A different type of horsepower: when a dressage stallion met a Porsche 911
This is the meeting of a Porsche 911 Targa 4S and a promising four-year-old dressage stallion, with his 18-year-old rider
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This is the meeting of a Porsche 911 Targa 4S and a promising four-year-old dressage stallion, with his 18-year-old rider
It’s a different type of horse power…
This is the meeting of a Porsche 911 Targa 4S and Foxisle Stud’s promising four-year-old dressage stallion Foxisle Rolex, with his 18-year-old rider Olivia Constantine.
Olivia, who produces mountain and moorland ponies from Parklands Equestrian, told H&H she backed Rolex at the start of this year.
“Then he came to be to be schooled and do dressage,” she said. “I mainly do showing so this was a different ball game but he’s been doing really well and winning.
“Then Porsche Centre Sheffield contacted us and asked if we had a horse suitable for a photo shoot. We thought ‘This is amazing’.”
Olivia said Rolex is “the most well-behaved stallion”.
“You wouldn’t think he is a stallion,” she said, adding that he is unfazed by most things he encounters.
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The photographs include shots of Rolex with the 911, including one of him eating hay out of the car’s bonnet.
“I was a bit nervous about that as I thought he was trying to eat the registration plate!” she said. “I’d never done anything like this before, it was amazing it came about.”
Olivia said the plan for Rolex is to keep producing him for British Dressage (BD) and aim for BD youth classes. And there may be more appearances with top cars in his future.
Sara Coley, a Porsche pro from Porsche Centre Sheffield, came up with the idea; she told H&H the company has taken cars out for shoots in the Peak District, for example.
“It’s a change of scenery, and shows Porsches fit in different lifestyles,” she said.
“Then I thought that the Porsche is so powerful and it’s all about horsepower. So I reached out to Parklands Equestrian Centre and Rachel [Constantine, Olivia’s mother] was brilliant.
“Rolex was amazing, so beautiful and so well behaved.”
Sara added that she and her colleague, digital genius Dan Coates, had “never done anything like that before”.
“We didn’t know what to expect but it went really well, and everyone loved the pictures,” she said, adding that the 911 Targa 4S has its engine in the boot, so the hay was safe to go in the bonnet.
“That worked really well; at first Rolex wasn’t sure what was happening but then he just started eating it, it was brilliant,” she said. “It was a really nice morning and we said we’d like to do more in future; maybe Olivia racing the horse on a beach with the car, so that’s something we might look at doing.
“We’re looking forward to doing more with them.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.