GIVING something back is a big part of what motivates Irish international dressage rider Josephine Delahoyde.

Based in Co Wicklow, Josephine and her parents, Tom and Barbara, run the very successful Marlton Stud and have developed a reputation for producing not only talented horses, but also an impressive list of up and coming dressage pony riders.

“I’ve been riding all my life and was lucky to grow up here in Co Wicklow where I was surrounded by horses,” Josephine told The Irish Field as she reflected on training through Covid-19 and spoke about the hope for her horses.

“I was always drawn to dressage and at the age of 10 competed in my first National Championships in Cavan. By the time I was 14 I had ridden at my first home international in the UK on my amazing pony Tommy Pickles. In 2014 I made my senior international debut on Blue Valentine at Hickstead CDI.”

Last year was a very good year for Josephine. In April she rode Let’s Go 110 to win the Big Tour National Championships at the Dressage Ireland Winter Finals in Necarne. It was a bittersweet victory for the pair as it was their final competition together before Let’s Go 110 was retired.

Let’s Go’s retirement meant that her other mount, the then 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding Cashmere had to step up, and he did so in style winning the Advanced Championships at the South-East Region Nutriscience Classic in Spruce Lodge last July.

Josephine Delahoyde and Cashmere, pictured winning the Intermediate I at the Spruce Lodge last Sunday \ Louise O'Brien Photography

Stepping up

The pair then went on to win the Advanced National Championship at the Dressage Ireland National Championships in Barnadown in September. “I was delighted with the win. It was the perfect start to our competitive career together. He had always played second fiddle to my top horse Let’s Go and, although I’ve had him for over three years, it’s taken time for us to get to know each other and develop into a proper partnership.

“We bought him from my trainer in Germany, Markus Waterhues. He’s 19hh, but I feel now we are really getting somewhere; he’s going from strength to strength.

“He’s laid back and very smart. He is very settled in himself. His nickname in the paddock is ‘the engineer’ because of his ability to take things apart; he’s able to unscrew the hose from the drinker but he doesn’t break it…we have no idea how he does it. He destroys things just for fun,” she says about the Catoo-sired 11-year-old.

“My other horse, the seven-year-old Jubiloso VG, is a gelding we bought in June of 2022. He is currently on a break following an injury after some high jinks in the field. He should be back in work next month and I’m really looking forward to seeing him progress.”

Josephine Delahoyde and Cashmere, pictured winning the Intermediate I at the Spruce Lodge last Sunday \ Louise O'Brien Photography

Josephine has been coached by Markus Waterhues for over 15 years and he would normally make the trip to Marlton every six to eight weeks during the winter to teach for the weekend. When lockdown happened they had to find new ways of continuing their lessons and came up with a high-tech system.

“We have a Pixio system, which means there is a camera on a tripod at one corner of the arena and then there is three spots in the other three corners and the camera will work within those four beams. I wear a watch and the camera follows the watch anywhere within the area within the beams. It works on the full 20 x 60 area which is great.

“I wear headphones with a mic and Markus phones me and he can speak to me while watching me ride and I can speak back to him. It took a while to get used to it but now it has become almost normal and works really well. You can run into problems with WiFi and delays sometimes but it has been fantastic.”

Dressage rider Josephine Delahoyde leading Cashmere, accompanied by dog Jacko at home

Travel

“The plan now is to go to the UK with Cashmere for one or two international small tour shows. We are always working towards our long-term goal of doing Grand Prix with him and I hope to have worked up to the medium tour with him by the end of the year.

“My mum and I were discussing it; and it is very expensive to take him to an international show just to do the small tour, but we agreed that we need to have him exposed to the atmosphere at a big event to see how he copes with it.

“It would be unfair to expect him to just go when he is competing at the higher level and then just be able to deal with a new, and sometimes overwhelming, environment, so it is an essential part of his education.

“We will bring Jubiloso VG along as company for him and he too will be exposed to the show environment which is a great learning curve for him.”

Teaching

“The other side of my working day is spent teaching. We have about 11 or 12 kids that ride here and have ponies on loan from me.

“I want to be able to give the kids that come here the same experience that I had growing up around horses. They work hard and learn to look after their pony properly as well as ride.

“I was delighted to be able to bring some of them to the National Championships last year where they did really well. One of them won the mini trail blazers and one of them won the under 12s which was fantastic.

“It’s really nice to be able to give something back. I was very fortunate. My parents had this place and also gave me great ponies to ride. I love to see kids enjoying the ponies that I was so lucky to have when I was growing up.”