Felix Vogg finishes up his European Championships test with Freida. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“I like a challenge,” said Felix Vogg in his deadpan manner.
His Blenheim Europeans ride Frieda has certainly been that; for the 12-year-old Casalito mare even to be here will have surprised people, and for her to have scored 29.2 and to be 11th after dressage is a victory in itself.
“A couple of years ago, she did nearly nothing, because she’s a bit difficult,” said Felix. “And at the beginning of the year when I said she should come here, a lot of people laughed.”
Felix bought Frieda as a five-year-old from British rider Willa Newton: “We saw her at one show, went to try her and really liked her. She had all the qualities you need [for eventing at a high level].”
There’s a “but”, though.
“She’s very horse-shy. And a bit long in the body and unbalanced, so it was quite tricky. She was always good at the lower levels, like two- and three-star, but it came to a point where it didn’t make sense to go four-star,” said the Swiss rider. “We got to the stage where there wasn’t any more progress.”
Felix Vogg and Freida. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Felix doesn’t really seem the “try anything, up to and including witchcraft” type, but apparently he is.
“We tried different stuff, like cowboys so that she isn’t horse-shy, and these horse-whisperers and the like – we tried everything, but she doesn’t want that, so we gave her away.”
I think he means “sent” rather than “gave”, although I cannot be sure. Anyway, Bettina Hoy, the great German multiple medallist and CCI5* winner, had Frieda for six months.
“She only had two horses and she had time all day long; at the time I was taking on a farm and I didn’t have so much time,” said Felix.
Time, patience and individual attention were clearly what Frieda needed. When she came back to Felix, she was still some way down his equine list of priorities, with the likes of Cartania, Colero and so on hogging the top spots as the build-up to the Paris Olympics began.
Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“So this year I said, I have got to give her the chance and give her everything so that she can actually succeed. So she has the number one spot,” Felix explained. “I thought a lot about it, coming out of the winter, what I would do with her. So I ride her first in the morning, really early, when no one is there, so there are no distractions for her.”
He says that she finds dressage the hardest phase, so it will be interesting to watch Frieda over the next two days in the jumping phases.
Frieda has done well to be here at Blenheim, but so has Felix. He had a fall in the water at Saulieu in France in late August, hit some stones with his shoulder and was left with his arm “completely paralysed – it didn’t move anymore”, missing Burghley as a result.
“I had four hours of physio every day, stuff like that. It is quite painful, but Frieda is light to ride across country. She isn’t used to this many spectators – that’s why I took her to Aachen this year, and she was a little bit unsure there – and that can be energy-sapping for horses, so tomorrow I will ride her depending on how she feels, how she takes to it.”
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