Our next guest on the Horse of a Lifetime show is Kirsty Chabert!
She talks us through her horse of a lifetime that she got for her 18th birthday as a 3 year old from her dad, how he shaped her career and all their incredible achievements.
Guests:
Kirsty Chabert, formerly known as Kirsty Johnston, is a highly accomplished British event rider based in Wiltshire. She has made notable marks in the eventing world, including podium finishes at five-star and being longlisted for senior championship teams. Kirsty's remarkable performances include a second-place finish at the Luhmühlen CCI5* in 2022 and participation in all four European CCI5*-L events. Her achievements also extend to her impressive debut at Badminton, where she won the Laurence Rook trophy.
Sponsors:
We're delighted that Agria have come on board as partners of the 'Horse of a Lifetime' series on the EquiRatings Eventing Podcast in 2024. Established over 130 years ago, Agria have been at the heart of the insurance industry for many years but their recently launched Equine Lifetime Insurance has revolutionised the offering available. Agria's commitment to equine welfare and desire to protect your partnership with your horse makes them the perfect partner as we look forward to reflecting with some of the greatest names in the sport, on their horses of a lifetime.
This podcast is supported by Agria, the company behind the UK's only lifetime equine insurance. Their mission is to raise the bar on horses' lifelong wellbeing and they offer up to £10,000 of vet fee cover, year after year - for life!
Their Horse of a Lifetime campaign celebrates the horses who enrich our lives. To find out more search for Agria Horse of a Lifetime, where you can enter on the Agria website, or catch up with Agria Equine on Instagram and Facebook.
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We wanted to find out a little bit more about Agria equine insurance because they have come on board with the eventing podcast. They have a brilliant message to share and I'm delighted to say Vicki Wentworth, Chief Executive of Agria UK is with me. Vicki, you can actually help me not just with my horse but my dog, my cat and my rabbit. - Yeah, that's right. So we are very keen to remain specialist. So we really only do small pet which is dog cat rabbit and equine. It's just really important to us, yeah. Our claims team are veterinary trained so they will be able to have a very knowledgeable conversation with you about most of the ailments that they see every day. Similarly, we are full of people who love pets and it's quite important that if you ring up as a customer, even to the customer service team or to the sales team or into the claims team that you're actually talking to people who have some empathy with what you're trying to impart or actually what you're going through. So, yeah, small pet and horses but, you know, super proud to be specialist and don't really want to spread ourselves any more thinly. - It sounds like what you're doing actually is working. So it makes perfect sense. (upbeat music) - So Nick Daphne in our Agria horse for a lifetime series is another Agria rider. In fact, Kirstie Schabert, who is your horse of a lifetime so far? - I think I'm going to have to choose opposition detectives. - Okay, see, I was really unsure as to where you were going to go with this and it's one of my favorite bits about this series. If there are so many different kind of stories, we've seen the first pony, we've seen the first five star horse, we've seen the kind of the current horse. So, introduces to opposition detective and I guess a little bit actually about kind of his backstory because I'm writing thinking that he was home wrapped by your dad. - Yeah, he was home bred by dad and I think dad's, isn't very good at remembering my birthday and my 18th birthday was fairly intimate and that decided that, well, we didn't decide, but realized he hadn't had a present for me. So he gave me opposition detective as my 18th birthday present, which was pretty epic. - How old was he? - He was born 2003, how old did he have been? - Oh gosh, I'm born in '88. - So you born '88? - '88. - Both, I love how both of us were frantically trying to do our maps. - Yeah, I'm not even sure if that's correct or not. - No, no, no, no, so I was born in 1990 and therefore I was 18 in 2008. - So he was three? - So he was three, there we go. - Yeah, we got there in the end. - We got there in the end, we were there and there about. - So, how'd you been kind of very much part of his early, early days? Were you there when he was born or what do you remember from him coming into the world? - I presume I was there when he was born. I can't actually remember the birth as such, but Dad has a way of naming, so he names all the folds when they're born and it's generally what he's been doing or watching on Telly at the time that they're born. So he's opposition detective and Inspector Barnaby, 'cause that's what he