THIS year will undoubtedly be remembered as the year that several international equine stars, from Casall Ask to Cedric and Cortes C, retired. Most recently, British show jumping fans bade farewell to Nick Skelton’s Rio Olympics individual gold medal winner Big Star at Royal Windsor Horse Show last Sunday. And then there are the Irish stalwarts.

Buck Davidson’s Ballynoe Castle RM had a spectacular send-off from the eventing world at the Rolex Kentucky Horse Trials recently. Another US team rider Rich Fellers followed up that retirement ceremony the next weekend when Flexible, a constant for Irish show jumping breeding, bowed out at the Del Mar National Horse Show.

Back in October 2015 in an exclusive The Irish Field interview at his and wife Shelley’s then-base at Whip & Spur Farm in Oregon, Fellers spoke about the big-blazed chesnut stallion’s inevitable retirement. “He just literally craves competing, there’s no other words for it, he craves competing.

“You have to question yourself as an athlete and a horseman when you have a horse of his age still competing at the level he is competing at. I’m constantly asking myself; ‘Should we be doing this?’. I care about that horse so much that the last thing I would ever want to do is over-do it and end up injuring him.”

Then 19-years-young, Flexible went on to jump in his eighth World Cup final at Gothenburg the following spring. Although still in winning form - he won a $35,000 class at the HITS Sunshine Series last autumn - the decision was made this year to retire the ‘Flexi’ at Del Mar.

Why there? “He’s had great results at Del Mar. In 2012, there was an observation trial on the West Coast for the Olympics, so there were two Grand Prix classes and he won both of them. They get very big crowds there, very enthusiastic,” was his response.

“It was beautiful, it just came off super. I was a bit concerned that maybe Flexible would be confused and think he was going to compete but I think he knew exactly what was going on. He wasn’t in his competitive mode, he was just very relaxed. It was amazing.

“He jumped one last jump, at 1.10m, set between the Grand Prix course. Then I took his tack off and hand walked him around the arena, he was neighing and nickering to the crowd,” said Rich, describing the retirement ceremony for the horse he’d competed since he was spotted as a six-year-old at Cavan.

UNDERDOG

Looking on was Edward Doyle who, with his wife Catherine, bred the Cruising colt foal out of her national speed champion mare Flex, by the thoroughbred sire, Safari. Flexible has built up a cult following through the years and Fellers had previously explained the stallion’s appeal, saying: “In sports, that’s always the biggest draw; the underdog. Flexible is the classic underdog. He’s a smaller horse and he’s becoming a bit of an unusual breed for the sport. The Irish horse, how many of them are there jumping at five-star shows?

“And he’s a character. And the other very obvious thing is he’s still doing it and so many superstar horses have come and gone, come and gone, and he’s still there,” he added, succinctly summing up the reasons for ‘Flexi’s’ popularity. He was also the horse that brought Fellers to the London Olympics, where the pair finished as the best US combination in individual eighth place, and eight World Cup finals. It was their popular win in the 2012 final, held at ’s-Hertogenbosch, that clinched their Olympic selection and is also the win Rich unhesitatingly singles out as his career highlight.

“The highlight was the World Cup in 2012 - the way that whole week played out. It was a dream of all dreams for a show jumper to win,” he said this week, en-route home to the couple’s new base at Timberline Meadows Farm in Oregon after several weeks competing on the California circuit. On board the truckload is the traditionally-bred Flexible.

FANCLUB

“He had his retirement on May 6th, then I shipped him 45 minutes to a big breeding farm. I picked him up, brought him back to the horse show and rode him around, then hand walked him up to the show office.

“All the ladies there were having their photos taken with him for Facebook! He’s on his way home now, I don’t know what he’ll be like when he knows there’s no shows but he’ll stay in full work because that’s the best thing for him, physically and mentally.”

Rich also revealed that he and Shelley are the owners of the stallion, sourced, like so many of their other Irish-breds, for his previous owners Harry and Mollie Chapman by veterinary surgeon Dermot Forde. “Shelley and I now own Flexible and the Chapmans are very happy with the way it has worked out. We came to the decision to retire Flexible just recently and she [Shelley] is super happy when I made the decision, she never pressurised me, we’re all very content with it.

“I still have some Irish blood in my string. I have Lux Lady, she’s still young at 12. I found her in Sweden, she’s by Lux Z out of a Master Imp mare. Then I have this up and coming mare, Aurora’s Diamond. She’s quite a star, typical old-fashioned, kind, careful, brave Irish horse, she’s by Jack Of Diamonds.”

His connections will no doubt hope that his retirement and a new emphasis on his stud career will add to the number of Flexible offspring. Most recently Paul Larkin purchased a Flexible three-year-old filly out of another US-based World Cup campaigner, the Irish-bred Ado Annie and amongst his older progeny are the promising Cruicerath Flexiana and Cushions, while Ballyorney Stud owner Anne Kavanagh also has a number of prospects.

“I’ve got a couple too,” said Edward Doyle who flew out to Del Mar to watch Flexible’s retirement ceremony. “Just a couple of weeks ago, there was another award for Flexible as the sport horse of the year [at the Irish Sport Horse Industry Awards]. The awards still keep coming!” added another key player in the story of Flexible, the underdog that went on to be a World Cup champion.

FLEXIBLE NUMBERS