Top-class competition horses can cost millions of pounds, but one horse in the Paris 2024Olympic dressage field was sold with a price-tag of just $20. Jewel’s Goldstrike, the ride of Julio Mendoza Loor, made his first trip across the Atlantic Ocean for an Olympic debut that fulfilled the Ecuadorian rider’s dreams.
“I felt very emotional at the end of my test, riding a horse I love, representing my country, carrying my country’s flag,” says Julio, who scored 70.83% in the grand prix. “This is my first time in Europe, my first time in the Olympics, so many first times.
“I’ve been watching the Olympics on TV since I was really little, but I thought, ‘this is not possible; you need a sponsor’, but then you realise these are only excuses. If you want to do big things in life, you can.”
Jewel’s Goldstrike’s fairytale journey to Olympic dressage stage
Julio has been competing Jewel’s Goldstrike, a 13-year-old chestnut by Bretton Woods x Scandic, internationally since 2022. He describes their partnership as “a fairytale”.
“I had a good friend who let me have this horse for a very accommodating price – $20!” he says. “For a horse that cost $20 to come down the centre line at the Olympic Games and score 70% is a fairytale.
“Sometimes the media focus on the bad stories, but there are so many good stories we need to hear. Like how I bought a $20 horse, won a gold medal at the Pan Am Games, won at Aachen three weeks ago and made it to the Olympic Games. It’s crazy but it’s not impossible.”
The Olympics was probably not initially on the agenda for this bargain buy.
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“He was always a horse with a lot of talent, but he was very cheeky, and very tricky in the rein,” Julio explains. “He wanted to play and play. He never did anything mean or bad, he was just playful. But for some people that can feel a bit scary when they don’t know what they will do next. I just allowed him to play, and he realised I didn’t care, and he could play as much as he wanted. And then we have done a lot of trail riding and time in the field, and it changed his mentality.”
Performing the Olympic test in Versailles
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)
Jewel’s Goldstrike, the Olympic dressage horse who wants to play the clown
Julio waxes lyrical about Goldstrike’s personality.
“He is a clown; he loves to be silly,” he says. “He lives 24/7 in the field and comes inside for an hour a day to be ridden. If you try to put him in the stall he says, ‘uh-uh, that’s not my field, buddy’. He likes to be outside. He loves to go on trail rides.
“When he’s at a venue, like here in Versailles, he’s fine, because he expects his ‘dad’ to spend 24/7 with him. I hand-graze him every two hours for an hour. It’s a lot to do but if he’s happy that way, my goal as an owner is to keep him happy. If he decides tomorrow he never wants to be a riding horse again, I’m going to respect that decision and never compete him again.”
Jewel’s Goldstrike’s Olympic dressage score today was not ultimately quite enough to secure qualification for the freestyle, but Julio remains delighted about his whole performance.
“Today, the microphones surprised him, and then he calmed down but he’s a horse, not a computer,” he says. “My goal was to have fun, and I felt no pressure. I had fun with my horse and I am blessed that my wife and my children are here to see that. I had all the Ecuadorian team to support me, what more can you want? Money can’t buy happiness.”
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
