It’s hard to believe Alessandra Volpi just turned 25 when you look at her international show jumping record. After a young rider career that included two FEI North American Youth Championships experiences, she graduated to the senior level with a bang in 2022, making her first five-star Nations Cup team and her first FEI World Cup Finals appearance that year, both aboard the talented mare Berlinda. 

Now, after spending the past year training in Germany and Florida with Marcus and Meredith Beerbaum, Volpi is back at the top again, this time with a pair of mares—Gipsy Love and Candy Luck Z, both owned by Cedar Fox LLC.

After an impressive appearance earlier this year with “Gipsy,” an 11-year-old Slovakian Warmblood (Guidam Sohn—Cholula L.A.T., L’Esprit), at the Longines FEI World Cup Finals (Switzerland), where they finished third in the second round of competition before withdrawing with a minor injury, Volpi has been competing on the European circuit with both mares and her string of younger horses. Last week, she was part of the U.S. team that finished fifth in the Longines League Of Nations Rotterdam (the Netherlands), along with Aaron Vale and Paris Olympians Karl Cook and Laura Kraut. 

Volpi was born in California but spent a few early years in London. She fell in love with horses on pony rides in Hyde Park before her family moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area. She trained with Max Amaya and then Harley Brown before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Then, while school was fully online, she decided to chase her dreams to the Florida winter circuit.

She graduated in 2022 from Stanford University (California), where she majored in science, technology and society, and minored in civil environmental engineering, but returned to horses full time after college.

We caught up with her after Rotterdam to learn more about her love of mares, what she learned from the Beerbaums, and what’s next for her.

Tell me about your team experience at Rotterdam with Gipsy Love. It was your first time there?

After the World Cup Final this year, which went well, I really wanted the chance to jump on a team, and [Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland] suggested to us that I jump this one, which I think was a really good fit for my horse. It is obviously an important Nations Cup for the U.S. because we needed to qualify for the [Longines League of Nations Final, taking place in October in Barcelona]. It’s both intimidating and exciting to have that pressure on you, but I always find being on teams with the more experienced athletes and horses to be inspiring. 

I guess you can see it as a lot of pressure, but I think you can choose to see yourself as, like, this is proof of all the work: I’m here on this level now with these people. I’m jumping on a team with them for a reason. It’s really exciting. It’s really fun, and it’s also an honor to learn from them, watch them and get a chance to do it myself.

It was my first time at Rotterdam. I think when I go into a Nations Cup week, the team class is always my focus. My main goal was to do my best try and jump clear rounds for the team. 

I jumped two three-star [Nations Cups] in the past month and a half, as preparation to jump on that team, and both of those I would categorize as rocky experiences. I’m working with my two best horses [Gipsy and Candy Luck Z] now; one is 11, one is 10, and so they’re a bit newer to the level. I haven’t had them all that long—both of them about a year and a half—so it was a lot of learning. We had a few bumps in the road. I was nervous, but I was excited. And to be honest, I think sometimes I do my best performances under pressure. 

We managed to jump clear in the first round, which was super exciting, and it let the team move on to the second round, where we had two down, but my horse still jumped really well. I think we have a lot of things to work on back at the barn for our next team appearance. But I was super happy with her, and it was a challenging class.

Tell me about your partnership with Gipsy.

I got her at the end of the last Florida season. She was bred in the Czech Republic, which is quite unusual, and Christian Kukuk [the 2024 Paris Olympics individual gold medalist from Germany] saw her as a 6-year-old and bought her along with Ludger Beerbaum. When she was 8, she was sold to another American, Anna Dryden, who rides in Ludger’s program. Marcus always had eyes on the horse. I was looking for a potential grand prix horse, and Anna was willing to sell her at that moment in time. I think we got lucky with her, and Marcus always saw the potential in her, and she’s turning into a really amazing partner.

“When we make a mistake, I think, ‘How can I understand her better?’ not, ‘How can I make her better?’ “

I always say she’s a very special horse. I don’t think we understood each other very well at the beginning of our relationship; she’s very sensitive, and you need to really work with her in the way that she wants to be ridden. You have to agree with her—she’s a mare—so it doesn’t feel like I’m telling her what to do. It’s me and her working together always and trying to bring the best out of each other. It’s listening to her. And I feel like when we make a mistake, I think, “How can I understand her better?” not, “How can I make her better?”

