Veteran Jumpers Continue on Course
Older and wiser. Over Grand Prix courses, these jumpers have mastered the game. Senior horses thrive on careful management and can continue to earn prize money at the sport’s top levels.
who continue to compete successfully while delighting their owners, riders and fans. Looking for clues, we asked about their care and maintenance as well as their work routines.
W Flexible This Irish Sport Horse stallion has an impressive resume:
2012 World Cup Champion, and competitor in the 2012 Olympic Games and 2010 World Championship. Foaled in 1996, Flexible (Cruising x Safari) is ridden by Rich Fell- ers, of Wilsonville, Oregon and owned by Harry and Mollie Chapman. Shelley Fellers, wife to Rich and co-owner of their stable, says that Flexible doesn’t get any special treatment in their
“He has come back from every setback.”
hat keeps older athletes on course? As examples of horses that defy their ages, we found three Warm- bloods, one stallion, one gelding and one mare,
barn. “We treat him like a horse. He eats Super Sport feed, to shorten the recovery time, which is a supplement [from Pu- rina]. Rich feels like it helps. And he’s on Conquer Joint Care for his joints.” The stallion does well on a routine of regular exercise and
turnout in a grass paddock. “He gets ridden twice a day,” says Shelley. “He gets a full work session, and then walk-trot work. He is turned out at home for a couple hours a day. Winter is dicey with turnouts; it gets pretty wet here. All of our horses go out. It keeps them happy.” Flexible is an athlete who has sustained his career in spite
of a series of major medical issues: a blocked vein, broken scapula and, most recently, blood clots in the arteries of his right hindquarter. He has come back from every setback. About the stallion’s 2014 season as an 18-year-old, Shelley
says, “He’s been competing all year. We started out regroup- ing, because he had a blood clot in his right hind leg and pel- vis. We started off doing small stuff and we’d see what hap- pens.” She adds that his blood thinner medication (Warfarin) continues. “He has gotten Warfarin since the blood clots. We take him off that for a show.” He’s competed in six World Cup Finals: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. At his first one, he placed second. And this year he’s on track for the 2015 Longines FEI World Cup in Las Vegas—currently he’s leading the North America West Coast League. “If he’s sound and doing well, he will do the fi- nal,” says Shelley. “He’s a little going machine. He likes his job.” This stallion also fits in a breeding career. After he’s done
showing for the year, he’s collected and has also sired foals through frozen semen. His daughter, Flex A Tia (Flexible x Emilion), showed in the Young Jumper Championships qualifiers in 2014. She tied for second in the Midwestern League 5-Year-Old Finals in Lexington, Kentucky—one of the four U.S.-born horses of the top five. Flex A Tia’s dam Sequoyah Farms Utopia (Emilion x Gottwald) was herself a Grand Prix jumper.
Chianto Like Flexible, Chianto was foaled in 1996. He and rider
Flexible (Cruising x Safari) ridden by Rich Fellers at HITS Thermal 2013.
Photos are all by Charlene Strickland
John Pearce of Bermuda Dunes, California, have earned over one million dollars. They have competed in all three venues
Warmbloods Today 45
By Charlene Strickland
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