AMERICAN Catherine Pasmore and her own Belgian-bred gelding Freedom de S.B (Ogano Sitte x Fabuleux de Gamet) captured their first international Grand Prix win together at the two-star Millstreet international in Cork last Sunday.

Speaking about the victory, Pasmore told The Irish Field: “I’m based at Cian O’Connor’s Karlswood stables for the summer, which is just the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.

“I wake up every morning and I can’t believe I’m here. It’s so fantastic.

“I have three of my own horses here and one from a breeder in Belgium that I do a lot of work with, so four in total.

“I get a lot of help from all the trainers here, but it was Neil Maguire that has been a great help to me with my Grand Prix horses. He came to Balmoral and Tattersalls with me and was on the phone with advice during Millstreet.

“I feel that I’ve learned a huge amount during my time here and feel that there is still a lot left for me to learn.

“I’m really sorry that I wasn’t in Ireland early enough this year to have a chance to compete for the spot in the five-star show in Dublin that you can win here in the Premier Series, or to qualify a young horse; maybe that can be a goal for next year…

“I came back a little bit too late from Wellington (Florida) to be ready for that this year. Or maybe, even better, I could have a horse good enough to make it on to the American team for the Nations Cup; that would be another goal.

“I’ve had Freedom (de S.B) for about three years now.

“He was recommended to me by a friend, who saw him in Belgium and thought he would suit me.

“She was right. I tried him, loved him and brought him straight away.

“When I got him home to my yard, I was so excited to ride him. I put a snaffle on him and went to the ring, so proud of my new horse; and got kind of run away with in trot, to be honest, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh oh, what have I done?’

Relationship

“It took me a lot of time to learn to ride him. I took a lot of advice from professionals and now ride him in a rope halter, using my legs and my seat for steering, because I don’t have a bit.

“It’s a real testament to giving a partnership time. Sometimes you would think that if you buy an older horse that has jumped big classes, it will click straight away, but it takes time to form a relationship and we are still working on ours.

“I was delighted with how he went in the jump-off. Sometimes, if I open up his stride, I find it hard to control him, but this felt smooth and easy. It makes me optimistic about future jump-off classes, and hopefully bigger ones too.

“When I walked the course, I made my plan that from the first jump, I would just try to stay in a rhythm, not too much forward and backwards, just steady with no unnecessary risks. I’m just happy that my strategy paid off.”

Jump-off

A start list of 46 was reduced to 12 after the first round of the Olaf Herrmann and James Tarrant-designed 1.45m track.

Three of the 12 managed to keep a clean sheet through the timed decider and Pasmore proved best of these, stopping the clock clear in a time of 55.04 for the win.

Second place went to Ireland’s Timmy Brennan riding Diadema Della Caccia (Diamant de Semilly x Cardento) in 56.19.

Francis Connors and his own eight-year-old gelding JM Just a Dream (Toulon x Cavalier Royale), bred by Jimmy Lawler, finished in third place in 61.17.

Francis Derwin Jnr and Parvati AEG (Arezzo VDL x Darco) took fourth as the fastest four-faulters in 53.85. Mikey Pender and Marion Hughes’ home-bred stallion, HHS Cyprus (Cornet Obolensky x Acorado) were fifth, while Briton Annabel Shields and her own Creevagh Charisma (Camiro de Haar Z) completed the line-up in sixth.