Dressage rider Charlotte Jorst has added a new Grand Prix partner to her string. She recently purchased Lorenzo, who was the top mount for Spain’s Severo Jesus Jurado Lopez and was previously owned by Lopez and Kirsten Elkaer Holm.
Lopez and Lorenzo are currently ranked seventh in the Fédération Equestre Internationale world rankings, in part because of strong showing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, where they placed fifth overall, fifth in the Grand Prix freestyle and became crowd favorites.
Charlotte Jorst recently purchased Lorenzo, who represented Spain with Severo Jesus Jurado Lopez at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.
Lopez, a rider at Andreas Helgstrand’s barn in Denmark, debuted the Bavarian Warmblood gelding (Lord Loxley I—Bolgna, Rubin Royal I) at international Grand Prix last year, and they earned seven wins, including at CDIs in Odense (Denmark) and Vestfold (Norway).
They competed once this year in January at the Amsterdam CDI (the Netherlands) but were eliminated in the Grand Prix freestyle.
Jorst, who’s from Denmark but rides for the United States, tried the 11-year-old Lorenzo in April over three days and immediately knew he was the one. She purchased Kastel’s Akeem Foldager from Helgstrand in 2015 and visits his barn often when looking for horses.
“It’s very difficult to find a horse that’s better than I have because I have such great horses,” she said. “I’ve been looking, and I’d heard about Lorenzo and knew he was for sale, but he was exceedingly expensive.”
Nevertheless, she tried him.
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“He’s just kind of my horse—I love to ride freestyles, and I love to have fun. I love big movers. I love a horse like that that has a lot of spirit and is a lot of fun. I just thought it was a great match,” she said. “I decided I wanted him, and we negotiated back and forth, and I got him at a good enough price. My husband’s laughing. He thought he was very expensive, and he was, but I have to do it now if I ever want to do it because I’m not getting any younger! I just loved him.”
Jorst, 52, Reno, Nev., said that even though Lorenzo is a lot of fun, he’s not an easy ride.
“Severo has so much feel,” she said. “Other people had ridden him and tried him and couldn’t ride him. I won’t be jumping right in and riding a Grand Prix next week like I did on Nintendo. It’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve for me, but I think in time we’ll create our own partnership.
“It’s difficult to get on a horse that somebody like Severo has ridden because he can make a donkey piaffe,” she continued. “I think that deterred a bunch of people from trying him because nobody wants to fall on their face. But for me in particular, I’m not that sensitive to things like that. If it goes, it goes; if it doesn’t, I’m happy anyway. I love the riding for the sake of the riding, not necessarily winning. I think you have more fun that way. I love the process more than I like the win.”
Lorenzo will remain in Europe until Jorst heads over in a few weeks with three horses to spend the summer in Denmark with her husband, two daughters and new grandson.
She’s planning on representing the United States on a Nations Cup team in Europe with one of her other mounts and will get to know Lorenzo. When she comes back in the fall, she’ll do some national shows with an eye towards the Florida CDI season next year.
