After five years of absence, Belgian double World Champion four-in-hand driving F?ix-Marie Brasseur is taking up the reins again. With the help of his old friend and sponsor Jan De Clerck, Brasseur has put together a team of Lipizzaner horses with which he would like to compete at the World Four-in-Hand Driving Championships in Riesenbeck 2012.

After winning his second individual gold medal at the WEG 2006 in Aachen, Brasseur no longer had the disposal of the Lusitano horses after a dispute with the owner: ?The owner wanted the horses to compete in the 2007 World Pairs Championships and I thought this was too demanding for the horses.? Brasseur is however still good friends with Antonio Simoes. F?ix Brasseur thereafter got several Andalusian horses at his disposal from a Spanish owner, but this cooperation came to an end due to the financial crisis.

F?ix-Marie Brasseur now has eight Lipizzaner horses to choose from: ?They look like the Andalusians and the Lusitanos, but they are stronger. The Lipizzaners were originally used for work in the fields while the Iberian horses were used to guide the cattle.? The choice of eight includes one stallion and two mares from Hungary. Three Lipizzaner horses come from the team owned by Jan De Clerck at Jerez, of which two sons of the stallion from the Wolfsburg team. The choice is completed by two sons of the stallion from the Stockholm team from Jan De Clerck's stables in Waasmunster, Belgium.

The friendship between Brasseur and De Clerck goes back over 20 years. In 1988, Brasseur was De Clerck's trainer at the World Championships in Apeldoorn. Brasseur finished 9th supported by Jan De Clerck at the WEG 1990 in Stockholm. In 1996, Jan De Clerck was the organizer of the World Championships in Waregem where F?ix won his first individual gold medal. At the World Championships in 2000 in Wolfsburg, Jan De Clerck was sponsor of F?ix Brasseur who won the bronze medal.

With the support of Jan De Clerck via his company Caproleuna, Henk van der Wiel Harness, Haras Saint-Roch where the horses are trained, Lami Cell and hopefully FRBSE and LEWB, F?ix Brasseur would like to compete the next four years. His first goal is to compete at the World Championships in 2012, followed by the World Equestrian Games in Normandy in 2014.

F?ix Brasseur's ultimate goal is to make a hat trick to win the World Championships in 2016 after winning the gold medal in 1996 and 2006.