“I have owned and ridden horses for most of my life and always admired the Friesian horse for their beauty and lovely temperaments. 14 years ago l was lucky enough to finally find my dream horse.
He was a four year old stallion called Tsjebe (Jeb!) who was located in Yorkshire. He had been bought over from Holland to be a driving horse, but he was a lazy stallion and didn’t really enjoy being driven, hence the decision to to sell him.
. The second I saw him I knew I had to have him. He was the most beautiful horse I had ever seen!
He flew the vetting and arrived a week later. I had him gelded and started hacking and training for some low key dressage.
Friesians naturally find canter hard, it was over a year until he was strong enough to canter for more than a lap of the arena, and pick up the correct leads. He just couldn’t do it!
Jeb didn’t have a lot of stamina for this kind of work, so I trained him with that in mind. I realised that I hadn’t got a lot of stamina either so soon we got fit together. The Friesian has to be one of the most demanding horses physically to ride.
Jeb when he arrived with us, looking for the lollipop in Gracie’s hand.
When the time was right we ventured out at Intro dressage which he won, and then finally made it to Prelim which he also won! Over the years he got stronger and we affiliated him, he did well at Elementary and then at Medium.
I always struggled to get a flying change with him so we stuck at Medium level for a while. The changes were not easy for him, and many times I thought that maybe we had reached our maximum level.
During 2019 I had to have a knee op and Jeb and I had a few months off, then Covid hit and we were locked up. During this time my daughter was getting better and better at riding and at the age of 16 she kept asking if she could ride Jeb – my pride and joy…
I was reluctant to let anyone else ride him, but, as I was out of action I said she could bring him back to fitness and maybe do some Novice dressage tests.
She soon got him fit and started working on the illusive flying changes! What I saw was that to really get the best out of Jeb you need to be 30 years younger and fitter than me!
The reality really hit hard when we went to a dressage shows together, Gracie on her pony and me on Jeb – and she beat me!
Time for a change
At this point I thought, I am not having her beating me(!) and so I gave Gracie the opportunity to take the competitive reins. I still hack him a lot but the competition and schooling I handed to her. They qualified for Novice regionals/Elementary regionals/Medium regionals/Nationals, being placed every time at the Championships.
Meanwhile Jeb took to the flying changes with her, did his first PSG, went to the Area Festival Final and he won there too!
He then went up to Intermediate and the following year (2023) he won the final again! BD put him on their front cover and I’m proud to say he is a regular in Horse & Hound magazine.
But the journey didn’t stop there – we then contested the Young Rider PSG qualifiers for international selection and he won that too!
A Friesian has never been selected to represent the country and we didn’t think he would get the Team GB flag but this spring he was selected for Team GB and competed at a CDI.
It wasn’t plain sailing as sadly on the final day he picked up an infection and couldn’t compete in what is his strongest class; The Freestyle. But the achievement just to get there is huge.
The KFPS awarded him the sport elite predicate which no Friesian in the UK has ever had.
He is now 18 and still in his prime, he won the PSG at Regionals. Luckily the infection was caught quickly and he has recovered and will be able to compete at the BD Nationals.
I know it’s a rare thing to have a horse in your life that’s given so much joy and also for myself and my daughter to have such a journey of happy hacker to international competition, but it shows what can be done.
This probably will be his last year competing so we know he will tell us when he has had enough but so far he has not shown any sign of slowing up and is very close to doing a Grand Prix.
This has been a journey of unimaginable possibilities, and one that we will never forget. It is also a reminder that just because a horse (or rider) fails in one area doesn’t mean that they won’t go on to overachieve in another.”
Thank you Julia for sharing your inspirational story with us.
If you want to see more of Jeb and Gracie with her other horses you can follow her on:
Instagram and Facebook – Gracie Catling Dressage.
Photo credit Kevin Sparrow.
