Faltic HB, the ride of Ben Maher at the 2022 World Showjumping Championships in Herning, Denmark, was the best performing horse of the British squad, finishing fourth individually and helping the team to claim bronze. He most certainly stepped up to the plate when Ben decided his originally selected mount, Explosion W, was not going to make the trip to the championships.
The 12-year-old stallion is owned by Oakingham Stud, where he still stands for his duties in West Sussex. The stud purchased Faltic HB, who was bred in the Netherlands by H.A. Brinkman, as an unbroken three-year-old.
This son of Baltic VDL has a strong dam line with more than 100 offspring jumping 1.50m and above. He was fully approved as a four-year-old by the Anglo European Studbook (AES) and he was produced by Oakingham Stud, with Ireland’s Eoin Gallagher later competing him on Nations Cups teams before Oakingham offered Ben the ride on him later last year, with him joining Ben‘s stable in October 2021.
Ben said after his World Championships performance with Faltic HB: “Thank you to Oakingham Stud for believing in me and giving him to me. He’s had a great upbringing in his life and jumped up to the three-star level.
“My job was just to bring him to that next level and we’ve been preparing him slowly, building him up through the year. This wasn’t the first idea to bring him here obviously, but he stepped in just nicely and he’s proved he’s a great horse. A lot of people have been a part of this horse’s career and they’ve done a good job with him,” said Ben, adding back in October if someone had suggested Faltic HB would be at the World Championships this year he would have said “it wasn’t possible”.
“It’s our job to train and build them up and get them fit and produce them over months. It’s not a two-month thing, it takes years to produce horses to this level.”
Oakingham Stud posted a video of Faltic HB jumping under saddle for the first time onto their Instagram account prior to the World Championships with part of the caption reading: “Who would have thought buying an unbroken three-year-old, to watching his first jump under saddle and now to see him selected for his first championship, how did we ever get so lucky. Thank You Faltic HB!
“To everyone who has been involved in Faltic’s career to-date, it’s been an amazing journey, we have everything crossed for next week and we hope Faltic and the rest of Team GB can bring home a ?
“Thank You @benmaherofficial for giving Faltic this opportunity.”
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