, and ~17 jumping efforts in the first round, followed by whatever they need to jump in subsequent rounds. From a biomechanical perspective, efficient mechanics will reduce the energy required for each canter and jumping stride,” Dr. Worden explains.
“As discussed previously, Leone Jei’s legs act like springs to propel him forward on each stride…which is a very efficient way to move. This also increases his stride length, allowing him to cover distances with ease.
“He is also very comfortable travelling at speed and maintaining good mechanics and balance, which indicates his speed reserve is likely higher than most horses (meaning he can travel at the speed required to win a jump-off while not coming as close to his maximum velocity as other horses). Think Usain Bolt in his prime, racing against other sprinters who have never run under 10 seconds in the 100m…he will not need to work as hard as those athletes to win the race,” Dr. Worden continues.
“Taken together, Leone Jei utilizes efficient mechanics to produce the large forces required to jump around courses while, simultaneously, not needing to reach his maximum velocity—a perfect combination for consistent success across multiple rounds.”
6. He has the right partner.
“There are lots of talented riders today, and a handful of them I can imagine with Leone Jei, but Martin Fuchs is the perfect match. His rider needs to be confident/brave because Leone Jei can really carry speed, especially in jump-offs, thus needs a longer take-off distance than some riders would be comfortable with.
“His rider needs to be balanced to accommodate some of the extreme positions the horse gets into at the jumps. And the rider needs to be strong, when required, to hold him off the jump and to set the correct trajectory. Martin checks all of these boxes,” Dr. Worden says.
“The mind and body have limited resources, and if there are distractions (for example not knowing how each other will execute a jump), that means both cognitive resources and muscular control will be allocated to trying to understand the partner instead of maximizing performance.
“Hypothetically, if a horse is allocating 20% of their neuromuscular activity to trying to understand what their rider wants, and correcting for unexpected inputs, they only have 80% left to jump the course in front of them…and are at a clear disadvantage to the horse who only needs to allocate 5% of their processing to understanding the rider’s cues.
“The key to elite performance is to have confidence and to know that your partner will be there for you in a consistent and predictable way. That is true for both the horse and rider. When both pieces of the partnership know each other well, that removes a lot of the uncertainty and allows them to work as one.”
Dr. Tim Worden is a scientist specializing in applying high performance sports training concepts to horses. He completed his MSc (Biomechanics and Neuroscience) and PhD (Biomechanics) at the University of Guelph, Canada, and he has worked with a number of FEI jumping riders over the years. Instagram: @twordentraining