was watching on TV. I think it's 'Midsummer Murders' Inspector Barnaby. So his name, say my name was Barney and that's where the opposition detective came from. - Amazing. - Yeah, so he was just the most amazing horse. He was beautiful black, we're the white star. Literally your perfect oil painting of a horse and he did so much for me. - When he was born then, your dad bred and still, I think you imagine saying, still does breed horses? - Yeah, he does. So we're not, we don't breed a huge amount, but yet we're still definitely some folds on the ground. - And so what was always the plan with him before he realized that he hadn't got your 18th birthday present? Was he one that you were potentially always gonna keep people? Was it kind of actually fate that he stayed with you? - To be honest, I don't know. I presume seeing a dad very rarely sells anything. He was probably destined to stay. I had just finished school and had gone off to work in a catering company and the event management sort of decided that could I actually do, it was a good enough to do horses for a start full time. Didn't really know. So I went off to work in Kenya first, that winter, some of the birthdays of October. So I went to Kenya for a few months and worked in an orphanage and then did something else rather than horses. And then came sort of home at seven o'clock at night road. So very much I was a working person and rode to the four or five horses, either before work or after work. And then it got to the stage with dad and I sort of had a discussion and said, look, what do we do? We've got a bunch of young horses and it was always my mum's legacy and dads, to be honest, to give the horses a go really. So that's what we did. - At what point did you think actually that this was going to be like top level career because there's a massive journey from giving the young horses a go to actually competing at the very, very top of the sport. - Don't think I've really realized that yet, to be honest. I'm still trying to get to the top and every day. I don't think you ever stop learning and trying. So I don't, I kind of still think I'm an 18 year old kid trying to give horses a go, to be honest. - I've spoken like an absolute competitor though as well because actually you've had some brilliant results at the five-star level. You've been consistently at the five-star level, knocking on the door of big team selections and things like that. And actually always striving to be better, to take the next step. So I'm really interested in actually then how he shaped your career. So he very much has been with you throughout your kind of career and particularly was instrumental in the early stages of it. So from him coming to kind of officially be yours in inverted commas as a three-year-old, take us through the next steps in his career. And actually when you thought, do you know what this is a horse that could go all the way to the top of the sport? - I guess we didn't, I didn't have an idea of knowing if a horse could go all the way to the top initially. So we were kind of a blind leading the blind. Dad had obviously jumped and badminton and burly but long gone in the days of him being able to get on a horse to the school or do anything with it for me. So we kind of figured our way together. I remember as a just turned four-year-old taking him to great friends of ours over at Epsilon weight trying to get him into their water jump and it probably took us, I don't know, it was definitely dark by the time we left having crossed them into the water jump. I had another horse leading him in. I got off, I was in my riding boots trying to lead him in and then all of a sudden he just walked in and he never had a water issue ever again. He was second in the four-year-old finals. I think it used to be a tweezer down back then. And he sort of just did everything. He was never particularly careful but he was careful enough. He was incredibly brave. He moved beautifully and genuinely just the nicest boy in the world. And then the fifth year got a bit, he sort of did bits and pieces, he'd have a fence down or a couple of fences down, nothing particularly exciting. And I guess the turning point was probably when he was seven. I remember doing Barbra on him and thinking this is absolute ginormous. I'm on a horse that I don't know whether it's capable of doing it. And I think he jumped double clear there, which was amazing. And then went on to Lilion. And I guess the first taste of a big show was Lilion. And I had a run out with him. I think it was at the bottom of the house that he went down to a triple rush. And after that, I sort of had a bit of a mental block and terrified of heights and he looked back at all my pitches with him jumping down drops at Samir or anywhere else, basically my eyes were shut. So how was that? He said, "They need to jump the jump at the bottom of the hill if I used to shut my eyes at the top." So we had definitely had quite a few silly little