Around Christmas, Grand Prix dressage rider Lauren Chumley received a text message from her event rider friend Meg Kepferle.

“Can you go to California?” it read.

“At this very moment?” was Chumley’s response.

While Chumley is a dressage professional, for nearly 15 years she’s dabbled “on the dark side,” in the eventing world, competing up to the two-star level with Atlanta B. She hasn’t competed at the preliminary level or higher since 2021, but she’s been earning to jump the bigger fences again. However, Chumley is quick to say that eventing is strictly a hobby, and she considers herself an amateur in that sport, so when it came to finding another horse who could help her return to the two-star level, she wanted something with experience.

Chumley had joked with Kepferle that what she really wanted was a stepping-down five-star horse—and that’s exactly what her friend was texting about.

Jollybo, who had represented Canada at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games (North Carolina) and the 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships (Italy) with Hawley Bennett-Awad was up for lease, and Kepferle thought she should try the mare.

It was inconvenient timing—Chumley was organizing the annual migration from Pittstown, New Jersey, to her winter base in Loxahatchee, Florida, for 34 horses—but she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity.

About 30 hours later, Chumley was in Temecula, California, sitting on the 21-year-old British Sport Horse (Jumbo—Polly Coldunnell, Danzig Connection).

“It was a little adventure,” Chumley said. “I jumped ‘Jolly’ with Hawley, and just like my current mare, I jumped her over one crossrail, and I was like, ‘Oh we’re good. This is great; this is so fun.’ … She’s so smart, and she’s such a cool horse, so that worked out super well.”

Bennett-Awad warned her that Jolly still had a good spook in her—and sure enough she showed it off at the end of the trial, taking off while the pair were talking—but Chumley isn’t fussed by the mare’s quirks.

“She’s just a really cool horse,” Chumley said. “She’s just got such a good vibe to her, and I just I love old FEI horses; they’re just so smart.”

Jolly fits right into what Chumley jokingly calls the “geriatric event squad” in her barn, which includes Atlanta B and another eventer leased by a working student, both of whom are 20.

“They’re all super sound and super game, and they love their jobs, and they’re happy to let me miss to logs all the time,” Chumley said.

Jolly arrived in Florida in January, first laying over in Ocala with Kepferle until Chumley was able to come north to pick her up. They did their first cross-country school together before returning to Loxahatchee.

Chumley last competed at preliminary in 2021, having stuck to modified and one-star competitions with Atlanta in recent years, so she hopes Jolly will be able to bring her back to that level, but her main goal is to have fun. Her show schedule is up in the air however, as most of her energy goes towards her young dressage stock and her promising mare Leeloo Dallas, with whom she earned a $25,000 Anne L. Barlow-Ramsey Grant for U.S.-Bred Horses. And while Jolly’s primary job is eventing, since Chumley bases at White Fences Equestrian Center, which hosts dressage shows, she said there’s a good chance she’ll end up taking Jolly third level at one of those shows.

She said Bennett-Awad has been a huge support and is eager for the pair’s competitive debut, which will take place this weekend at Rocking Horse Winter II in Ocala. Both Jolly and Atlanta B are entered in the open training.

“I’m excited about the season,” she said. “I think it’s gonna be really fun, and I’m happy to have two really great horses to ride, because you can only jump so much, especially when they’re of a certain age, and we try to take really good care of them.”