Grand Prix rider Charlotte Jorst has purchased Stanford 4, adding to her string of international horses with big goals for the upcoming year. Stanford 4 previously competed at Grand Prix in Germany, with Malin Nilsson aboard.
“I’ve had such a fantastic year on Kastel’s Nintendo and Adventure and the other horses, so I really feel it’s my chance to really start gearing up and making sure that I have enough horses in my barn to really ride and be in the top,” said Jorst, 51, who competes as an amateur and runs her equestrian clothing company, Kastel Denmark.
After Jorst sold Kastel’s Vitalis to Paul Schockemöhle and Lone Boegh Henriksen this summer, there was a stall available in her barn, and her connections abroad knew just the horse to fill it.
“I was looking for another Grand Prix horse, and they’re very difficult to find,” said Jorst. “I need a big horse that’s beautiful and does all the things, so I could go directly in the ring, and this horse had just scored so well and has done so well in Europe that the choice fell on him. He’s so ready to go, and it’s kind of hard to find right now because everybody’s kind of looking.
“Patrik Kittel and Andreas Helgstrand called me and just said, ‘I think you need this horse. We want him to be with you because it’s going so well for you, and you’re on such a form, and we know you really want to make a difference and get to the top. We think this horse can get you there, so we think you need this horse,’ ” continued Jorst. “And I have to say, I agreed with them.”
The 10-year-old Oldenburg stallion (Sir Donnerhall—China, Roadster) was bred by Erich Alberding, and Isabel Bache competed him in the CDI small tour in 2014.
“He’s very, very nice, beautiful, everything comes very easy to him, and he just goes around, and he feels like he’s smiling the whole time,” said Jorst. “And he’s been ridden by a woman; that makes it a lot easier as well, so you don’t have to kind of retrain and re-do. For me, it was perfect.”
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Jorst had ridden Stanford in Europe at the same time she tried and fell in love with Akeem Foldager, a 13-year-old Danish Warmblood (Akinos—Lobelia Foldager, Loran) she acquired in February. Akeem’s most recent competitive outing with Jorst yielded a 72.70 percent in the open Grand Prix at Dressage At Spirit Equestrian (Calif.) this October. Both horses, as well as Kastel’s Nintendo, will be aiming to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Stanford is due to arrive in Wellington, Fla., on Jan. 3, where Jorst will be based for the winter season. Though she trains with Guenter Seidel while in California, she plans to ride with Christine Traurig during her time in Florida.
If all goes to plan, her first competition with Stanford will be in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., in March. In the meantime, she’ll be competing Akeem in the first two CDIs of the season at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Florida, and she has already kicked off the winter in Wellington with Kastel’s Nintendo, who competed in the U.S. Dressage Festival Of Champions The Dutta Corp./USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship (Fla.), placing eighth overall.
“[Nintendo] has been doing unbelievable. He’s just getting better and better and better all the time and getting more secure in the test,” she said. “He’s just going in with ears forward, big smile on his face and just looking so much forward to showing everything he has learned. That’s kind of where you want to go with a horse; it’s just so fun to ride him now.”
Jorst is excited to showcase her horses in the upcoming year and has started mapping a potential road to Rio for her string.
“I want to continue to do well and continue to reach for the top in U.S. dressage and to bring in more and more great horses to the wonderful country,” she said. “I’m so hooked on dressage, and I love it.”
