Xavier Lesage

After World War I, Xavier Lesage went to the Riding School of Saumur, where he was chief instructor in 1935-39. At the 1924 Olympics he won the bronze medal in the individual dressage. In the late 1920s he started riding Taine, and the pair was immediately successful, winning the 1931 FEI Championships. At Los Angeles in 1932, Lesage won the gold medal individually as well as with France in the team competition. Taine, a shiny black thoroughbred, rode through 1933 at equestrian tournaments. When it was to be evacuated in 1940, together with other horses from Saumur, to the French region which was not occupied by the Germans, Taine broke his leg during loading and had to be put down.