mistakes on the way up, but he never once held a grudge against me. And we basically just learnt together. - Is that partly what made him so special? Is that kind of generosity apart? - I think, yeah. I mean, they don't come to have your first horse that you've broken and played around with to take you all the way up at such a rare, a rare partnership, isn't it? And it's such a bond between us. I feel like he's just sitting in a stable and just sitting in a stable, just because he could. - And did he love human companies? Was he very much sort of wanted to be with you? - Yeah, very much so, very affectionate horse. And I see he probably was a little bit meatier than I would have them now necessarily, but I guess when you'll spend all your time with them, yeah, he was a really cool character. Well, he's still around, he's still a cool character. - And does he still, do you still find yourself almost that kind of 18-year-old girl actually finding your partnership with him a little bit different in ways to your other top horses now? - No, you're still fine, I had girls who hate it and I'm mucking out 'cause you still find me spending hours chatting and fiddling around, cuddling them and doing things. So I'm basically not allowed to muck out 'cause it takes you long, which is fine by me. So no, I still think I'm an 18-year-old girl playing with horses in every way. - So he got the cuddles in the stable originally, but now they all get them. - Yeah, pretty much, yeah. - They all get the pleasure when the girls do let you do it. - Take us back to your sort of steps up the levels. You've done the Leon and then it's a case of okay, well, things are also progressing in the right direction. I think he did Bramham in 2014. So he'd have been what, a 13-year-old's then he jumped clear round Bramham, which would have been the first really big one that he did. Take us back to Bramham and actually he then went on to Blenham that year as well and did the same there. And that kind of first real taste for you at a really big event, big show, big cross-country course, big crowd. What was that like and how, as a partnership, did you reflect on it? - I think the biggest thing was trying to get all the qualifications in to get to that level. I think that was a big, I had friends coming with me to help me and we were very much, it wasn't the size and scale that we are now for sure. So you were just trying to feel your way around and look at these fences and they're, oh my God, these are huge, but nothing ever felt big on him. He just used to skip over the top of everything. And then Bramham, I'm pretty sure I had more time foods than I did my dresser school, the first time I had it. - Close, not quite close, 49.6 dresser, 43.2 time. But a double clear, double clear, come on. - I definitely enjoyed the scenery because I don't think I just very mean on breaking it up. So the idea of trying to go fast was not something I enjoyed. I'd still to this day wouldn't count myself as a fast rider. So I enjoyed the scenery, went for a nice hack around the park and I still got pictures on my phone of me and Barnaby going through the woods at Bramham. And I'm eating a brioche in the morning and just thinking, do you know what, this is incredible to be here. And I think the whole atmosphere, it was pretty sure it was a really, really wet year that year. So I remember a few slipping on the way back down after you came out of the coffin, you then go back down, you have that road crossing, which is a bit of a notorious place for a slip. So I think it was a wet year. And then we went on to Glenham, I think, in the autumn. And if I remember, I think we had about eight time faults, I probably should get it record up, but I think-- - No, you did, your memory is very good, 8.8. - Yeah. And I was ecstatic because I didn't think I was going much faster but Christopher Bartle obviously works for magic on me at some point, shaving off seconds here and there. And I was so excited to have 8.8 time faults. And I think he jumped clear round again in the show jumping thing. - He did. A couple of rails in the jumping. - A couple of rails in the jumping. So yeah, I can't, like he was just such a cool horse. - So from your sort of your Bramham, you get speedier at Glenham. The next year, it's the step up to five star. It's your first five star. It always feels like actually, I mean, you've immediately kind of gone, not a good year, but actually looking back, kind of that introduction, that first five star, even if it doesn't go into plan, does always have that slightly special moment, doesn't it? Because it's the moment you kind of head to, in this case, it was LaMoule and then he went on to Poe at the back end of the year. It was 2015. Yeah, actually he finished, I mean, he finished Poe with a top 20 finish. It was only LaMoule and that really didn't go to plan. What was it like actually getting to the five star with him? - So it wasn't an easy road with him. He