After nearly ten years on his own, Robinson Maupiler has traded in the independent boss suit for the role of rider and trader under Jan Tops in Valkenswaard. Not a strategic retreat. Not nostalgia for the big stables. More like an XXL opportunity arriving at exactly the right moment, inside one of the most recognizable operations in world show jumping, renowned for its expertise in training, trading, and matching horses with riders.
At 33, the Frenchman is stepping back into a powerhouse. But this time with experience, scars, and one simple philosophy: keep looking ahead.
The phone call that wasn’t supposed to happen
Robinson Maupiler wasn’t looking for anything. That’s usually how the best stories begin: with an offer you never expected, then eventually can’t refuse.
“It all started through Rafael Amaral Rodrigues, who has been working for Jan for a few years. About six months ago, he suggested I come work for them. Honestly, it wasn’t in my plans at all. I’ve been on my own for nine or ten years and things were going well. Like every business owner, there were ups and downs, but truthfully, I was very happy running my own operation.”
Then Rafael called again. And again. Until one day Maupiler tried a horse as a favor. The favor became a conversation. The conversation became a meeting. The meeting became a project.
“I had a really great feeling with Jan. He’s genuinely motivated to rebuild the trading stable the way it used to be years ago, to bring more horses back into the sport, and gradually get the whole system running again properly. And I really liked the project alongside Rafael and Philippe de Balanda.”
Not a step backwards, thank you very much
The easy narrative would have been to call this a step back into life “working for someone else.” After Stephex, Zangersheide, Karel Cox, and then independence, Maupiler returning to a major stable could have looked like a rewind. Except the man himself dismisses that idea with the subtlety of a vertical jumped dead center.
“Of course it’s a step forward. I never look behind me. I think when you look behind, you move backwards. You have to look ahead and keep moving forward.”
There it is.
And he adds:
“If I ever had to work for someone again, I couldn’t have landed in a better place. It was never part of the plan. But today, it’s a huge opportunity.”
At Tops, the operation is based in Valkenswaard around a world-class facility balancing sport, trade, breeding, and training. Stal Tops presents itself as a global show jumping stable with more than forty years of history and a strong reputation for matching horses and riders successfully.
And for Maupiler, there’s another advantage: it’s only twenty minutes from home.
Treize chevaux, huit par jour, zéro mélange
Today, Robinson Maupiler rides around fifteen horses, ranging from six-year-olds to older, more experienced horses. But there’s no interest in turning it into a factory.
“At the moment I probably have thirteen horses on my list, and I don’t want to ride more than eight horses a day because with every horse I have, you need to spend real time.”
His own horses? They still exist, just no longer under his direct roof.
“I still have some because I had quite a few. I’ve spread them around here and there. They’re horses that are in the trade anyway, but you can’t separate from everything overnight. No, I didn’t keep them with me. I already have enough horses at Jan’s, and in the end you can’t mix everything together. I work 100% for Jan.”
Simple. Clear. Clean.
Trading horses: the school of patience
Maupiler isn’t arriving in the horse trade like an intern discovering cold Monday morning coffee. Stephex in his early years. Then Zangersheide. Karel Cox. Then his own business. The Frenchman knows the system inside out.
“The trading side of the sport has always excited me. You need to surround yourself well. I was lucky enough to work with the right people, and I tried to learn the best from each of them before adapting it in my own way.”
His job? Produce, build, simplify. Then let go.
“Producing horses has always been my job. Bringing them to the point where they get sold. Then you start again with new ones. Handing the horse over to someone else and starting a new project has always been something I loved.”
For Maupiler, the definition of a trading rider comes down to one thing: making the horse easier for whoever comes next.
“You need to be able to ride everything: big ones, small ones, blood horses, less blood, whatever. But above all, at the end, every horse has to become as easy as possible so it can suit as many people as possible, for the right client.”
Jan Tops: businessman? Yes. Horseman? Even more.
Jan Tops traîne forcément une image de bâtisseur. Fondateur du Longines Global Champions Tour, créateur d’un empire sportif et commercial, homme derrière les installations de Valkenswaard, notamment la Tops International Arena.
But Maupiler insists on something else entirely: the eye.
“He’s completely passionate. Fully into breeding too, because we have around twenty foals a year. He loves coming to watch the three-year-olds free jump. When I jump a six-year-old at a show, even in training, he calls me afterwards. When the horse jumps well, he gets excited like a child.”
And even far from the arena, Tops watches everything. The rounds. The horses. The details. The business is not only spreadsheets and phone calls. There’s still arena dust running through the system.
Sport, but not backwards
Maupiler isn’t arriving at Tops with grand speeches about conquering the sport. He knows exactly where he’s stepping in. And he knows what he wants to rebuild.
“I never really thought about sport because there are thousands of riders better than me. When I was on my own, my priority was always keeping the business running. Today, I’m in a trading stable where, if everything goes well, we’ll be able to think more about sport, and the whole structure around it is already there to support that.”
No empty promises. No storytelling. Just a trajectory: restart the machine, produce, sell, and gradually climb back up.
“When everything is going well and everything is in place, little by little we’ll try to move upwards while continuing the trading business, of course.”
“Boosted three thousand percent”
After a quieter year, Maupiler has found his momentum again. And not the kind that comes from a lawnmower engine.
“Last year was a bit of a stand-by year where I rode much less. Now it’s full gas again. Compared to when you’re running your own business, you look at things differently. But boosted three thousand percent? That’s for sure.”
So this return to a major stable has nothing to do with going back home. It’s a fresh launch. Robinson Maupiler has already experienced the big operations before. This time, he returns with a different kind of weight behind him. Less the young guy trying to prove himself. More the finished horseman.
And as he says himself:
“Looking forward. We’ll see what happens.”
In Valkenswaard, Robinson Maupiler has rediscovered something that matters enormously in this sport: momentum.
