Nicolas Wettstein
A life dedicated to the horses
Nicolas Wettstein was born on March 30th 1981 in Basel, Switzerland.
Nicolas holds three passports and has chosen to compete for Ecuador in 2011 after having represented Switzerland at the top level for over 10 years and France during his Junior years. Nicolas speaks 5 languages :
French, German, Swiss German, English and Spanish.
After studying Economical Sciences in Fribourg University, Nicolas graduated from the prestigious Hospitality Management School of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Ever Since, Nicolas has been following 2 distinct careers simultaneously, one as a professional Eventer and the second as the director of Phytolis SA (which is PiLeJe Laboratory Swiss branch) a pharmaceutical company. Nicolas always loved to push his own limits and sports is everything for him.
He starts riding at 4 years old and also practices athletics and tennis
At age 11 he had to make a choice and naturally he chooses riding.
At first as a Pony rider, he took part at several national Championship in showjumping, dressage and eventing.
He jumped from Shetland to C sized poney and then D sized pony (VIRGULE; UNTEL LA BREE ET ALDO DE MOUCHETRUIS)
In the meantime he is riding horses and rapidly qualified for European Eventing Championships Young Riders (CSIJ) (CARAMEL PUNCHY BOY)
His firsts CSI were in 1998 with SAYGON
Simultaneously, Nicolas obtained his first rankings in show jumping 145cm Young Riders (BRISE DE MAUPERTUIS) and also got selected for the European Eventing Young riders Championships (CAP DU TREMBLAY).
This was the turning point for Nicolas who decided to quit Show-Jumping and to concentrate on Eventing, rapidly progressing towards the sport’s elite.
Nicolas met with success from the very beginning of high level International competitions, and his exemplary regularity got him a place as the reserve rider for Switzerland at the Olympic Games in Athens (Greece) in 2004. Nicolas was only 23 year old at the time.
After the Olympic Games and Cap du Tremblay’s retirement, Nicolas focused on studies and building young horses from family stud FRAMONI his taking care of the succession.
He successfully took part in numerous Eventing Young Horses Finals. Slowly, Nicolas managed to bring two Framoni horses to the highest level and, in 2012 Onzième Framoni “Onzi”et Nadeville Merzé “Nadou” they both participated in every European 5* With Nadou he also participates at the World Equestrian Games in Caen (FRANCE) in 2014 and then in 2016 went to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Since then Nadou is enjoying is retirement at the family stables.
Onzi was classified at the Pan American Games in Toronto (Canada) in 2015, he specialized in indoor events (victory in 2016 at CSI5 * in Stuttgart) and participated again in 2019 at the Pan American Games in Lima (Peru). Since then, he has joined Nadou for his retirement.
Since the Rio Olympics, the Ecuadorian rider's stable has been renewed with 2 new horses:
In 2015, MEYER'S HAPPY (Grisou)not quite an easy horse but sportingly very talented horse who brilliantly finished the CCI5 * of Luhmühlen (Germany) in 2018 and the World Equestrian Games in Tryon (USA) the same year. In 2019, he won his qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, he was notably 2nd in the CCI4S in Strezgom (Poland).
The second horse is ALTIER D'AUROIS (Doudou) that started his first eventing competition with Nicolas in 2017. Also on the right track, he confirm on 4* level in 2019: 4th in Montelibretti (Italy) in the CCI4S and wins the CCI4L in Floresti (Romania).
These two horses are added to the list of international Complete horses that Nicolas has mounted including FANDSY (4 *), EASILY (4 *), HAIFA BERENCE (3 *), KOUROU FRAMONI (3 *), OBOLE FRAMONI (1 * ) and PIXEL FRAMONI (1 *).