did a lot of swimming with his fitness and he suffered, he had basically feet the same size as the 12th you pony. So our farrier, he's still my farrier now, was an absolute genius to keep him on the road. He used to get quarter cracked quite a lot. And I remember, basically, the farrier and I being with Barnaby about the whole week in the run up to LaMoule because he sprung a quarter crack and then had a small abscess and we were tubbing non-stop. And in hindsight, knowing what I know now, we probably shouldn't have driven out to LaMoule and we should have waited for the next go. But being the first, you've had a horse that was fit and ready to go with an abscess that was getting better and better by the day. So I did, so off Dad's Arthur, me and Wendell, we went to my old lorry, the old coach drove across Europe to LaMoule and trusted that really well. I think his dress belt is okay. And then I had a really early run out cross country and I thought, do you know what, this has had run outs in the past, but this is a bit different. So I walked home and thought, then I was a bit more sensible and rational in my head and said, you know what, there's another day, we'll go home, we regrouped and went down to post. And I think I definitely finished in the top 50%, which is what we need for the badminton qualification, take it through the badminton the next year. And then that was a really surreal experience to walk into those arches. And I remember asking where the stables were and somebody said, oh, they're just over there. I said, that was really kind, but where's over there? Oh, have you not been before? I'm like, no, no, it's my first time. And then it probably hit me that, you know, we've managed to bring a horse from a four-year-old, my first go at doing it up and I'm walking through the arches of badminton and he was awesome. I jumped the victory's V. I remember punching the air after I jumped the victory's V and I'm not somebody that would be very good at showing a huge amount of emotion. I find it difficult. And the elation at the end of that was incredible. His owner, he owned him with me, a lady called Denny Russell, had managed to make it there as well. So it was really special to have all of us there. And we finished winning the Lawrence Wryk Trophy for the first time, man. So he'll always go down in history. So I love that you didn't know the kind of the archway in the badminton stage because it feels like there's sort of kind of such an iconic part of the badminton experience. Badminton as a whole, obviously the vicarage V. I mean, I think most people listening to this would think they'd punch the air too if they jumped the vicarage V. Was, how much of it was kind of a childhood dream being realized at that point? - I think, yeah, we've all been there so many times when we were little and it probably, probably actually didn't really sink in for a very long time until it's taken me so long to try and get back to badminton after that that you realize how much we achieved and how incredible it was because it actually isn't that easy to get a horse to badminton. I think it may be, it all felt not easy. That's the wrong word, but it felt like it was a massive goal and we'd achieved it. And then there's a big weight until you can get there again. So it's really hard to put something like that into words to be quite honest. - What about your dance influence as well? - Because he's bred the horse and the rider to get to Five Star. How much does it mean to him to see you both at badminton and actually at Lemulam Poe the year before as well? - Yeah, I presume it meant the well to him. He's a man of very few words and now he'll do often hide. I'll see him at a random point on the course where there's no jump and there's just a galloping stretch and you'll just hear this boy's bellowing overall see him up by the string clapping and now I've had Henry, I can appreciate how hard it is to have somebody love galloping and ground knowing the risks that might happen, but how incredibly proud you are that they're doing something that they loved. And at the end of the day, I'm doing now my childhood dream as my job every day. - And what about the influence of fleet water opposition? Because that is who diet, fleet water detective, and he has tired other horses that you have gone on to compete. You've got some in your yard now that you're very excited about for the future. What did he give those horses? And particularly Barney and detective that actually you can see then in other of his offspring? - They're completely different to anything else that I've written before. We've got the other stallions are all sons of him and they all have their own traits that fleet water opposition are tight 'cause he's known at home. They're the most intelligent, quick thinking, brave horses that actually they are out and out four and five star horses. They wouldn't be particularly, they wouldn't have the stimulation staying at the