The Stars Aligned For Jimmie Schramm and Eclaire

While Jimmie Schramm walked the Five Points Horse Trials Advanced cross-country course on foot, she was envisioning every stride she’d ride later that day. 

She eyed a tough section early on course which had a handful of ditch combinations in a row. But Jimmie knew just how to ride it. 

“I knew I was going to be fine because I knew her,” she said of her partner, Eclaire, a 10-year-old German Sport Horse mare Jimmie brought home from Europe six years ago as a prospect.

The pair would finish 7th in their first Advanced run together. It’s the first time Jimmie had returned to the top level of the sport since she competed Bellamy, her Advanced mount who took her to the Kentucky Three-Day Event for the first time in 2015. 

Being back “feels pretty damn good,” Jimmie said. But it’s been a long climb to get here. 

It’s no easy feat to take a young, green horse and bring it up the levels. And that’s if nothing goes wrong.

It’s more common for professionals in the sport to take a promising young horse with a good record at the Preliminary level and keep moving up than it is to start all the way from the bottom, Jimmie said. That’s because it’s a lot faster to develop an upper-level horse that way. 

“A lot of the pros need horses in their arsenal, so that’s what they need to do,” Jimmie explained. “But there are plenty of riders who have young horses and start them. What’s interesting is how many people start with horses with loads of potential and just don’t make it to the top for one reason or another. Something happens, they get injured, or sold on or maybe just don’t have the desire to go to that level.”

But the stars aligned for Jimmie and Eclaire. 

Love Connection

In 2016, Jimmie began her search for her next partner, just as her current Advanced horse Bellamy, an Oldenburg gelding, was beginning to slow down in his competition career. Her budget was tight, but with the help of a friend, Ashley Kehoe, in Germany, Jimmie found a sporty, leggy young mare in a sales barn. 

Eclaire was a 4-year-old at the time and was freshly started. 

“She looked a lot like Bellamy,” Jimmie recalled of the bay mare with a blaze. She liked her lean body type, which she described as “like a greyhound,” and her stand-out movement. 

So Jimmie arranged to have the mare properly vetted while she booked a trip to Germany to go try her in person. Fellow eventer and friend Jenni Autry, traveled with her. But before Jimmie ever put a foot on the ground in Germany, she got a call that there was a potential buyer interested in the mare. It was Chris Burton, the Australian eventer. 

“I knew then I had to get there and that if I loved this horse I was going to have to move quickly!” Jimmie said. 

It was a love connection the first time Jimmie swung a leg over her back. While the mare was still quite green, she showed great promise. With the support of Mark Bellissimo, Jimmie was able to secure the ride on Eclaire and ship her home to Pennsylvania. 

The Long Road

Jimmie took her time developing Eclaire, bringing her up through the Young Event Horse program. She enlisted the help of her husband, Dom, and fellow pros Boyd Martin and Show Jumper Richard Picken along the way. 

“It took a long time for us to figure things out. I knew she was never going to be a horse trials warrior, that’s just not her design,” Jimmie said. “She’s meant to be a long-format FEI type.” 

Eclaire has a huge stride, making her jump especially hard to manage as the young mare continued to develop in her body and training. Show jumping was the hardest phase for the pair in the beginning. “She was really convinced that the best way was to go as fast as she could the last couple strides before the jump,” Jimmie described. 

Some judges loved Eclaire and some didn’t, as they moved up the ranks. 

“It took a long time – and even still now, we work on rideability constantly,” Jimmie said. “I trotted jumps on this horse through Training and Prelim. She would just bolt.” 

But Eclaire always had what it takes to get around cross-country. 

During the pandemic, Jimmie took the downtime to further invest in the mare’s development. Eclaire went to Wellington to spend time in training with Grand Prix dressage rider Nicholas Fyffe. 

“It was the first time I’d been away from her for an extended period of time, and let someone else ride her,” Jimmie recalled. But the decision to do so would pay off. Jimmie described this time as a “big turning point” for the mare’s career. 

Nicholas taught the mare, who was built to run and jump, to sit and lighten in a half-halt. He taught her to be more engaged and more off the leg in every way. 

So Jimmie and Eclaire kept going. They logged several two-star runs and a few three-star longs. “Not a lot of people would have done that,” Jimmie explained. “I could have gone on and bumped up to Advanced just fine. But it’s always better to have done one extra than to have not done enough and end up with a problem.” 

Then it came time to enter an Advanced. Eclaire rocked it around the cross-country course at Five Points with just a bit of time. A few weeks later, Jimmie and Eclaire ran Advanced at Tryon, where they finished fourth. 

“Getting a horse to Advanced is one of the greatest and hardest and longest things I’ve ever had to do,” she said. “When I got Bellamy there, it was a dream come true. We got to Rolex and I fell off five jumps from home. That is the reason pushing me toward this whole thing again – to get back there and get that five-star monkey off my back.” 

“It’s pretty great knowing it’s just me and her,” Jimmie added. “I’ve had a lot of help along the way, but the coolest part is knowing her so well.”

Featured photo by Cindy Lawler