Gemma Tattersall says that Chilli Morning clone Quattro is showing “the most amazing brain” in his early ridden education.
Chris Stone, who owned the world and European eventing medallist Chilli Morning, has three rising five-year-old clones of the stallion, known as Deuce, Trey and Quattro and officially registered as Chilli Morning II, III and IV.
Gemma, who is based at Chris’s West Sussex yard Tattleton, started all three clones under saddle before one went to German Olympic champion Julia Krajewski and one to Cheshire-based Chinese rider Alex Hua Tian.
“Quattro is amazing – he is so quick to learn,” Gemma told H&H this week. “Obviously he’s only five this year so he’s a baby and he’s been out less than five times, but whenever we take him anywhere he’s so well behaved. He’s a stallion so clearly we have to be careful, but he has an incredible brain. When I’m on him it’s almost like he knows he has to concentrate.
“I took him to do a lecture demo for the Pony Club and raise money for the Riding for the Disabled Association. It was his first time doing anything like that and we showed the crowd how I teach a young horse about skinnies. He’d never done skinnies before, but within five or 10 minutes of learning about them, he was jumping a double of skinnies.
“He’s just like Chillli. It is weird and uncanny and slightly freaky – it just shows when they’ve got it, that’s for sure.”
Gemma was able to choose which of the three clones she kept.
“I could have kept any of them, it was impossible to choose,” she says. “I had a soft spot for Quattro because he has four big white socks and white spots on his neck.
“Also, he was the middle-sized of the three – it made sense to send the tallest one, Trey, to Alex and for Julia to have the smallest, Deuce. We’s only talking a difference of millimetres, but how else do you decide? They are all exceptional, amazing animals.
“We just hope we can keep them all in one piece and they can carry on and compete up the levels.”
Gemma says Quattro will “stay very understated this year”.
“He’ll do some local showjumping shows and combined training – we’re so lucky with our local show centres. You don’t want to take too much out of them, but you give them the exposure and education of going to a show.
“He may do some BE100s later in the year to get the idea of going eventing, with the aim of going to the young horse World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers as a six-year-old. Everything he does will be geared towards that and we won’t overface him by going too quickly. It’s just about going to a show and being a professional, particularly because he’s a stallion.”
Chris is likely to use Chilli Morning clone Quattro and the other clones for breeding in the future. Their registered parents are Chilli’s sire (Phantomic) and dam (Koralle, by Kolibre).
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