Grand Prix dressage may not be commonly associated with an off-the-track thoroughbred, but that goal is very much in sight for Belinda Greenfield and her Speedy ‘N’ Renowned gelding L’homme du Jour.
Bred by Waikato Stud’s Mark Chittick and raced as Sharpshooter, ‘Freddie’ had nine starts for one win in the care of recently retired racehorse trainer, Karen Fursdon before being retired as a six-year-old. Through a rehoming service the gelding was discovered by Greenfield who was just 19-years-old and looking for a horse to take eventing.
While that route may not have panned out as she anticipated, a change of course to dressage is where Freddie has found his niche, the pair progressing through the grades to compete at Prix St Georges (Level 7) at the Horse of the Year where he also was crowned the winner of the Dressage TiES Series.
“I bought him sight unseen through a rehoming organisation called Track Heroes,” Greenfield said. “I saw some photos and videos of him on Facebook and I’d not long returned from being overseas, so I was looking for a horse and thought he was the one for me.
“Off the track, the thoroughbreds have been hosed, travelled, had their feet done, handled on the ground, they’ve had all those experiences. They’ve just seen so much of the world already.
“I initially bought him to do some eventing, he’s got a stunning scopey jump on him, but he wasn’t very brave as a juvenile horse. We tried, but he just wasn’t enjoying the cross-country. I did consider selling him as eventing was what I wanted to do, but I ended up having a lesson with Bill Noble, who recommended I focus on dressage.
“Bill comes up once a month, so over the next four weeks I focussed on what he’d told me and when he came back I was really enjoying it and decided to keep him.”
That decision has continued to reward Greenfield, who was equally as modern to high-level dressage as her mount, who was her first thoroughbred.
“We’ve just worked our way up the levels of dressage, neither of us really knew what we were doing,” she said.
“We’ve had a lot of success along the way, which I hadn’t really expected. At nearly every level he’s gone out in, he’s won a regional championship title at some stage in the season. He won the Up-to-date Zealand Musical Freestyle title at Level 4, he’s just been a bit of a superstar really.
“He does have a tendency to be a bit edged, but as an upper-level horse you want that sharpness. Not all of the thoroughbreds have the massive movement that the warmbloods have, but they have great brains and they want to work. They want a job to do and having that motivation is necessary at the high level of competition.
“He’s won so many classes at varying levels, but one of the biggest highlights has been training him up and then going out on performing up to that 70 percent level, and beating the warmbloods who are purpose-bred. I get such a buzz that this non-descript little thoroughbred can go out and do just as well, if not better.
“It’s great winning titles, but that’ll always be my biggest buzz.”
After a stellar season, Greenfield is focussed on their next challenge, learning the convoluted and skillful movements required to compete at Level 8, and eventually Grand Prix.
“My ultimate goal is doing a Grand Prix test with him, so over the winter we’ll start training and getting him a bit stronger in the advanced movements,” she said. “Next season, depending on how robust he gets, I would like to go up to Level 8 and see how we go from there.
“At Level 7, that includes half-passes, trot and canter, canter pirouettes, and three-time and two-time flying change sequences. He’ll be learning the passage and piaffe, which are elevated trot movements, and the one-time changes. We’ll work on that to step up to Level 8, which is all the same movements as Grand Prix but lesser difficulty.
“He’s really good in the competition environment, he’s been in a busy atmosphere and loves to show off. It’s nice to show, particularly younger kids, you don’t have to have the most high-priced horse in the world to actually train them and compete well.”
