CALIFORNIAN girl Savannah Marshall spoke this week about the advantages of producing horses in Ireland and how she is loving learning from her father-in-law, Northern Ireland show jumping rider and veteran horseman Harry Marshall.

“As somebody who really loves to work with horses, I would say it’s the attention to the little things that make the difference. When you ask a horse to do something, whether it be small or big, and they get it and it clicks, it’s so rewarding,” said Savannah.

“Producing young horses is really big for me. I really enjoy it and love teaching all the little things and seeing how they play such a huge part later on.

“In the United States, it’s very hard to produce a young horse, you don’t get the opportunities you do here. What I think that Ireland does differently than anywhere else is they give you so much opportunity to work with the young horse without the pressure.

"When you are in the United States and you need to produce a horse, you have to go to the show and you have to pay your bill there.

“When you must make your money back, the horse is already feeling the pressure from you that you need to pay your bill. When you are under that kind of pressure, you don’t give them the time to make a mistake and learn from it and that’s huge.

“Horses are so much more mental than they are physical and they feel that off the rider. To be able to come over here and give them experience and be able to learn from Harry (Marshall) is amazing. For me to start from zero with a horse and learn is fantastic.

“I’ve learned to handle them from foals up to Grand Prix level. I’ve been a part of it all. Being able to be on-foot involved, and being able to see the difference, really shows the weaker areas of the programme in the States.

“I think they want more people to breed and produce horses there but it’s harder to. They have to be able to find a way to open up the arenas, find a way to have schooling shows and have arenas to rent like you do here. I think it would really benefit the programme, especially with the young horses.

“A lot of people want to produce their own horses but when you go to somewhere like Florida, it’s a lot of money you have to put on the line and that will immediately reflect onto the time you are taking with your horse; and you can’t rush a young horse.”

Early years

“I grew up in Woodside, California. My Mom (Ann Barry) had a few ponies and horses and we began just trail riding really. We were lucky to live in an area where you could just go out and get straight onto the trails, it’s like horse country.

“It started just for fun. We’d get on them bareback and ride them around the yard. From there it progressed when my Mom took myself and my sisters on a trip to Colorado and we fell in love with western [riding]. Myself and my sister Jane then began to pursue western when we were younger and did some competition barrel racing and pole bending.

“After a few years, we kind of grew out of it and moved on to doing the American hunters. I had a really lovely horse named Valedictorian and I did the hunter classes with him from the ages of about 12 to 15. I rode with Cindy Brooks in California and then I moved and went to school on the east coast and trained with Linda Langmeire in East Granby, Connecticut for several years.

“When I was 18, my horse had an injury which put him out of action, at the same time my sister decided to give up riding and she had a jumper named Cool Boy, so that’s when I was put to the jumper ring, kind of out of default; and everything changed from there.

Savannah Marshall riding Valedictorian in an American Hunters class

“We would go down to Florida every winter to WEF (Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington) and to the other shows in the summer, Lake Placid in New York, Old Salem, The HITS shows in Saugerties so we jumped all around there.

“I began in the Adult Jumper classes, so that’s about 1.10m. Cool Boy was a former Grand Prix horse so was an old pro and gave me a good year of teaching me the ropes.

“It was a completely different feel and rhythm and way of thinking. How fast you have to think on your feet, he was able to teach me so much. I was really lucky to have him as my first opportunity in the jumper ring.

“After a couple of years, I began looking for some younger horses and found a six-year-old named Cocu. He was a little speedy jumper by Indoctro who Rachel and Jeff Fields in California had. I fell in love with him, so I bought him from them.

“I brought him to Florida and while there leased and then bought another jumper named Adrienne and did another season down there.

“At that stage I had both horses jumping up to about 1.35m, I was about 20 years of age and had only really been competing for two years.

“I enjoyed producing the young horses and knew I wanted to do more of that. I wanted to compete at Grand Prix level eventually but couldn’t afford to go out and buy a made Grand Prix horse which was ready to go into the arena so I decided I was going to do it the other way. I was going to find a horse I loved and we were going to get ourselves there one way or the other.

