British Olympic rider wins on 9.8 score at horse’s second event

It was not a bad weekend at the office for Gemma Stevens, who won three BE100 sections at Horseheath on her dressage marks – taking one on a finishing score of 9.8.

Gemma won section G on Chris Stone’s Chilli Morning IV, a clone of Chilli Morning, on 23, and section I on Mr Stone and Chris and Clare Mathias’s Chilli’s Jester, a son of Chilli Morning, on 27.3. She also won section H on Cooley Park Muze, jumping double clear to finish on an incredible 9.8 dressage score at his second ever event.

“We were very shocked!” Gemma told H&H. “I’d no idea what a 9.8 test feels like!”

Gemma said she has had the Pollux De Muze seven-year-old since January.

“My husband Gary and I found him last year through our new company GS Sports Horses for a client, from Richard Sheane of Cooley Farm in Ireland,” she said. “But the client’s circumstances changed and they asked me if I’d have him to produce and sell – but I just fell in love with him. I’m getting a bit fussy in my old age! But he ticks all the boxes.”

Gemma offered the client the chance to retain a share in the gelding, which they have, and a syndicate was finalised days before Horseheath.

Cooley Park Muze and Gemma came fifth in their first BE100, at Burnham Market on 16 April, where they scored 15 in the dressage.

“We joked about it and thought that was a one-off,” she said. “Then I did my test [at Horseheath] and came out, and the judge said ‘What a lovely horse’. I said ‘Thank you very much’, and went to ride my next horse.”

The score had been posted by the time Gemma came out of her next test.

“One of my long-term owners who was part of the Arctic Soul syndicate, and has come in with him, came over and said ‘It’s a shame; the judge obviously didn’t like him that much’,” she said. “She said he’d given him an average score of 33, but they were marking quite highly. I said it was a shame but it didn’t really matter as he’d done such a nice test and was a good boy – then she passed me her phone and said ‘Look at the score!’

“I said ‘Is that actually right?’”

Gemma said Cooley Park Muze is “beautiful”. Apart from one 7.5, the combination earned nines for every movement, and 9.5s for the collectives.

“He goes in a really, really nice way,” she said. “He’s got very powerful paces and a very active hind leg, and is very good-looking, and he kept a perfect outline through the whole test so it was nice the judge saw he was working in a beautiful way. Then he jumped a lovely double clear.

“I’ve showjumped him a bit but this was only his second ever event so I was thrilled. He’s a superb jumper, and a really exciting young horse who’s been produced with the future in mind. I really hope he’s going to be the real deal – that’s the plan, anyway!”

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