Horse Hound Feb 08

SPORT HORSE SPECIAL JUMBO JUMBO SPORT HORSE SPECIAL

THERE’S clearly a love affair going on at Grafham Stud and the man involved is tall, dark and handsome. He’s also one of the grand old men of his trade at 24. The male in question is Jumbo,

the leading British-based eventing sire. His lady is Carolyn Bates, who bought him as a six-month-old foal at the Malvern sales.

When going into Jumbo’s box I turned back to latch the door, thinking he might make a run for it.

“Don’t worry, he wouldn’t go anywhere with Carolyn here,” says her friend, Cathy Wood.

It’s soon obvious what she means — the big black horse shoves his muzzle in Carolyn’s hand as she takes his rugs off and willingly clomps off after her to the indoor school.

Once there, it is hard to believe that Jumbo is 24 years old. Still a good-looking horse — Carolyn says he lost some muscle tone on his stomach after colic surgery 10 years ago, but that is not obvious — he struts round, checking who’s been on his patch, then demonstrates his paces. He’s an excellent mover and his hock activity would be outstanding in a horse of any age, let alone one into his third decade.

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Pictures by Trevor M

eeks

For anyone who knows Carolyn, it is no surprise that her love affair with Jumbo started at a sale.

“I love going to sales,” says Carolyn. “But I’m so happy if I come home without buying anything.”

That didn’t happen at Malvern sales 23 years ago, but I doubt Carolyn regrets buying the colt then called Beeston Jumbo Jet.

Jumbo was bred by respected show judge Archie Smith-Maxwell, being by his Irish Draught Skippy, a grade A show jumper and

sire of numerous showing winners. Jumbo’s dam was grade B show jumper Betty, by the Thoroughbred Seven Bells.

“I loved the way he moved,” recalls Carolyn. “He wasn’t bought as a stallion, I just bought him because I liked him.”

Having been brought up with ponies in Sussex, Carolyn kept up her involvement with horses and Jumbo was her second stallion — her first being the 15hh Thoroughbred Magic Story, who was bred to show but broke his shoulder as a yearling. At the time she bought Jumbo, Carolyn was working in the music business — she promoted pop artists including Abba, Neil Diamond and The Beatles. She used to be married to the Radio 1 DJ Simon Bates, although they are now divorced.

Carolyn says: “I never thought Jumbo would be an eventing stallion. Ferdi Eilberg rode him when he won the Masterlock Potential Dressage Horse competition as a five-year-old. He gave him a nine for his paces, and said: ‘This is a dressage horse’. But a show jumper told me he should be a show jumper. He could have gone either way, but I loved eventing.”

Moira Horton (née Macdonald, who also competed at top level under her first married name, Moira Synge) worked for Carolyn, broke Jumbo in and started eventing him, but when she became pregnant, Carolyn asked Andrew Nicholson to take the ride.

In 1991, Jumbo finished sixth in the CCI** at Le Lion d’Angers, winning the Young Horse Trophy — at that time any horse could contest the CCI** (now restricted to seven-year-olds) with the leading six- or seven-year-old taking this trophy. He remains the only British stallion to have achieved this. A year later, he finished 15th in the CCI*** at Boekelo.

That was the end of Jumbo’s eventing career. It was rarer for stallions to event then than now and Carolyn felt the risk was too great.

Andrew Nicholson recalls: “He was a very straightforward horse and easy to have around. Being a stallion made no difference to the way he behaved. He was a powerful ride, very classy, a good mover. He had a good gallop

on him for a heavier type of horse and could jump a big fence.”

After retiring from eventing, Jumbo show jumped with William Funnell, won the Spillers Dressage and Show Jumping Championship at Blenheim in 1997, whipped-in to the Bicester with Whaddon Chase, appeared in the hunt’s inter-relay team and even starred in a pantomime at Addington with Carl Hester.

“He hated the spotted pantomime horse,” laughs Carolyn.

These days, Jumbo is still ridden to get fit for the stud season, and is best known as a sire. Only the late Cavalier Royale tops him in the 2007 roll of sires by the British Eventing points won by their competing progeny.

Badminton and Burghley winner Headley Britannia is Jumbo’s flag bearer, but she is backed up by a raft of advanced performers, not least Henry Tankerville, 2006 Bramham winner under Andrew Nicholson and twice placed in the top 15 at four-star level. Another of Andrew’s rides, the 2007 British Novice Championships runner-up Avebury, is chiefly responsible for Jumbo’s place as last year’s leading sire of seven-year-olds.

Andrew adds: “Jumbo’s progeny are all straightforward with good minds. I haven’t had one that hasn’t been a good jumper with good basic movement. Sometimes they can be a little plain as three- or four-year-olds, but as they get older they get lighter and look more quality — unlike most plain

four-year-olds who get heavier.”Carolyn says: “Jumbo stamps his youngsters

every time with his movement and temperament. You could put a baby in a pram with him and leave it there all day and he’s passed that on. That’s why so many of his colts have not been castrated, because they are so normal.”

Carolyn also owns three Jumbo stallions. The eldest, Jigilo II, will stand alongside his father at Twemlows in Shropshire this year. He is an 11-year-old advanced eventer out of the Thoroughbred Summer Jane, by Teofane.