“Cocu didn’t really have the ability to be a Grand Prix horse; but he tried his heart out. My last class with him was during the last week of WEF and he jumped double clear in the medium jumper classic; he wasn’t made to do that; he really didn’t have the scope or ability, but he tried so hard for me and was so honest. He taught me so much, and I sold him on to his next person to teach.’’

Europe calling

“I then went looking for a new horse with my good friend Jimmy Fairclough. He is good friends with Stal Hendrix in The Netherlands and had bought a good young horse the previous year at their auction.

“He was going to Lanaken later that year. I had never been to Europe to look at horses, I had never done anything like that.

“My Mom doesn’t know a lot about the jumpers but she loves horses so she said; ‘let’s just go and watch and see what it’s all about and have a little mother/daughter trip out of it’.

“We went, I had packed my boots and helmet, just in case I could get lucky. I had no plans to buy a horse, but you never know.

“We ended up going to the auction and I saw a video of this five-year-old who landed over the first jump and then gave this huge buck.

“I loved him from the moment I saw him. I knew he was something special. There was a fire about him; and that was Flambeau.

“He was a bit quirky, he was green, he was feisty. I fell in love with him. It was a spur of the moment thing and I ended up buying him in the auction. I just knew he was going to bring me somewhere special.

“We’ve come all this way together. Before I had him the biggest class I’d ridden in was 1.35m. When I bought him he was five and we’ve come up all the way together.

Savannah Marshall with Flambeau and daughter Macie Marshall

“I then bought another horse, the Dutch-bred First Verdi (Verdi - Votti Lottie). I brought them home and made it my goal that the following year I would return to Lanaken to compete with them there, and one year later that’s what I did.

“When I came back to Europe, I stayed with the Hendrixs, they brought me to a few shows and helped me at Lanaken. It was while I was there that I first met my now husband Kris (Marshall) at a show.

“I returned to the States and we kept in touch. We met up again and went to shows in Spain and the following year he came out to Florida and helped me with my horses and after that we came back to Europe together.

“That was about 2017. We began being based in Holland and Belgium, Kris’ parents were based there then and then after a couple of years we all came back to Ireland together. That was the start of it all here.

“These days there are four of us - our four-year-old daughter Macie and our two-year-old son Jaxon.

“In addition to Flambeau for the Grand Prix I have a couple of Harry’s home-breds for the young horses classes this year so that’s very exciting.

“I have the seven-year-old gelding Morning Attraction. He is by VDL Harley out of Harry’s former Grand Prix mare by Indorado, Morgenster. The five-year-old mare named Lemonade is out of a mare by Andiamo.

“I’m switching gears a little, going from the experienced gelding to a green mare but I’m having great fun with it. They love jumping and are happy doing it so that makes it so much easier. I’m really excited to see how they progress and am looking forward to doing some of the Irish Horse Board classes with them this summer.

“We have a home-bred four-year-old mare by Diamant de Semilly out of the seven-year-old that Harry rides, Tango (Cornet Obolensky x Laughton’s Flight), who is really beautiful and exciting. She’s just been broken in, she had a foal last year by Harry’s Grand Prix horse Kingdom (Quidam De Revel), so that’s another one to look forward to.

“Flambeau will do the 1.50m Premier Series and all going well, we will go to the UK and Europe to do some shows there.”

Striking the right balance

“The work/life balance is challenging right now; you can see the kids getting older in front of you, and if Covid has taught me anything it’s savour the time, so my string is small but that’s on purpose; I can give the horses the time they need as well as give all that I have to my kids.

“I’m so lucky because Harry is the best team mate you could possibly have. There is no better person to have standing by when you need them. He has taught me so much about horsemanship.

“It’s amazing. He has taught me so much about the proper way to do things. About how it’s not just about getting on the horses and riding them but about all aspects of caring for them. I would not be where I am without him.

“What he teaches, apart from the riding, will get lost if it’s not taught, so it needs to keep on being put out there with students and younger kids. There is a real emphasis on horsemanship; that is an essential skill for any rider.

“At the moment, we are working on getting the horses fit and working on strengthening them ready to go back to competing.

“We were all out for a full six weeks because we got Covid after Christmas and it’s been a long road back to getting strong again. It was a scary time when we were sick but now we are back. I’m looking forward to getting back out there,” concluded Savannah Marshall.