Gemma Stevens and Jalapeño. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.
Many people know of Gemma Stevens’ most recent accomplishment, finishing in sixth place with her powerhouse mare, Jalapeno, at Badminton this spring.
Few know of the long, long road that she took to get there.
In 2019, Jalapeno, Christopher Stone’s mare, by 5*-winning stallion Chilli Morning out of a mare by Shaab, suffered an injury to her tendon at Pau. “Unfortunately, she had a really quite serious injury to her tendon,” Gemma said. “To the point where we weren’t sure, to be totally honest with you, whether she would be able to come back to eventing again.”
Jalapeno, barn name “Jala,” has beaten the odds not once, not twice, but many many times as Gemma has slowly and carefully nursed her back to health and back to winning status at the CCI5* level. After Jala’s 2019 tendon injury, Gemma took full advantage of the break COVID provided to really bring her beloved mare back slowly and carefully. Jala got an entire year, plus another winter, off before Gemma brought her back into work.
And then, with the type of luck that seems to plague horses everywhere, Jala fractured her splint bone in 2021.
“She came in the following year, and then unfortunately she managed to bash her leg, her other front leg, and fractured her splint bone,” Gemma said. “We were actually at a Nations Cup at the time and I had worked her on the flat the day before and she was beautiful, going so well and it felt amazing. And then my poor groom got her out in the morning and she was limping, and she’d fractured her splint bone in the stall overnight.”
After coming back into work at the end of 2021, Gemma and Jala competed in the Blenheim CCI4*-L and finished on her dressage score of 28.7, which earned them fourth place. After a wonderful performance at Blenheim, Gemma decided to play it safe and aim for Luhmühlen in 2022 instead of Badminton, as the venue’s track would place far less strain on Jala. Jala, apparently, had other plans.
“About four weeks before Luhmühlen, she was getting pretty fit. She’d gone really well. We’d just had a prep run and all of that,” Gemma said. “And then my groom found her in the middle of the night in her stall, laid out on her back. Jala had actually split her spleen and her spleen was bleeding. Luckily, my groom found her and basically put her in the lorry and drove her straight to the emergency hospital and they saved her life.”
So, all competition plans were put on hold, while Jala recovered from her near-death experience. For the rest of the 2022 competition season, Gemma decided to let Jala plan her own season. “So now in 2022, we thought okay, we’ll go back to Blenheim instead of Luhmühlen because we know you like Blenheim,” Gemma said, laughing. “We’ll do that again. And we know you don’t need too much stress and prep to get to Blenheim and we know we can manage you for that. We know it’s very within your capability.”
Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Gemma’s plan worked. While Jala had one rail on the last day that dropped her from second place to seventh, she came out of the competition stronger than ever before. “She came out of Blenheim bouncing. And when I say bouncing, she went out in the field and she ran around, rolled, and stood up and kicked out her front legs and she was so happy.”
Because Jala came out of Blenheim with flying colors, Gemma set her sights on Badminton in 2023. However, she didn’t take a single thing for granted due to the mare’s complicated history. She started preparing for the event extremely early and thoroughly. No detail was missed.
Starting in December, Gemma started preparing Jala for Badminton in May. “She did a whole month of strengthening work, hacking and gentle lunging and schooling. Then we started fitness work in the middle of January,” Gemma said. “So she had actually done six weeks of prep work before we started any sort of fitness work, if that makes sense. From there on, she galloped once a week and she swam in a pool once a week, since the middle of January. She also did two water treadmills per week. She pretty much didn’t miss a beat.”
While Jala was excellent for her prep work, the weather was not. Due to the extremely rainy English spring, Gemma was not able to ride in nearly as many events as she had hoped. “We didn’t get to do an Intermediate run at all. We didn’t get to just have a nice canter around an Open Intermediate to get your eye in. Then we had every intention of running her in the four-star Short at Thoresby. But I just felt that it was too risky for her,” Gemma said. Indeed, the weather at Thoresby had plenty of other plans, prompting multiple other pairs to pull out of what would have been their sole major prep for a spring 5*.
Because they missed all of their Intermediate opportunities, Gemma said she had to get her “brave pants” on and go straight to the CCI4*-S at Burnham Market. Luckily, despite the shortened spring season, Gemma and Jala had a wonderful run at Burnham Market. “We had a really good run there and she felt really fit, really up for it, and really focused.”
