Made
In Britain
While
most breeders strive for a lifetime to produce a superstar, farmers Chris and
Janet Gooch bred dual Kentucky winner and Olympic silver medalist Winsome Adante
during their first and only attempt at breeding an event horse.
They tell
their extraordinary story to
Julie Harding
This
story is re-produced with permission of Julie Harding,
the
Editor of Eventing Magazine.
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Up
until quite recently the story of the breeding of dual Kentucky winner and Olympic
silver medal winning horse Winsome Adante remained a mystery. Look up his details
on the FEI website and the category marked 'breeding' still states enigmatically
'unknown'.
As
Winsome Adante, who is ridden for the United States by Kim Severson, began to
draw notice to himself by winning three day events, all most people knew about
him was that he was bred in Britain and was by the former winning racehorse Saunter.
After that the trail of information went cold.
In 2001, the year he won
Blenheim, someone from Sport Horse Breeding (GB) traced his breeders, Staffordshire
farmers Chris and Janet Gooch. Since then the accolades have started
to trickle in and Chris and Janet's comfortable new redbrick bungalow near Cambridge
houses a small collection of breeders' awards.
On
the wall in the dining room, next to a picture of a day old Winsome Adante ("Danny")
and his mother Justwith Genoa ("Tyi"), there are two certificates from
the World Breeding Rankings for sport horses in both 2001 and 2002. The cabinet
in the lounge contains two silver cups awarded to the breeders of the winning
horse at Kentucky, one still wrapped in cellophane.
"I
keep the cups in the cabinet so I don't have to dust them. At the farm I had so
many brasses that it took me a whole day to clean them," laughs Janet.
While professional horse breeders often spend a lifetime trying to breed
a superstar through endless study of bloodlines, the good natured Gooches struck
lucky the first and only time they tried to breed an event horse thanks to some
advice from a horsey friend and an ample helping of gut feeling.
Wanting
to put the mare Tyi, a present from Chris to Janet who had always wanted a horse
of her own, in foal, the couple visited a number of Staffordshire studs looking
for the right stallion.
"As
soon as I saw Saunter I fell in love with him," says Janet. "His temperament
and looks were faultless and really he was just a bigger version of our own mare.
She was just 15.2hh and we thought at the time that she would be too small to
produce anything of note."
Janet,
a passionate animal lover who has never ridden due to a severe allergy to horses,
had joked to her daughter, Sarah, before the mating that she was going to breed
an event horse. At the time, Sarah was based with event rider Antonia Gray (now
Brown) to get the grounding she needed for a career with horses.
As
for Tyi, she had come from Janet's horsey friend Marian, who bred her by Bohemond.
Tyi arrived at the Gooches 400-year-old farmhouse near Litchfield when she was
six months old. She was sent away to be broken, after which Sarah rode her in
a few showing classes.
At
the age of four, Tyi was put in foal and Danny was born during the morning of
6 April 1993, just as the Gooches, who had been keeping a close eye on their mare
throughout the night, popped back indoors to make themselves a cup of tea.
The
new foal was given the prefix "Winsome", just like all the other various
horses and ponies the Gooches had bred over the years, and Chris Gooch always
rated the young Danny, who spent his formative years running with a herd of cows.
"We
would call him to come in with a bucket of food and on the way he would jump over
a log and ditch. When he was three, he jumped out of a field over a water trough
and a five-bar gate. I couldn't understand how he got over it untl I saw him jump
back," says Chris.
When
Winsome Adante was four, Sarah backed him and passed him on to a friend, Sarah
Harrison, to event. Danny finished seventh at Aston-le-Walls during his first
pre-novice run, and runner -up on his second outing at the now defunct Withcite
Hall.
Sarah found Danny brave, bold and the kind of horse who listened
carefully to her instructions - in fact, he was everything anyone could want in
an event horse. She rated him so highly that she purchased him from Chris and
Janet Gooch, but shortly afterwards he was talent-spotted at an event and sold
to Linda Wachtmeister in the States for Kim Severson to ride.
"He
certainly fell into the right hands. He has everything a breeder could wish for,"
says Janet. "It gives us a lot of pleasure knowing what he has done and where
he is."
Fate played a part in the fact that Janet Gooch never sent
Tyi back to Saunter, for the stallion died shortly after siring Winsome Adante
and the Gooches loaned their mare to a local girl for riding. There was also another
reason for giving up breeding horses.
"It
always worried me where they went when they left the farm," says Janet. It
took me ages to find the right home for Tyi."
As
they packed their bags and prepared to leave Staffordshire, Janet put Tyi on the
market and visited seveal studs in order to find her best home. Now at the Future
Sport Horse Stud, Tyi recently produced a filly foal and is currently in foal
to the late Rock King.
The
Gooches, meanwhile, have yet to see Winsome Adante contesting a major event and
the only time they have glimpsed him recently was on TV at the Athens Olympics.
The
couple keep in touch with his progress via Jane Atkinson, Kentucky's event director,
but they have never spoken to Kim Severson or Linda Wachtmeister - they have Kim's
number, but have never called - although they would clearly love to do so, and
they also have a hankering to go and see where Danny is living in the States,
but how would they react?
"I
cried when I saw him on TV," laughs Janet. I can't imagine how I would cope
if I saw him for real. I think it would be all too much."
Winsome
Adante's Achievements:
2004
- Individual silver medal and team bronze Athens Olympics,
1st Lexington CCI****, 2nd Chatsworth (USA) CIC***
2003
- 2nd Chatsworth (USA) CIC***
2002
- 6th and team gold World Equestrian Games, 1st Chatsworth
CCI***, 1st Kentucky CCI****
2001
- 1st Blenheim CCI***, 2nd Atlanta CCI***
2000
- 1st Radnor CCI**
eventingetc
thanks
Eventing Magazine for
permission to reprint this article and suggests our readers would enjoy the great
information available in Eventing Magazine. Cora
C. Cushny, Editor