“He’s like Jumbo on a hot wash, a refined

Mr BigBritain’s top event horse sire, Jumbo, has Badminton winner Headley Britannia among his flag bearers and is still going strong at 24, says PIPPA ROOME

Jumbo wasn’t bought as a stallion, I just bought him because I liked him

Carolyn Bates

“He was a powerful ride, very classy, a good mover,” says Jumbo’s former rider Andrew Nicholson

Lucy Wiegersma competing Jumbo’s stallion son Jigilo II. He is aimed at a three-star this season

Last year’s foals peep out of a barn at Grafham Stud. Can they follow in the footsteps of Headley Britannia, the most famous descendant of the stud’s stallions?

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SPORT HORSE SPECIAL JUMBO

76 HORSE & HOUND . 7 FEBRUARY 2008 www.horseandhound.co.uk8

blood version,” says Cathy Wood, who helps with the stud’s marketing.

Lucy Wiegersma took over from Anthony Clark competing the stallions last year. This year she will aim Jigilo at early two-stars at Barocca in Portugal and then an end-of-season CCI***.

“I didn’t start riding Jigilo until May last year when he had started covering and he was a bit preoccupied,” she says. “He’s quite sharp compared to Brief Encounter — he’s a lot more Thoroughbred and you can definitely tell.

“This year he’ll have two intensive months competing, then two or three months covering, then he can be an event horse properly. Only then will we get a real impression of what he will be — I think he could be a very useful horse. He’s classy across country and really gallops.”

In contrast, combining covering and competing suits Brief Encounter, an eight-year-old who will aim at a two-star this season.

“He’s laid-back and would spend his whole life chilling and eating if he had the chance,” says Lucy. “Covering perks him up. I’ve been hunting him this winter which will hopefully have woken him up too.”

The 16hh smart mover is a smaller, classier looking horse than his full-brother Henry Tankerville, who is no great beauty although a top-class performer. Lucy Wiegersma and Carolyn also share a full-sister, Just A Vision. Their dam is Grafham Society, who, like many of Carolyn’s foundation mares, is from Poland.

“I used to go round with a state inspector and see 3,000 youngsters in a week,” says Carolyn. “They’d run past and if you wanted one you’d say ‘yes’. I looked for quality, good movement and a good feeling.”

A couple of times the wrong horse turned up — one Carolyn kept anyway, another was sent home, in-foal to Jumbo.

Grafham Society is now 22, in-foal to Jigilo, and has two Jumbo foals due this year by embryo transfer.

Carolyn’s third Jumbo stallion is the piebald eight-year-old Free Spirit, out of the coloured mare Annie XII, who lost her own mother at birth and was given to Carolyn for 50p. Wanting to breed a coloured Jumbo colt, Carolyn was continually disappointed when Annie kept producing fillies.

“I sent her to John Rawding to foal, and he

rang and said I’d got a colt. I said, ‘She doesn’t have colts, go and check’, and he said, ‘I’ve seen enough foals to know what a colt looks like’.”

Pulling back Free Spirit’s rugs, Carolyn continues: “He’s the most like Jumbo in his head and front end. He’s such a poser as he did a lot of showing as a youngster.”

The stud’s other two stallions are unrelated. One is a Gribaldi five-year-old called Wish Upon A Star, bought on a whim at a sale in Holland.

“I didn’t go to buy anything, let alone a chestnut stallion,” says Carolyn. “I fell in love with him. I tend to go with my gut feeling.”

Carolyn’s clairvoyant has predicted a great future for Wish Upon A Star — and he got 15 out of 15 for conformation in a Burghley Young Event Horse qualifier last year.

The last of the pack is Moonshine Pharo, a cremello four-year-old bought with the aim of breeding duns, but possibly destined for the transfer list. He will compete in dressage.

“I’m not sure people are ready for a cremello event horse,” says Carolyn, who cheerfully admits she is the “most nervous

owner ever” when her horses compete. She also hates foaling.

“I hate the sight of blood,” she says. “When the foaling alarm goes off I want to die.”

So what does she like about breeding?“I love it when you see the youngsters

starting work and loose jumping. Summer days when all the foals are healthy and foaling is finished. And I get a lot of pleasure out of seeing Jumbo’s [progeny] competing while not having the bills. It’s very satisfying when you get all the mares in-foal too — I see it as a challenge.”

Most of the horses are in barns — and spend time in the field — at Carolyn’s Upper Combe Farm, near Tiverton, Devon, so she can do the majority of the work herself. She admits this is chiefly for financial reasons, but I sense she likes it that way. Her move from the south-east to Devon in 2001 was prompted by liking the peace, quiet and her own company.

“I’m due another move,” she says, explaining she normally moves every seven years. “But I think I’ll stay here a few more years. The intention is to cut back by not replacing the mares — I’ve got a lot that I bought as three-year-olds in Poland which are now 18 to 22 years old.”

Cathy smiles. She clearly doesn’t think that cutting back is seriously on Carolyn’s agenda. H&H

A 2007 foal by the piebald Jumbo son Free Spirit shows off his paces

Carolyn Bates with two of Jumbo’s sons, Brief Encounter and Jigilo II, who both event and stand at stud

Wish Upon A Star, by Gribaldi, whom Carolyn bought at a sale in Holland

Jigilo is like Jumbo on a hot wash, a refined

blood version Cathy Wood

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