Optima Sport Horses

PRODUCTION AT ITS BEST

Optima Sport Horses is a collection of imported and locally bred warmbloods being produced, marketed and sold in South Africa. HQ was fortunate enough to catch up with Amy Engelbrecht, who heads the Optima Team, to find out more about this exciting project. HQ: Could you tell us a bit about some of the horses you own and what made you choose them? Amy: Currently, we have 11 horses backed and in work, and this year all of them have officially entered the show circuit. We have Optima La Conda, an Oldenburg mare who was imported from Ireland six years ago. She is an older mare, but she still loves to work and jump, so we keep her in the open grades where she is often in the tickets and keeps our rider, Ashley Fox, active in the bigger classes.

We then have three horses from Callaho stud, Chivello, Lebanon and Con Catch Me. Chivello is a 6-year-old gelding by Chiletto. He was purchased on the first Online Auction, selected by Deirdre Fox on a 'gut feeling' from his videos; he will most likely be our next horse to reach the open grades. Con Catch Me was selected by myself, and he is our youngest Callaho at four years old. I was impressed by his modern, athletic body and saw his relation to Lisa Williams' Warrangal P, of whom I was always a huge fan.

He has just debuted in the 1 metre classes and has one of the easiest temperaments in the barn. We hope to have him jump the Derby one day, just like Warrangal. Lebanon was purchased by my dad, Karl, as a surprise. All of us admired him online but never planned to bid that year. Our head groom, Wiseman was especially delighted as he has dreamed of having a Lissabon progeny in the barn for many years. Lebanon is easily one of the most beautiful and elegant youngsters; he has all of the ingredients to be a top horse across multiple disciplines.

We then have two youngsters from Capital Stud. Rufina, by the late, great Rendement was purchased in 2021 with plans to produce her into a fantastic junior horse. She is spunky and very rideable. She has already won plenty of classes in the lower grades and is moving up into the 1.10s. Quality, or 'Blue' as he is affectionately known is our older Capital horse. We purchased him at the live auction the same year we bought Rufina. We went to the auction as a team with plans to buy Rufina, but my dad saw Blue and couldn't resist. Blue is by Zirrocco Blue, so as a longtime admirer of Mr Blue, Karl was eager to take him home with us. His huge personality has made him an interesting project, but we were patient with him and believe him to be a hugely promising young horse.

We have three young mares that we purchased on online auctions overseas. Misslanta (to read more about Misslanta, have a look at our previous 'Mare of the Month' article) was purchased from Horse Auction Belgium, and Cabatola and Miss Contha Quick from Schokemohle. We selected these mares mainly because we were very excited about their bloodlines. We are very proud to have youngsters related to great horses like Balou du Rouet, Chin Chin, Conthargos, Messenger and Stakkato. They all came unbacked as four-year-olds, so it has been an incredibly rewarding journey to have backed them and produced them

completely on our own. My dad and I selected these youngsters ourselves. Karl especially enjoys researching top bloodlines, but honestly, we usually just watch the videos together and go with our intuition. Although my dad has never ridden or competed, he is passionate about show jumping and has an incredible eye for selecting young horses.

Finally, we have two young horses who were bred and born here at home with us. A gelding by Rendement and a mare by Hummer, both out of our own 'Jus de Pomme' mare. Both of these horses are very brave, all-rounders, so we plan to invest time into producing them for other disciplines as well. We have an event rider, Erin Purrl, on our team who will be eventing them this year.

HQ: How do you manage to keep so many horses in work and competing? Do you have a team of riders? Amy: We are fortunate to have an incredible team at Optima that produce these horses and keep them in top condition. Wiseman is our head groom and stable manager. He has been with us for over ten years and has travelled all over the county competing with us since I was on ponies. He is also a kind and capable rider, so he helps a lot with backing young horses, warming up at shows and doing fitness work. Our senior work rider is Ashley Fox. Ashley is a freelance work rider and long-time friend who spends much of her time riding and competing our horses. She is an elegant, empathetic rider with tremendous feel who has experience riding horses at all levels. Erin Purrl is a rider who has been instrumental in the backing of our horses. She has many years of experience working at Rivervale Stud and is studying to become a vet, so we are incredibly grateful to have a horsewoman of her calibre working with us. Reine Marshall is the newest member of our team. Reine works full-time as a work rider but has showjumped competitively all her life. Reine is a young, talented, and ambitious rider who we cannot wait to see competing at the top of the sport on our horses.

I live at home on the property in Summerveld so every day I am responsible for ensuring that each of the horses is worked according to a programme that we create weekly for the entire string. All of our horses receive a mixture of flatwork, jumping schooling, fitness hacking, and recovery or conditioning work in our water walker. We also work with showjumping coach Deirdre Fox to fine-tune their jumping; Jonathan Wisdom, who coaches us in dressage; and Zecks Samu, who works with each horse and schools them in Parelli and natural horsemanship to give them a broad, balanced, and fun education.

