Alexander Peternell and Figaro des Premices (RSA). Photo by Tilly Berendt.
This may be the first Olympic Games for Figaro des Premices (Quidam de Revel – Acapela de Kreisker, by Felton du Mont), but it certainly won’t be his last if his rider, Alexander Peternell has his way.
“He’s got an amazing heart, and I think that he’s got an incredible future ahead of him,” he said, following their dressage test. Although he was a little disappointed with their performance in the first phase – a score of 39 left them in 56th position ahead of the cross country – Alex remained pragmatic about the situation: “He can produce a much tidier, better test. The atmosphere probably got to him a little bit, so he’s just a little bit distracted and not really into the bridle as you can be. I know he’s more than capable of producing a far better test…But he’s nine, he’s still very new to the level.”
At just nine years old, ‘Norman’ is one of the youngest horses in the field, though he and Alex have a strong and lengthy partnership. The South African rider, who first represented his country in 2012 at the London Olympics with Asish, has backed and produced this horse right from the very beginning.
“I bought him as a two and a half year old, so I backed him myself. So all his faults are my faults!” he laughed. Initially though, Alex was unsure as to whether he would even be able to buy the horse – much to his wife’s indignation! “We [my wife and I] nearly divorced over it — she found him, and we went to look at him and they pulled him out of the field, trailered him to an arena with jumps, and she was like ‘wow.’ But because I didn’t have a lot of funding, I offered a rather cheeky offer. For the whole four hours drive home, my wife was tearing into me because she didn’t think we would get him!”
Luckily, that ‘cheeky’ offer was accepted – not only saving Alex’s marriage, but setting he and Norman on the path to Paris.
Alex’s wife, Suze, has happy memories of Norman in those early days, fondly recounting how easy he was to back; “I think I came out to find Alex sat on him, when we were backing him, holding the lunge line. He just hopped on. He’s just a lovely character.” Add to that character a very trainable mind and an incredible talent for eventing – in their 11 FEI starts, he has only faulted cross country on one occasion – and the future looks very bright for young Norman. As Alex says, “This time in two years time, watch this horse.”
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