lower levels. They almost want the challenge of the more complicated movements and the more complicated questions, their brains are so active and quick thinking and they're just beautiful stamped of horses. They stand out every single one of the oppositions. You'll see they have huge, great big ears and you could tell them a mile off purely but look at it there is. And I think the young, we've had the big gap of not having any fleet water opposition one because we've had the youngest stallions that we've used and having, so I've got opposition, her out at girl is a fleet water opposition one and she's 12 and she's coming through. You can actually really now feel, if I had Barney again now, what everything that he taught me and the other ones have taught me to this date, I'd love to turn back time and go again. So it's really exciting to have a line and that I know a little bit about and if I can improve on half of it, it would be really exciting. - I love that. I also find it so interesting because actually with this series in particular and so many top riders that talk about their partnership with their first horse that took them to the top of the five star, whatever it may be, there's often this kind of underlying thread of, if I could go back and with what I know now, do it again, what could we achieve? But there's also this kind of, actually our naivety and kind of mutual naivety because neither of you knew any better at that stage. I actually played two or advantage at times. Is that fair? - That's 100% fair. Yeah, you didn't know anything so you just gave everything a go. - Favorite memories of him? What's down there? What do you look back on and you're most kind of proud of? - I think being in the prize-giving at badminton was pretty special and probably he, after we retired him, he went on to go to my farrier son and did techs and they won the Open Tech Boys championships. And I think that's pretty cool that he was at five star and then Freddy took him on and was able to do slip rails and gates and go and help Fred achieve his dream of doing the Tech Open. Anyone that side? - That's very cool. - Yeah, he was really cool. - What made him your horse for lifetime? Obviously, as I put the disclaimer out there, there could be more horse for lifetime. It's always a tough decision. But what was it about him, sum him up for us that set him apart in your mind? - I think he gave me the opportunity to see what event he was about and he gave me a taste of the five stars and a taste of being at the top of the sport. And for sure, there are definitely horses in the yard now that have gone on to achieve much better competition results than he and I managed to do. But without him, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. - I love that. So who else was in contention and actually who could be in contention if we record this show again in 10 years time? - I think classic and my little rocket opposition around it go for two very different reasons, but I think they asked me again in a few years. - I feel like we'll be doing a series too. Given a few years time, we'll come back and do a take too. But it is interesting, isn't it? Because there's so many different angles on which people can take, first pony, first five star horse, whatever it may be. What next with the two horses that you've just mentioned there in particular? - We've just tried to have a bit of a quieter mid-season. There's not a huge amount on at the moment. Classic went very well the other day in Ireland. The wonderful star shorts out there. So August is just staying at home. Henry's on some holidays and actually to spend a bit of time being a mum is quite important to me at the moment as well. So both that aim for pose, I think, for the end of the season. We'll do a few things September, beginning of October and then head down to both. - Watch this face. Kirsty, thank you so much for giving us an insight into opposition detectives and actually how much he's kind of influenced your career. What's the biggest thing he's taught you? - That's the biggest thing he's taught me. I could be cheesy and say if you dream it, go out and get it. - Oh, we like cheese. Like a bit of cheese. That's okay. That's how to find. - Or you also taught me a lot of patience and just taking your time, maybe not 41 time thoughts around the four star. That was quite another time. - That's quite an achievement. If you think about it, to be fair. - Yeah, it is great achievement. I think if I did that again now, dad probably wouldn't be very impressed. But yeah, there's too many things really that you taught me. - I like those things to be fair. Patience is, I think, a key, key, key attribute for any walk of life, you know, whether it be as a top rider, whether it be as a parent, whatever it may be, patience is absolutely key. Kirsty, thank you so much. He sounds like a brilliant character and enjoy those pedals in his stable and passing over him. - Thank you very much.