HQ: You obviously have a lot of young horses. Could you tell us about how you bring them on and your training philosophy regarding working with youngsters specifically and horses in general? Amy: Our training philosophy revolves around a few simple principles. We love the horse first and the sport second. We want to produce secure, confident, and happy horses who enjoy what they do, whether that be in the ring or anywhere else. Our production is never rushed as we work with each horse at their own pace; we have no issue giving our young horses a few months off or focusing on their basic foundations instead of pushing them into competition. Although each member of our team has unique experience and knowledge, none of us is afraid to learn along with our horses, so we are always eager to learn from other horsemen and women and discover new ways to add to their education. Each of our riders and all of our staff take time to train our horses and befriend them on the ground and in hand until they get to know us and are comfortable to start taking aids from us. I'm very proud to say that all our youngsters are friendly, well-mannered and enjoy being around people. We like to focus on reward, praise, and other positive reinforcement, keeping it fun and interesting for horse and human. The horses are also exposed to as many new experiences as possible, each at their own pace, of course. We take them to different venues, work on different going, let them play over cross country jumps, work in water, and go for gallops to boost their confidence and make them versatile.

HQ: Your horses' show records have been quite impressive. How do you prepare them for their shows? When do you take them to their first show? Amy: To prepare a horse for his first show is a process that begins many months in advance. When we, as a team, feel that a horse is showing confidence and pleasure in their jumping at home, we begin to add more to their workload. We expose them to 'trickier' challenges at home, including water trays, fillers and basic combinations, until they are completely at ease. We then will make efforts to take them to new places, whether it be to friend's properties or to a show venue where they spend a few hours working and acclimating to a new place without any pressure. If the horse can absorb all this new information without stress or regression, then we enter them into a show, usually a recreational or training class. A horse's first show is a day where we prepare as fully as possible but hold no expectations. The aim is to make the experience positive and rewarding and as I mentioned before, if the horse finds it stressful or unpleasant, we have no qualms about taking a few steps back until they are ready. Nobody ever ruined a horse by going too slowly! HQ: What made you want to start Optima? Amy: Creating' Optima' was a decision we took as a family. I lost two of the best open horses I may ever have to injury, which left a huge void in my life. I desperately wanted to compete again in the higher grades but finding the right open horse proved to be a difficult task. After searching locally and overseas, I still couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I decided to try to create it myself instead. I decided that instead of searching for a going horse that would suit me and that I could trust, I would buy a youngster and start from scratch, hopefully producing a horse and instilling the qualities in them that I was looking for. The rest is history. During this time, I learned to fall in love with the process rather than the results. I was no longer obsessed with jumping a 1.50 class again; instead, I was learning more than ever, becoming a better horsewoman, and finding an entirely new passion for the sport and the animal itself. My parents saw the joy that this was bringing me and started to take an interest in young horses and the fantastic bloodlines that we could access. We decided together that we would build a string of horses

that we were passionate about and could add something exciting to the South African showjumping circuit. As the string grew, we started to add riders to the team to help me produce, compete, and market them.

HQ: How did you get into horses? What has your history been with horses? Amy: I come from a non-horsey family, so none of us is entirely sure what sparked my interest, but horses have become a passion for the entire family. I went to my first Easter Festival at 11-years-old in the 80cm and haven't stopped competing since. As I showed more and more commitment to the sport, my parents completely embraced it as well; to this day, almost 20 years later, they never miss the opportunity to watch me compete.

HQ: What are the general plans for Optima going forward? Amy: 'Optima' was initially formed as a passion project with the aim to learn about young horses and hopefully reach the top of the sport again. As our first horses started to arrive, we soon realised that we had the resources to add more horses to the string and potentially produce some of them for sale. As I mentioned, 'Optima' is, first and foremost, a passion project but now with hopes to produce horses that people will want to purchase for themselves as well. Our riders and team have tremendous love for and connection to each of our horses and take the utmost care in producing them. We want to help each horse reach his full potential, whether as a junior horse, speed horse, open horse, or even a 1.50m horse. We do not consider ourselves a dealing yard, so we don't believe in selling any of our horses before we feel confident that they will move on to the next rider and continue to flourish and have a successful career. This being said, we would love to see some of our horses leave us and continue to represent us with new riders, hopefully all over the country. For the rest of the year, we are going to be completely focused on furthering our horses' education, building their strength and gaining exposure for them. From 2023 we will have more active plans to market and sell them. However, we do not plan on doing so in the traditional manner. Halfway through next year, we plan to announce which of the horses will be available on the open market and for what price. Of course, if offers are made before this time, they will be considered. We will then dedicate a period, up to two months, where potential buyers are able to book a trial with any horse they would like to try. We hope that this will be a fun and different experience for prospective buyers, and an exciting showcase of what we have to offer. We plan to sell our horses as experienced, competitive six and seven-year-olds, where people can observe their entire competitive history and purchase a quality open horse that was produced right here in South Africa.

TAYLOR VAN DER BURGH CATINKA 31 AND LARGO S

I’m currently competing in the 1.20m on my gelding and mare. My short term goals are to get myself and my horses stronger and to be more consistent in my riding. My long term goals will be to get my gelding back to the open grades and to get my mare to the open grades.