New Zealand eventer Muzi Pottinger has paid tribute to her career-launching thoroughbred Just Kidding who was “never expected” to be a five-star horse on the globetrotting superstar’s retirement.
The 17-year-old gelding jumped clear across country at five CCI5*s across four countries and two continents during his career. He finished second at Adelaide on his and Muzi’s five-star debut in 2018, and the pair were fourth the following year.
Their record also includes four-star wins in New Zealand, and they represented their country as individuals at the 2022 World Championships in Pratoni.
“My favourite thing about that horse is that we never expected him to do everything he did,” Muzi told H&H.
“To me, he’s not a legend because he’s won some illustrious five-star. He’s a legend because there is nothing about his body, type, size and even scope that remotely suggests that he should be a five-star event horse. And yet he has jumped clear around five and a world games. I just would never have believed that was possible, even five years ago.”
She added: “He just loves his job and he has the biggest heart in the world and he just never gives up really, he just keeps trying.”
Just Kidding, known to his friends as Ferg, was bred for another career altogether. He is by Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, who sold for a reported $70m (£56m) to Coolmore, out of Sadlers Wells mare Gypsy Princess. He sold for 100,000 NZD (£48,456) as a yearling, and was acquired by Muzi for “much less” four years later.
He acquired his name because of his sense of humour. Muzi recalled how in his younger days he enjoyed standing on his hind legs and “waving” to the judges from outside the arena, only to deliver a beautiful 70% test moments later. It’s an edge he still has, as she discovered when he spotted the racehorses training in the mornings at his final event at Pau.
Muzi’s original plan was to sell him as a young rider’s horse. But when her top ride was injured, she decided to keep him. He won his first of three New Zealand national titles in his first season at four-star, and went on to compete at the very top of the sport.
She recalled favourite memories of leading after an influential cross-country day at Adelaide, the experience of Badminton – particularly the messages and clips from fans – and the fact that he was the horse on which she got to make her senior squad debut at Pratoni.
Luhmühlen this year was also special, where they delivered a cracking cross-country performance to take their place at the business end of the provisional leaderboard ahead of the showjumping.
“To be in the top five among the top riders of the sport after cross-country was exactly where he deserved to be,” she said.
She credited her coach and mentor Jock Paget for his belief in the pair and what they were capable of achieving.
“Jock has been there for the last 10 years of that horse’s career and was the one who would say to me, ‘Well, why not?’. When we threw the idea of Badminton around, I said, ’You are crazy!’ to which he said, ‘Why not?’ and I realised I didn’t have a leg to stand on!
“Although Ferg didn’t scream ‘Badminton horse’, he also gave us no reason not to believe he could be.”
He will retire to Muzi and her partner Tom’s base in New Zealand to enjoy a quieter life of field time, carrots and hacking.
“Part of the reason I chose to retire him before I had to is because the amount he has taught me is just astronomical,” she said, explaining that this is the reason she did not want him to spend his senior years as a schoolmaster.
“It’s been 12 years and I would have made a lot of mistakes on him at the start – I was in my early 20s, still learning, and did pretty much my first main career four-star and five-stars with him,” she said. “I made mistakes, and he made mistakes, and we learned together. Essentially, I got better and suddenly realised how I needed to ride him.
“One thing he taught me through his lack of scope – and I say that in the nicest possible way – is that I had to be very accurate. If I was three feet off an oxer, it wasn’t something he could find his way out of. From that perspective, I owe him everything. He has taught me to be more accurate than I think I ever would have been.
“He owes me absolutely nothing now so all I want for him is that he is happy and has an easy life.”
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