From choosing the stallion to collecting the checks—riders who breed,
train and then compete their own horses, or perhaps their family’s horses, may have an advantage. These top riders know their young jumpers from foal to first fences and beyond. We have candid conversations with three riders and a breeder who share the rewards of guiding their homebreds to wins in the jumper arena.
in the ring she was all business. At six, she was a little unsure about triple combinations. I could feel her hold her breath around the turn. But even at six she never rode like a young horse. By the end of her six-year-old year, she ended third in the
Young Jumper Championships. The finals at Kentucky fea- tured a real meter-30 course. There were only three clears the last day and she was one of them. Calliandra has been a wonderful horse—she’s not large, a
petite 16 hands. Unfortunately, she has this winter off at our farm in Virginia, with a bruise on her coffin bone. What do you see as the advantages of homebreds? Certainly it’s the satisfac- tion of having a little bit more invested, knowing the mother so well. There is also the economic advantage, rather than buying a five- or six-year-old, which these days can be a lot of money even at that age. The downside? Breeding is a little bit like gambling. We’ve tried to follow some of the trends to produce good horses. What’s your opinion on the Young
Jumper Championships? I think it’s great to have it at American horse shows. It makes it more reasonable for people to bring along young horses in their string. In the U.S., it’s an expensive venture com- pared to Europe to bring a five-year-old up to Grand Prix level. If a show has no classes for that age, you’re not looking at earning prize money back.
Course designers are making courses more inviting for young horses. Tomorrow [at Wellington]
there are 163[entries] in the meter 30. That’s hard for a seven-year-old, just now seven, to go up against 162 other horses. In the young horse classes, you can bring a horse along to give him confidence, not to run him off his feet trying to win prize money. With the specific young horse classes, they give the
young horses one or two chances in the big ring to get a taste of the atmosphere. They do a nice job putting in the open water in some classes, for example, so you don’t have an eight-year-old who’s never jumped water.
Alison Firestone Robitaille and the Firestone Family
The Firestones are well known in the racing world, owning Kentucky Derby winner Genuine Risk. Be- sides producing Thoroughbreds, Bertram and Di- ana Firestone have bred many Grand Prix jumpers. One of their top homebred mares was Heartland, dam of Lamplight, Arwen and November. As a young rider, Alison competed in equita-
tion finals, then started winning in Europe in 1994. Gustl P was her top jumper in her early career with the U.S. Equestrian Team. Alison won a team silver medal at the 1999 Pan-American Games. With her 2008 Oldenburg Calliandra, she
placed sixth in the 2014 Midwestern League Final of the Young Jumper Championships.
Alison Firestone was the top-placed U.S. jumper rider at the 1998 World Equestrian Games, Rome, Italy. Only 21 at the time, Alison rode the Belgian warmblood Major to place 14th individually.
Warmbloods Today 25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100