Gemma had Jala’s leg scanned after their run at Burnham Market, even though the horse looked spectacular. The scan showed no problems, leaving Jala clear for the homestretch to Badminton. Wanting to avoid any additional pounding on Jala’s legs, Gemma opted to gallop her as little as possible in the last three weeks before Badminton. “She doesn’t mind the gallops, but she’s not in love with it,” Gemma said. “Instead of pounding up the gallops, we took her for nice long hacks and did lots of trotting up hills and fun stuff that she enjoys doing.”
Gemma Stevens and Jalapeño. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.
Gemma also wanted to avoid overdoing it on the flat. “She’s beautiful on the flat and I didn’t want to overdo that too much. So instead of putting on a dressage saddle and doing flatwork, I put on a jump saddle and I’d have some poles and stuff up in the school and we just do loads of nice stretching and pole work.”
As Gemma explains it, the last thing she wanted to do was to make Jala’s body sore. So, instead of trying to cram in more fitness work, she focused on keeping Jala happy and keeping her body relaxed and strong. At the same time, Jala was also receiving top notch day-to-day management and was certainly keeping her groom, Charlotte Overton, busy. “At home she gets iced in the morning after going on the walker, and always after work, and then again in the evening,” Gemma said. “So at a minimum she gets it three times a day.”
Wanting to disrupt the sensitive mare’s routine as little as possible, Gemma maintained the same icing schedule for Jala during Badminton itself. Each day of the competition, Jala was iced at least four times. She also spent a significant amount of time walking around and using a magnetic rug. Gemma also had a “fantastic” physio, Sam Daplyn, come to work on Jala every day.
In terms of her riding schedule during the event, Gemma was quite brave. She got on Jala a mere 15 minutes before it was her time to ride on cross country day. “I’m not going to lie — I only got on her 15 minutes before my time,” Gemma remembers. “She actually had a really, really, good walk. She was kept out of her stall and then she got tacked up and walked in hand, like marching-walking, for 15 minutes. Then I got on her literally 15 minutes before my time and I jumped two jumps just to kind of remind me and then off we went.”
Throughout the entire event, Gemma’s priority was to keep Jala “fresh and happy.” Her approach paid off. Not only did Jalapeno come in sixth place, but she and Gemma broke their personal record to get their best dressage score yet, and Jala was also the highest-placed mare at the event.
Gemma said that her and Jala’s achievements at Badminton have inspired her to “crack on and carry on.” “It was just the best feeling and then to actually then go on and compete the way that she did so confidently, and so soundly was amazing,” Gemma said. “She’s amazing. The scans are amazing. She looks fantastic. Honestly, the sense of achievement was through the roof.”
When asked if mares required a different approach to success than geldings, Gemma had a humorous take on what mares need to succeed. “She’s a gritty, gutsy mare. And she’s really got her own mind,” Gemma said. “I think mares do get a little bit pissed off with kind of galloping constantly. Whereas with a gelding, you can kind of say, ‘Come on, you’ve got to put your back into it a bit,’ and they say, ‘oh, okay.’ I think with a mare that if you do that, you just piss them off. I absolutely love my girls, but you do have to find ways of getting them fit without making them unhappy. So I think doing different things with them, like swimming and hacking, is so important to keep them sweet and happy.”
Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Gemma’s dedication to Jala is really the epitome of what this sport is about. At the end of the day, the best horse(wo)men put their horse’s health and happiness first. Gemma’s dedication to keeping Jala healthy and happy, at the expense of opportunities to win and compete, not to mention the financial expense, is the only reason that this powerhouse mare is back to eventing and winning.
“If we get her to a big show in one piece and feeling good, the horse is going to be right up there every time because she’s so consistent and she’s got such a good brain,” she elaborated.
Gemma also notes that she could not have gotten Jala to Badminton successfully on her own. “I’m so thankful for my whole team, from my other girls at home who work endlessly to support me and then my home vet Ed Lysall, farrier Jim Cooper, and my home osteopath Liz Oakenfold,” Gemma said. “Without all these people taking such good care of Jala we would never have accomplished what we have. It takes a village!”
For a horse that was never supposed to event again, Jala is looking pretty good out there.
This article was sponsored by Achieve Equine, creator of FLAIR Strips. Gemma and Jala’s journey to Badminton embodies Achieve Equine’s slogan, “It’s All About the Horse.” Gemma has had personal experience using FLAIR Strips, and uses them in both show jumping and cross country. “When she gets tense, she actually makes a little bit of a noise,” Gemma said. “We have had her looked at and she has had a little bit of a little wind operation, but I find that when she’s got the FLAIR strips on, she actually stays relaxed and doesn’t make any noise.”
Learn more about FLAIR strips here.
