Jacob Fletcher, 29, makes his five-star debut at the Mars Maryland 5 Star this week on a horse who was produced in Britain.
The US rider was based with Kevin McNab – the Australian Olympic medallist who lives in Surrey – in the summer of 2013 and for all of 2014.
“He’s found most of the horses I’ve competed since, including Fabian, who Kevin found for me in November or December 2019,” explained Jacob.
Fabian was produced by the Britsh young rider team silver medallist Millie Dumas, who finished seventh at Tattersalls CCI4*-L on him in 2019.
“Millie did an incredible job producing him, so all credit to her,” said Jacob. “He came over to the US in January 2020 and did one or two intermediates, then had an injury in the field. That was unfortunate, but the timing was ok as it was during Covid so a lot of shows were shut down anyway.”
Since the Dutch warmblood has been back in action, he’s had plenty of good results with Jacob, including two wins at CCI4*-S and a second and seventh at CCI4*-L.
“He’s quite a spooky horse – at random things like changes in the footing or a jump judge,” said Jacob. “But he’s been incredibly honest and brave with any question presented to him across country since I’ve been riding him. At home he’s lazy, but across country he has a really good motor.”
Jacob says Fabian, who is now 13, was amazing in his last prep run at Tryon and a month ago he was aiming for a top five or 10 place on his five-star debut. However, the horse came off the trailer after his 15-hour journey from Florida on Monday with a slight runny nose and feeling a little lethargic.
“He’s recovered really well the last few days and felt very fresh this morning, which isn’t amazing for a dressage test, but made me feel comfortable for cross-country,” said Jacob on Thursday (19 October).
“We’ll take it day by day and I’m just hoping he’s well enough to take a swing at it. I often find you want to be competitive in the build up but when you get to an event you just want not to fall off and get wet!”
Getting wet is on Jacob’s mind as he describes the feature water, the Mars Equestrian Crab Water, as “monstrous”. The direct route through the combination features a bounce in and an angled hedge after a step on the way out. Jacob says he will see how it’s riding, but if the early competitors have mixed fortunes he will consider playing it safe and taking the long route as it’s his debut at the level.
Jacob Fletcher on competing alongside his wife
There’s an extra dimension for Jacob Fletcher this week because his wife Cornelia (née Dorr) is also competing, on Daytona Beach 8, who was 10th at Burghley Horse Trials last year.
“We work well together and help each other,” said Jacob, adding that Mike Huber acts as their manager and private chef d’equipe and helps sort anything that might cause friction.
The pair will also be supported by their dressage trainer Barend Heilbron and British 2004 Olympic champion Leslie Law, through Cornelia’s involvement in the developing rider programme.
“Cornelia is a serious competitor so I always want it to go well for her,” added Jacob. “I’m more laid back and just enjoy riding and teaching, while she lives for the competitions.”
The pair have been based together for three years but were married this summer and have had a fully integrated yard for a year or so, which Jacob says a lot of people warned them against but is working well so far.
Historically they have been based in Florida from September to May and gone back to Arkansas, where Jacob is from, for a few quiet months in the summer.
“But with getting married this summer, it was too complicated to move the whole barn so we stayed in Florida and it was really nice, so we might end up doing that year-round now,” he said. “It is hot there in summer but there’s a significant amount of rain and you get two to three hours of cooler weather when the storms come off the ocean. We like to be done riding between 10 and 11am there in summer.
“The competition calendar runs January to January in the US so you have to be diligent in making sure you give your horses breaks and we try to do a three-month hiatus in the summer. We spend more time on the young ones then and the older horses are hacking or ticking over.”
Cornelia and Jacob Fletcher have about 16 horses in work in Florida, plus about 25 horses in Arkansas, where they have a small breeding operation
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