Moving to the USA in 2019 to work for Catherine Haddad Staller, Australian dressage rider Hope Beerling found herself partnered with a young grey mare named Vianne. Four years later, and the pair are in contention for a possible start at the 2023 FEI WBFSH World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses.
“I do think Vianne has what
it takes to be an Olympic horse.”
“I’m so excited to see where this horse ends up because she is trainable, rideable, consistent and powerful! She’s definitely a serious horse for the future,” says 23-year-old Hope Beerling of Vianne, a seven-year-old mare by Vitalis out of a Ramiro’s Bube dam.
Hope has known the horse since she broke her in as a three-year-old and has trained her through the levels under the expert eye of renowned American Grand Prix rider Catherine Haddad Staller, who bred the mare.
“We’re doing all the seven-year-old classes and she’s consistently scoring 76% for the test and 83% for her gaits. Our immediate goal is to get her to Ermelo (for the 2023 FEI WBFSH World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses, 3-6 August),” explains Hope.
Late last month, the pair travelled to the Mid-Atlantic Dressage Festival at Virginia Horse Centre, where they contested the CDI-YH Seven-Year-Old classes. Although they were the only combination in the Preliminary Test and Final, they achieved very impressive scores of 74.414% and 77.771% – thereby achieving the qualifying scores needed to have a shot at Australian team selection for Ermelo.
To be considered for selection, seven-year-old overseas based horses must have a minimum of one performance of at least 70% at a CDI-YH. As was the case last year, FEI rules stipulate that Australia is only able to send one combination in each age category, with preference given to homebred (Australian-bred) horses – however, overseas-bred horses with Australian riders may compete if no qualified homebred horses enter. At present, American-bred Vianne has the highest score of any seven-year-old eligible to compete for Australia; a decision regarding the Nominated Entries will be made by the Equestrian Australia National Dressage Selectors in late June.
“Every day at (the Mid-Atlantic Dressage Festival) Vianne got better and better and stronger and stronger!” says Hope. “She was an absolute superstar and is just so consistent every time we go down the centreline. By the final day we pulled off one of the best tests we’ve ever done. We received some very positive comments and scores including a 9 for trot, with the judge commenting on how much fun it was to judge and how powerful the horse is. We ended the competition on an 82.4% for her gaits and 73.143% for the technical.”
All going well, Hope is planning to travel to Europe with Vianne in July and base in Germany or Denmark for a month before Ermelo. Her next goal is to then try and find a syndicate for Vianne, who is currently owned by NorCordia – an equine investment company cofounded and owned by Catherine Haddad Staller in conjunction with Denmark’s Ulrik Clemmensen – so she can continue the strong partnership she’s built over the past four years with the mare. “I do think Vianne has what it takes to be an Olympic horse and help get Australia near the top of the sport,” says Hope.
The other special horse Hope currently works with is Morocco. “He’s a six-year-old that I’ve been developing over the last eight months, and he is very naturally talented. A super, super horse. He may in the long run be a better horse. I’m not sure, but right now Vianne has all the quality to be an Olympic mount. Those two are very special.”
SHOW RING TO THE STATES
With an older sister who rode, Hope was born in the saddle on the family farm in Cooroy, Queensland, and started her competitive career at age six in the show ring. “I rode a lot of ponies and then I went obviously onto the galloways and the hacks,” explains Hope of her childhood with horses. She enjoyed success in the showing world, and with New World Riverman, Hope was named the 2016 Australian Reserve Champion Rider 15-17 Years and Reserve Champion Childrens Show Hunter Hack.
“When I was 15, my mum bought me my first warmblood, so I decided that I would start dressage… I fell in love with the sport,” she explains. Next came a four-year-old warmblood, Remi Down Under, who Hope says was tricky as a young horse but went on to became quite good, and together they went through the levels from four-year-old classes to almost Prix St Georges. They were on the Queensland Young Rider Squad for four years running.
At age 20, Hope decided she wanted to see what the sport of dressage had to offer on a broader scale, and so she began looking for jobs at stables in the United States.
“I applied for and got a job, and it was while we were finalising contracts I was told that Catherine Haddad Staller had just advertised a position and I was asked if I was interested.” Catherine, an American dressage rider and trainer who was formerly based in Germany for nearly 20 years, is a top Grand Prix competitor with many well-known horses over her career, competing on American teams and at multiple FEI World Cup Finals among other achievements.
“I looked at the advert, and it was a young horse position, and I thought, ‘That’s what I’m known for, and I’m quite capable at doing that’ so I applied,” says Hope. “I had an interview with Catherine ten minutes after applying, and she said, ‘When can you be here?’ I had to get my passport renewed, but I said I could be there within a month.”
A month later, Hope arrived at Catherine’s stables in New Jersey and stayed for three months, during which time she broke in Vianne. With all parties satisfied, she went home and applied for her visa to then make a permanent move in December 2019 – just months before the pandemic hit.
“It was a very emotional time.”
“It was very hard because my first six months here I thought, ‘Oh my God, do I need to be here? Do I go home? When will I see my family again?’ So it was a very emotional time.” However, Hope rode the wave and four years later she’s not only still working and training with Catherine and her team – spending the winters in Wellington, Florida, and the summers in New Jersey – but also of course still riding the beautiful Vianne.
NATIONS CUP
Moving to America has also given Hope her first taste of riding on an Australian team. In the US, FEI Nations Cup dressage events often allow for Small Tour and Big Tour combinations to form a team – and as such, Hope has been fortunate enough to compete for Australia on a Nations Cup team in 2021 and then again this year at Wellington as part of the Global Dressage Festival.
“The team was great; we had Jemma Heran and Total Recall (Big Tour) and Sally Lofting and Quinlan CF (Small Tour) on the team, with Catherine (Haddad Staller) as the Chef d’Equipe. It was a very wonderful week, and it was very supportive. We actually had uniforms this year, which was nice… it was really lovely to be receiving that support from Australia!”
Hope rode Small Tour horse Uno Elando in the Nations Cup. “Two months before the competition, he was only a fourth level horse, which is Advanced, and we were like, ‘Okay, we’ll just go and do a one star and get our scores for Nations Cup’. And so he was a little green at the level and struggled a little in the tempis, but by Freestyle day we did a very clean test and we were rewarded quite highly with 72.5%. Everyone saw him and were like, ‘Oh my God, we need that horse!’”
As it turns out, Hope and Uno Elando made such an impression that the horse was sold just after the event.
HARD WORK BUT WORTH IT
“If a young rider is thinking of moving overseas to work and train, I think they should do it… but they need to be ready to work hard. The first three years of me being here was probably some of the toughest moments I’ve ever been through,” says Hope. “You’re working long days, six days a week; you definitely have to love it. But if you’re thinking of doing it, I say do it, because the sport here and in Europe is so much more developed.”
With nearly four years under her belt, Hope is clearly enjoying her time in the US and appreciates the quality horses she’s riding and the training she receives. Travelling halfway around the world to work with horses certainly isn’t for everyone, but for those whose hearts are in it, the learning opportunities and experience gained is invaluable. For Hope, the opportunity to partner with a horse like Vianne is icing on the cake: “It’s very nice to have that connection with a horse that you’ve ridden from the beginning… and now the horse is showing Olympic qualities, it’s very rewarding.” EQ