You had an incredible start to the FEI World Cup Final this year in Switzerland, finishing third during the second round and sitting seventh before the final round, but then you withdrew. Tell me what happened and what you learned from the experience?

That was an amazing experience. I actually didn’t think I was qualified to go. I hadn’t had incredible success in the qualifiers, and somehow I managed to have enough points to qualify through the Western League. Lizzie Chesson [USEF managing director of show jumping] came up to me toward the end of the Florida season and was like, “Any chance you want to go to World Cup Finals?”

At that point, Gipsy and I were starting to kind of understand each other more and perform more in the big grand prix [classes] in Florida. I talked to Marcus, and we decided to give it a shot. 

I had no expectations. I’ve jumped this horse one time indoors. We tried to prepare the best we could, of course, but you never know. A championship is a completely new, different environment, even from jumping a five-star grand prix. I kind of went in just focused on doing our best and growing as a partnership from the week.

We were clear the first day, and I was over the moon, and then had a double-clear in the jump-off class, which, I think there were only six clear rounds that day. It was very special feeling. And it was just one of those moments where you’re like, oh my gosh, all this hard work finally comes together and shows you that you’re doing it right. 

I had to withdraw from the final because she had overreached and just wasn’t fit to compete in the final round. She was totally fine body soundness-wise, just couldn’t compete on that foot. She was back to being all good in a week’s time. A lot of people were like, “Oh, how sad and unfortunate,” and, “What a bad ending to this week.’ ” And I was like, “Are you kidding? I came here with no expectations. My horse jumped three clear rounds in this championship!” 

I was so happy, and it gave me a lot more confidence in myself and her and our partnership. So that was really an amazing week for us.

What’s it been like training with the Beerbaums over the past year?

I think [Marcus] is incredibly proven in his training. I mean, if you look at the roster of, especially American women, that have come through his program and had a lot of success, it’s pretty incredible, which is why I kind of sought him out in the first place. 

Part of what I appreciate so much about him is that he gives me a lot of confidence in trusting my own instinct. Like, if I think that I should try something or do something, he’s like, “Alright, give it a shot.” And that’s, in my opinion, the best way to learn. 

I think he also puts a lot of emphasis on flat work, and the work at home that goes in—you’re not changing everything at the show. If you look at Meredith and the work he did with her, you know, it’s a very different type of horse or riding style than you would maybe expect from a traditional German-style instruction. It’s traditional theories applied to a more modern style. 

You’ve got more mares than geldings or stallions in your string right now. Why do you think you connect with mares?

Actually, it’s pretty bad! Like, now, if I’m looking at a horse to buy or try or whatever, I’m [jokingly disappointed] it’s a gelding, which is not how I should act! [Laughs.] And I’m trying to get rid of that prejudice, but I am a big fan of mares.

I think that when they want to fight for you, they really fight for you. Not to say geldings don’t or stallions don’t—I also have a really talented stallion—but Berlinda was my first, most amazing mare, and I always just tend to have a good relationship with them.

What are your plans for the future? Do you want to do the horses full time?

I never say never to anything. Every time there’s a kid that’s like, ‘I don’t know if I want to go to college,’ I tell them, ‘Definitely go to college,’ because you never know. College was the most amazing experience. I did like the academic work and the internships that I had through school. 

Right now, the horses are my passion, and luckily, I have the support to pursue that at least for the undetermined future. But I can definitely see myself also working with my education.

We just bought a farm in North Salem [New York] in an effort to get a home base, because I was just floating a little bit [between Florida and the Beerbaums’ German base].

I’ve been working hard to build a younger team of horses that I can bring through the development phases into grand prix horses. I think that process really works for me. A lot of them I have are 7, 8, 9, so that way, when we get to the grand prix age of 10, 11, 12, 13, whatever, you know them so well, and they’re more tailored to your program and your riding. I enjoy that process a lot, so that’s how I try to build and keep the team going.

My goal for the next couple years is to try and get as much team experience as I can. It’s a whole different feeling jumping for the team than it is for yourself. I’m trying to learn by doing and just put myself out there and be OK to make mistakes. I’m focused a little bit less on hard and fast results and more on just building this year. Not to say I don’t enjoy good results, but I try not to make it my main focus. I don’t think I’ve always felt that way, but I’m learning that that is the better way to be, at least for myself.