Showjumper David Simpson realised a lifelong dream when he won this year’s Al Shira’aa Hickstead Derby on the eight-year-old stallion Pjotr Van De Kruishoeve. In episode 139 of The Horse & Hound Podcast, which is currently supported by Spillers, David explained how he came to find such an impressive talent.
David first spotted Pjotr, as the horse is known at home, when he was a two-year-old colt.
“Karel Cox has a big stable in Belgium and I’ve bought a lot of good horses from him before,” explains David, who is married to Louise Simpson (neé Pavitt). “The basis of our business is buying young horses, bringing them on and then selling them. When Louise and I need to stock up on horses, Karel’s is our first port of call in Europe.”
David says he and Louise usually purchase five- and six-year-olds, but on this particular occasion they decided to buy some two- and three-year-olds as well, and that’s when Pjotr was pulled out for them to look at.
“Where the door wouldn’t fully close on Karel’s old indoor arena, there was a crack of light, which was near where the loose jumping fence was located,” explains David. “Every time Pjotr jumped the fence, he would pop the crack of light too, as if it were another fence. No matter what happened after that, I was definitely going to buy him that day.
“Louise said that with the quality of his canter, even if he didn’t become a top jumper, he would be the most commercial horse in the world and luckily he has become both.”
As Pjotr is still only an eight-year-old, one of the biggest challenges is to be able to preserve his career, given that he has reached five-star at such a young age.
“I remember breaking him in when he was three and after two days, you could have ridden him around the sand school – I always take a lot of time with my breakers to give them the best possible start in life, but he took everything I did with him on board straight away,” says David. “So because he was so clever, we didn’t want to bore him and we showed him very little. With Hickstead on our doorstep, we could jump him on sand and grass there and I don’t think he went anywhere else until he was seven.”
David believes that Pjotr’s career is only just beginning and he has high hopes for him in the future.
“I genuinely think he has championship ability – he’s super-scopey, super-careful, beautiful to ride and very competitive,” says David. “He’s already jumped a five-star grand prix this year and he’s ready to go again. But he’s only eight so we have to hold ourselves back and choose the right shows for him so that he’s still in the sport when he’s 17 or 18.”
Listen to more from David Simpson in episode 139 of The Horse & Hound Podcast, including a fence-by-fence recollection of how he secured his 2023 Hickstead Derby win and more.
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