There were questions about the future of Api Du Libaire when he injured his left hock in a trailer accident and it blew up to the size of a basketball.
That happened just two months after Alexa Ehlers Thompson took over the ride from her trainer, French eventer Maxime Livio. Would Alexa’s new horse recover from his torn tendons, or more to the point, would he survive? She and Api were dealing with critically serious issues
On Saturday, Alexa got the answer she for which she hoped and worked so hard. At the Event at TerraNova, her statuesque (17.2 -hands plus) gray Selle Francais gelding won the Leibold Irrigation 4-Star Short.
Api led after dressage, then toppled a rail (“it was very much my rail,” Alexa confessed) in stadium jumping. On cross-country, which came last in this format, she was fault-free to take the honors by a massive margin of 10.9 penalties, ending on a total of 40.7.
Alexa Thompson and the 4-star Short winner Api du Libaire.
The conditions were perfect for cross-country, with sparkling sunlight and ideal temperatures, from a low of 57 degrees to a high of a comfortable 64 for the most testing phase of the discipline. The venue near Sarasota, Fla., is a very special one, even for those who don’t go home with a trophy.
“This is what we wish every event could be like,” said Alexa.
She made the most of her experience. Victory certainly was nice, but in her view of Api, “everything he’s done has been a blessing and a surprise.”
Api and Alexa had the fastest time cross-country in the 4-star Short.
He only started jumping again a year ago, and the two competed in their first event just last March. This weekend, they easily handled a route designed by Alec Lochore, who will design cross-country for the 2028 Olympics. Alexa isn’t thinking of the ’28 Games, because she doesn’t have a suitable horse. But she will think about being a part of the next Olympic cycle. Meanwhile, she’s hoping to point Api toward a 4-star Long.
Api was in fine form as he and Alexa Thompson handled the cross-country course.
Alexa’s parents understood their daughter’s desire to become a professional in the horse business, but both were accountants and wanted her to have something to fall back on if necessary. So she balanced her riding with nursing school at the University of Kentucky, got her degree and worked three years as a night nurse in a neuro ICU.
That experience helped her get through the crisis with Api, changing her way of thinking “from the standpoint of having perspective and understanding.”
Still, that was a very difficult time for her.
“I hate letting people down. I really wanted to make everybody proud of him,” Alexa said of Api. She kept in touch with the Api Club, the syndicate that had owned him. Instead of sending them videos of his triumphs, however, she had to call and explain that he had been injured.
Now she finally has some good news for them.
Alexa grew up in Texas with a backyard barn, learning while “riding a little pony and then a thoroughbred.”
Now 32, in her younger days she earned the U.S. Pony Club’s A-rating in dressage, show jumping, and eventing.
Working with Api gives her “a really different feeling than anything I’ve ever had, knowing you can leave one (stride) out and you can trust it. I never felt anything with that kind of scope or power.”
She added that her horse, who has Anglo/Arab blood, is “very much his own person,” so she’s been learning “what buttons to push.”
Maxime supports the process, and even came over for her 4-star debut this weekend.
“He’s been really, really helpful, because he knows Api inside and out,” she mentioned.
“He reinforced what I knew about Api and made me trust my gut, my instincts.”
Alexa met Max when he came to ride in the Defender Kentucky 5-star three years ago. Vanessa Coleman, the competition’s director, “asked if we would host him for a clinic. He came and I realized not only is he a wonderful rider, but he is truly the most exceptional coach. ”
She was so impressed that she sold a horse to finance a trip to France in the fall of 2023 so she could soak up more of his lessons.
Riding several horses under his tutelage, she found, “he made each horse better in a very unique way, with the same kind of general theories.”
He also had methods for “making the game fun for the horses.”
Team Clear Equestrian, Alexa’s business, is based out of Clearview Farm, a 100-acre former thoroughbred property in Lexington, Ky., where she works with her husband, Ciaran Thompson, a trainer who is a native of Ireland, and her groom of seven years, Hannah Warner.
She is getting as much experience from Api as possible, “so that for future horses, I’m ready.”
Alyssa Phillips and Rockett 19 led the 4-star Long after dressage and cross-country.
The event ends Sunday. Show jumping is the wrap-up for competitors in the featured 4-star Long, where Alyssa Phillips and Rockett 19, have a 7.4-penalty lead over Canada’s Waylon Roberts and Fernhill Salt Lake.
Of Rockett, Alyssa said, “He’s a very good jumper, but he has a tendency to overjump the cross-country jumps. Now, since he’s a little bit more established at the level, he’s getting more comfortable, so he’s not skyrocketing over all of them, which is nice. That’s why I try to stay fluid and smooth, because smooth is fast.”
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