“Freak” is the word most used to describe Jennie Brannigan’s five-star eventer, FE Lifestyle. The 13-year-old gelding (Leo Von Faelz—Berina A, Brandenburger) was bred in Germany to be a show jumper—but no one told him his destiny was to stay inside the ring and jump short courses. 

“It’s a freak that he is the event horse he is,” Brannigan said. “He’s only about 37% blood. I go off how I feel on a horse, and [looking at his breeding] you wouldn’t guess he has no bottom.”

“Foxy” most recently demonstrated his depth at the Defender Burghley CCI5* (England) in September, where he finished 12^th, earning Brannigan honors as the highest-placed Burghley first-timer. He also was awarded Best Shod Horse, with credit to his farrier Russell Deering. The finish was impressive on its own, but even more so with the backstory: Foxy had tied up on the flight to Europe, so even his participation in the event was in question. However, after lots of veterinary advice and multiple rounds of fluids, followed by continual evaluation over the week in England by the vets and ground jury, he was deemed fit to compete.

“He jumped around Burghley at about 50 to 60 percent,” Brannigan said. “What he did there was phenomenal. I didn’t know if I was even going to run him … I love him, and I would never do anything to hurt the horse.”

It’s high praise for a horse Brannigan and owners Tim and Nina Gardner took a long time to decide to buy in the first place.

Clayton Fredericks had the gelding for sale, and he initially was tried by “a lot” of professionals, Brannigan recalled, including at least one she recommended. But the horse has a “funny mouth,” she said, and is “quite quirky,” so he was a hard sell. A year after first trying Foxy, Brannigan bought him. 

“I wasn’t quite sure,” she said. “I wasn’t like, ‘I have to have him.’ “ 

It was Australian show jumper Scott Keach who helped her make the final decision. Brannigan has worked with Keach since she started her business in 2014.

“I’ve show jumped with Scotty for years, and he just knows my type,” she said. “He told me he thought it was a good horse, and he thought I should get him. Obviously, he’s turned out to be an amazing horse.”

Fellow eventers agree: Her longtime mentor Phillip Dutton has seen many of Brannigan’s top horses over the years and classed Foxy as among the best.

“Phillip cross-country schooled him once for me,” she said. “He’s never been so positive about a horse [of mine] cross-country.”

“I was chatting with Boyd [Martin], and he was like, ‘I thought when you got that horse that it might be too heavy, and then it’s not at all, it’s like a freak,’ ” she recalled.

In fact, despite his lack of Thoroughbred blood, Brannigan said Foxy is one the fittest horses in her string. From her base at Phillip Dutton’s True Prospect Farm in Cochranville, Pennsylvania, she uses the surrounding hills to build her horses’ endurance. 

“He is the easiest horse to get fit,” she said. “He gallops about 10% of what other horses have to do to get fit for a five-star. He’s just a freak.”

The 16.2-hand chestnut has a 16-foot stride and an equally huge, scopey jump. That big stride helps him keep close to the time even at the five-star level, though it also contributed to the one and only cross-country refusal on their international record—a blip for which Brannigan takes responsibility. 

“At Kentucky one year I should have trusted myself to go on a forward stride,” she recalled. “I was trying to add in a place it just wasn’t going to happen.

“He finds it easy,” she added of Foxy’s running and jumping. “He loves it. He can leave the ground from anywhere, he’s so scopey.”

We went behind the stall door to get to know this scopey redhead better. 

• Foxy doesn’t have much chrome, but his markings stand out anyway.

While the chestnut has just a small star and dot on his left hind pastern for white markings, he has a brand that isn’t often seen in the event world. The Pferdezuchtverband Brandenburg-Anhalt gelding carries the arrow with a snake wrapped around it on his left flank.

• Foxy is quirky, sharp and sensitive.

Brannigan has to stay aware when she is on his back. He is quick to react to dogs, noises, cars on the road and doesn’t like “things flying up behind him.”

“He’s a proper chestnut,” Brannigan said.

Brannigan has adjusted his show routine to suit his temperament.

“Right before a show, you need to be really calm,” said Brannigan. “At Bromont, I hopped off him in my dressage warm-up to let his blood pressure come down, and he was top four there.” 

• The way to his brain is sometimes through his stomach.

Foxy loves his treats—mints, Mentos, Jack’s Favorite dehydrated fruits and vegetables—so at the ring, “you will see [groom Alexa Lapp] running alongside him feeding him treats,” Brannigan said. “It keeps him focused, his head down and not paying attention to the environment.”

• With Foxy, less is better in the saddle

“It was a big learning curve to be quiet on his back,” Brannigan said. 

Compared to other horses who need a rider to actively nuture or encourage them around a cross-country track, “Foxy has made me such a better rider because I must sit very quietly,” she said. “I’ve had such beautiful rounds on him, because you just look like you are doing nothing. Last year at Kentucky, I just equitated around the track.” 

• He’s a big teddy bear on the ground…

While he can be explosive to ride, Foxy is “super cuddly” on the ground. 

“He doesn’t like it if it you’re frantic around him, but he’s a big teddy bear,” said Brannigan. 

• … But he can also hold a grudge.

Foxy likes his people, but if you do something he doesn’t like, he remembers it.

“I had Tyler [Held, who groomed for Brannigan] put ear plugs in him once, and I swear he held a grudge with her for the rest of her time. He wouldn’t let her near his ears.”

• He’s Foxy … and a bit of a lady.

Brannigan said the gelding has quite a few mare-ish tendencies: “He acts like a girl, he whinnies like a girl; he’s sensitive like a mare.”

He also prefers the company of mares to other geldings. He particularly dislikes Brannigan’s other five-star mount, Twilightslastgleam, according to Karen Hokanson, manager at Nina Gardner’s Welcome Here Farm where Brannigan’s horses do their down time. Instead, he is turned out with mares.

“He likes to be bossed around. He wants them to put him in his place” Hokanson said.   

• The only other guy Foxy really likes is less than half his size.

Foxy shares his corner stall with Hank the Tank, a mini that Brannigan shipped to Ocala for a friend, who, as it turned out, didn’t need Hank anymore.

“At that point we just decided he was ours,” Brannigan said. “He goes out with all three of them [Brannigan’s upper-level eventers Foxy, Twilightslastgleam and Connory]. They all love him, and he is a total companion for all of them.”