She’s still not as rideable as she is in the show ring, but she’s more rideable than in the warmup area. I’ll lunge her over little jumps. Tat she’s quite relaxed to do. She’ll start to relax and canter over them.” Lisa chose a hackamore bit to switch to after her experience at the 2015 Masters. “She was strong. I changed the bridle there to the hackabit.” In November 2015 Lisa rode at the Toronto Royal Horse
Show. Lola was ninth in the Longines FEI World Cup Jump- ing, and third in the Greenhawk Canadian Show Jumping Championship. “She got sick this year coming back from Toronto,” Lisa continues. “She was out seven weeks, and she’s just coming back into fitness. She had a virus in her lungs, not shipping fever. She was five weeks on antibiotics. She was never with a fever; she just couldn’t get air. I didn’t work her during that period, so we had downtime.” She recovered and was fit by the 2016 HITS Termal
Desert Circuit, where she tackled the AIG $1M Grand Prix in March, finishing thirteenth. Back in Canada, in June Lola competed in the CNOOC Nexen Cup Derby at Spruce Meadows, the same competition that Judgement won three times. Lola was one of only two horses in the jump off, and placed second to Cristallo, ridden by Richard Spooner. Tis test is over a kilometer, with 25 jumping efforts like the Devil’s Dyke and a bank of 26 feet. “She had to learn the dyke,” says Lisa. “We went off property to jump through it, which again is not so easy.” Last year at this event, Lola was also second, this time to
Leslie Burr-Howard. And at Termal, she was second in a jump off for the $50,000 Cardflex Grand Prix. Lisa says she doesn’t mind the second places. “She’s been bridesmaid a lot. I’ll take being a bridesmaid; it’s okay.” In due time, she’s confident the mare will be a “bride.”
Better Judgement – The Bigger the Better One of Lola’s younger broth- ers, Better Judgement (Judge- ment x Zeus) is a 2006 bay gelding. Bred by Beyaert Farm
Inc.in North Salem, New York, as a five-year-old he competed in Young Jump- er Championship classes with New York trainer David Tromp. He’s now owned by
DGS Farms LLC, of Dal- las, and trained by Matt Cyphert of Woodhill Farm, in Northlake, Texas. Suzanne Suttles shows “Bobby” in the High Junior/Amateur-Owner Jumper classes (1.40 m).
Better Judgement shown by Suzanne Suttles at the 2015 Santa Fe Summer Series.
“Tis horse is getting better every year,” says Matt. “He was
a younger horse when we got him. He started in the Grand Prix this year with me first and then Sue. It surprised us how
48 September/October 2016 SPECIAL KWPN-NA SECTION
he was going over the bigger tracks. You never know how a horse will deal with bigger fences. Maybe he’s a little more im- pressed and a little bit more excited.” Matt recalls seeing Judgement jumping, and describes how
Bobby resembles his sire. “He is like Judgement in the abil- ity to jump the bigger jumps. Both are generous by nature and jump around big tracks easily. Tat’s how he relates to his dad.”
“Now he will focus on the high amateurs,” Matt says. “He will continue to learn to jump the bigger jumps. It’s been a nice process to watch, very fun.” Next year, he adds, they’ll aim Bobby for the North American Young Riders Championship.
Chivas – Sibling Rivalry? Another brother is Chivas (Judgement x Alexis Z), a 2007 bay who earned the Ster predicate at his 2010 keuring. Dayna Gant of Apple Lane Farm, in Lancaster, Massachu-
setts, bred Chivas. She breeds eventers, and Chivas has excelled as a jumper, com- peting up to 1.40 m. His full brother Cuervo competes in eventing, and also showed in jumper classes up to 1.15 m. About choosing
Judgement, Dayna says, “What was im- portant to me about Judgement was he was an all-around jumper. He was
Chivas, 2014, in a 1.35M class at Blowing Rock, NC.
good at speed, good at the high level, and really good at the derby courses.” “Judgement has a great personality. For me the biggest
things are trainability and soundness—I would put those equal,” she adds. “Good bone he transmits to his offspring. My mare is more lighter boned and elegant. She’s only 15.3.” Dayna’s a dedicated fan of Judgement, with eight of his off- spring. “Tey’re easy horses to be around. Tey are big strong horses. He’s an athlete—so you’re going to get an athlete that’s trainable.” Dayna has presented several Judgement youngsters in the
Future Event Horse competition. One is Ghiradelli, the five- year-old sister to Chivas and Cuervo, who’s jumping 1.20 m. “Her trainer, Daniel Geitner, has to channel her athleticism,” says Dayna. “She locks onto a fence. ‘I’m on it, I got it.’ Tat’s fun to ride.” She mentions other traits these horses have inherited from
their sire: “form over the fences, grit and wanting to please.” Dayna enjoys the challenge of working with horses that are so athletic and trainable. “When you teach them something correctly, they remember it. I’ve been very fortunate that they are forgiving and patient when I’ve made a mistake,” she says. Like their sire—and those profiled here—many other
Judgement sons and daughters excel as jumpers. Read more about them on Judgement’s Facebook page, and also on the web at
ironspringfarm.com. v
Cathy Geitner
KWPN-NA
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