When the COVID-19 shutdown pretty much put the brakes on cross-border travel between Canada and the US, some Canadian riders chose to stay in the States and ride out the pandemic, so to speak. One of those is Jacqueline Steffens, a 26-year-old native of Harriston, Ontario. The talented veteran of four North American Young Riders Championships moved up to the CSI3* level this summer with a select group of nice horses including Cat Ninja and Flying Dachshund, formerly campaigned by Andy Kocher. and a 10-year-old KWPN gelding with the intriguing name Freaky Liefhebber (‘Freaky’), owned by Steffens’ Double C Stables.
With her 2020 competition schedule already seeing her travel between Wellington (FL), Lexington (KY), Traverse City (MI) and most recently Columbus (OH), this young athlete shows no signs of coming home to roost any time soon.
Where are you currently living?
During the shutdown this spring, I stayed in Wellington at the home farm. Since then, I’ve been on the road, traveling from show to show. The horses get rotated and get to go home (Minnesota) for a few weeks at a time between their shows, but I’ve been at a horse show nearly every week since June.
Who are you training with?
In 2019, I moved to the US and have been riding for some excellent owners. I’ve been fortunate to be working with a string of horses that consists of a couple established grand prix horses, as well as bringing along some really exciting younger horses that I believe will make it to the top of the sport. In addition, I am training with Paul O’Shea of Ireland (currently ranked 46th in the world rankings, on the gold medal team at the 2019 Nations Cup Finals and silver individually.)
Give us a recap of your successes this summer.
Freaky and I have been showing in international ranking classes all summer. At Traverse City, we jumped clear and placed in the top 10 in five of six consecutive FEI ranking classes. All of these classes were very competitive, sometimes with more than 100 entries! Freaky jumped his first-ever 3* at Traverse City in July and he was clear and placed in both his classes that week. I was thrilled with how easily he stepped up and handled the 1.50m FEI level.
Another highlight, from the winter was at the Palm Beach Masters 2* where he placed 2nd, 3rd and 6th that week, jumping clear in all his classes.
Tell us a bit about Freaky.
He’s a 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Darco. We purchased him almost three years ago from Francois Mathy. He was pretty green, having only shown 1.30m a couple of times, but we saw the potential there. I actually never even tried him, we bought him off a video and the recommendation by Mark Hayes, who scouted Freaky. (I trained with Mark for most of my Young Riders career and continued to work with him while I was in Canada, starting my career as a young professional).
Freaky has been a great horse to develop. He continues to step up and exceed expectations. He is that very rare and special type of horse who is absolutely brave and will not stop at a jump under any circumstances, yet is also very careful and rarely has a careless rail down.
What’s he like in the barn?
He’s very friendly and snuggly. Maybe a tiny bit pushy about treats, but only because everyone in the barn spoils him just a little bit too much! He’s pretty laid back when he knows we’re just flatting, but has a lot of blood and gets really excited about jumping.
What has it been like showing in the US with the Covid protocols?
The show jumping community has done a very good job taking sensible precautions for Covid. It seems that the vast majority of equestrians understand that in order to continue doing what we love and what our livelihoods depend on, we need to be careful and do everything we can to keep each other safe. (In contrast to the rest of America, where that is definitely not always the case).
Protocols at every show I’ve been to include mandatory temperature checks for entry to the show, wearing a mask at all times unless you are on a horse, wearing gloves to set warm-up jumps, and enforced social distancing. Show officials occasionally have to remind people, but for the most part the new protocols have simply become habit.
Covid has also impacted the field of competitors in an interesting way. With the cancellation of all 5* shows and with increased travel restrictions, a lot of top European and American riders who would normally go to Europe for some or all of the summer have chosen to stay in America. The result has been even higher numbers of entries and a higher concentration of top horses and riders at any given show.
What are your future plans?
My biggest goal for 2021 with Freaky is to get on a Nations Cup team. As a junior and young rider, I represented Canada four times at the North American Young Rider Championships. With our consistent results, I now hope to represent Canada at the senior level when Nations Cups resume.
With some of the other horses, I look forward to stepping them up to the FEI international classes. A few of the young ones are just about ready to step up, having jumped consistently very well in 1.40 national classes.
After the next couple of shows, I’ll head back to Wellington, where the horses will enjoy some down time before beginning to train and gear up for WEF.
