Sharon White and Jaguars Duende. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Jaguars Duende was a climber in the CCI3*-L field of the MARS Maryland 5 Star, presented by Brown Advisory, starting the competition in ninth place and finishing in first. While the average eventing fan may have been surprised by her rise to the top, those who know her well knew she was always the one to beat. Produced and owned by Sharon White, the 8-year-old Westphalian mare is a competitor through and through.
“Her mind is extraordinary, right? Just to sit on a horse that loves the pressure and handles it and wants to win– that’s a really special thing. So she showed me that again today, and that’s just really, really unique,” Sharon said.
“Jag” (Jaguar Mail x Latina, by Lancaster) is not your typical mare. She showed just how cuddly and in-your-pocket she is at the awards ceremony, when she stood quietly, playing with her groom, Kate Servais, and allowing everyone to give her pets, while she received hugs from her rider. If you’re currently thinking to yourself, ‘well sure, my mare likes pets.’ Let me iterate how unique it is to have an 8-year-old horse that is calm enough to stand quietly after a victory gallop with nine other horses in the massive atmosphere of the Maryland 5 Star arena. Jag is clearly a winner in more ways than one.
Sharon is known to produce her horses from the ground up, a strategy that lends itself well to the building of a true partnership between horse and rider. However, it does take time and talent to source untested young horses and transform them into 5* partners.
“Even if you buy a horse that’s already going, it still takes a lot of time to form a partnership,” Sharon said. “And I think when you’ve had them as young horses and as babies, you know each other in and out, which can be really beautiful. And at the same time, it can be a double-edged sword. I know my horses that I’ve produced since they were young. I know Jag would do anything I asked her to do, so I have to be careful what I ask her, right? Because she’ll do it. That type of relationship takes time. So if you start them from the beginning, then you’ve already put the time in. And if you buy them further developed, you still have to put the time in.”
Sharon White and Jaguars Duende. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Not losing the forest for the trees is crucial to the development of these young horses. To date, Jag has performed at FEI competitions only nine times over two years. Some young horses will do that number of events in one season. Sharon says staying focused on that big picture makes all the difference.
“Sometimes it’s very hard to remember the big picture. You have to really think, ‘You know what? It’s not only the year, it’s the next four years,’” Sharon said. “I think it’s very easy to get into doing too much because everyone’s doing it, so you want to do it. But if you really think about it, she’s like a project. She’s eight years old, what do I want her to do as an eight year old? Did I want her to do a four long this fall? No, right? I want to give her body enough time to get very strong and to get her so confident.”
Sharon chose the Maryland 5 Star 3*-L to help develop Jag’s grit and endurance. “Maryland is a very unique place in that it’s a very good test of fitness. It’s a very proper course,” Sharon said. “The atmosphere is unreal and special in both the dressage and the show jumping. So it’s just such a good education for a horse. And to me, you want to not overwhelm them, right? And if you really produce them confidently, sometimes you have to be a little patient. I don’t mind being a little patient. Now I look forward to what she does next year, but it’s not about next year either. Every moment is special with them. But if you really think big term, I think that’s how you produce horses for the highest level of sport.”
Sara Schulman and Cooley Chromatic. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Sara Schulman pulled off a hat trick to hold onto her second place position all weekend long, as the leaderboard shifted around her. Finishing on the podium in the 3* at the Maryland 5 Star was a huge accomplishment for the young rider, particularly as she has produced her own Cooley Chromatic (Thorgal x Castrade) up the levels herself.
“Honestly, even more so than the results themselves, [the bigger accomplishment] is the confidence that he has gained over the years. You never know what kind of horse they’re going to turn into when they’re three. There’s so much to establish there. And with every young horse– granted, this is the first one that I’ve produced so I can’t speak to many others– but there’s always speed bumps and hurdles that you have to go through,” Sara said. “He had his antics when he was four and five years old that we took time to work through. He would refuse every way out of the water and there were just various things in the barn. The fact that we have built such a partnership like this over the years, such a trusting partnership, and have been able to take the time to work through all of that, is honestly the biggest accomplishment out of everything.”
The pressure was definitely turned up to high going into the show jumping, where the lightest tap can result in a rail down and when that single rail can cost you your podium finish. Sara particularly felt the intensity of that pressure as the youngest rider in the top five.
“For sure there was pressure going into today,” Sara said. “This was the biggest atmosphere me and my horse have ever show jumped in, which was really exciting, especially with a whole group of coaches, friends, and family that came out to watch. I just wanted to do them and my horse proud. I knew he was capable of this– he’s such a special horse. I just wanted to do him justice all week, and he stepped up to it every single day. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Will Coleman and Fahrenheit Addict. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Like the rest of the top three, Will Coleman also chose to ride Team Rebecca LLC’s Fahrenheit Addict at the Maryland 5 Star to build the nine-year-old Selle Francais’ education. “I’ve probably only done three or four runs at this level, and I just knew that I would get some good feedback from doing an event like this,” Coleman said. “It’s a cross country course that’s really up to standard. It’s long. It gives you a sense of how we might handle some of the bigger events in the world down the road. I think I got some great feedback. I’m excited about the horse, and we’re still a ways away, but I think this was a great step in his progression.”
Will has only had the ride on Fahrenheit Addict (Utah van Erpekom x Picouik du Pont, by Echogene latour) for less than a year and is still building his partnership with the young up-and-comer. “He’s owned by some of my longtime best owners, the Broussards, who have helped me to support my horses for many years. We found him at the end of last year and he came to me at the beginning of this year. So I’m still very much getting to know him,” Will said.
Like the 5*, the 3* cross country course was intense. Also designed by Ian Stark, it covered a total of 5250 meters with 34 jumping efforts. Today the 3* horses tackled a difficult show jumping course created by Canadian designer Michel Vaillancourt. After starting the week with 54 horses, the competition finished with 40 pairs remaining. In total, 46 rails came down, with fence five being the biggest challenge for the riders. It was, indeed, a “serious” week, as Will called it.
Sharon White, Sara Schulman, and Will Coleman. Photo by Shannon Brinkman
“I think horses that came out here and jumped well in this atmosphere– I think that bodes very, very well for them, and hopefully for bigger events down the road,” he said.
Keep an eye on these three horses and their riders as they move up through the ranks of eventing and into the highest levels of the sport. There are bright futures ahead of many pairs who tackled the 3* this week. Honorable mention goes to the horse who moved up the most spots in the leaderboard – Tamie Smith and Pierre’s Farceur du Bochard (Con Air 7 x Ariane du Bochard, by Epsom Gesmeray), owned by the Guariglia family, sprung up the ranks from 50th to 18th.
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