Jezz Palmer and Martin Price’s Premier (First Date x Governor) won the KBIS four-year-old class at the 2024 LeMieux National Dressage Championships in dominant fashion, scoring 90%.
Jezz almost made it two podium places with his second ride of the class. He and Tara Faulds’ gelding Platinum SNW just missed out on third to Beth Bainbridge and Galaxico (Grand Galaxy Win T x Samarant) who scored 79%. Katie Owens and the impressive Florisemo (Floris Prince x Laurie’s Crusador) were second on 79.4%.
“We bought Premier last year from Holland through RD Sport Horses,” Jezz explained. “We tried loads of horses and he was by far the standout find.
“We’ve been taking our time with him, with our main focus being to qualify for this, so to win is amazing.”
The pair have not long got back from the FEI Dressage World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in Ermelo, where they placed fourth in the consolation final on 77%.
“Because he has such a chill head we thought he’d be fine travelling all that way and we were right,” Jezz added. “He more than held his own out there, and he then had five days off before he came here.
“This was our first year going to Ermelo – we’d qualified before, but it was the year of Covid so it was cancelled. It was a fantastic experience, and a great opportunity for our team and we learnt a lot – you look at things a lot differently once you’ve been to a show like that.”
Premier certainly looks set for a bright future and scored nines for his trot, canter and way of going, with a 9.5 for his general impression.
“His canter stood out to me when we first saw him,” Jezz said. “And I really loved his motherline, I’ve got a thing for the Governor lines.”
With such an exciting string of horses coming through, Jezz is always one of the busiest riders at these championships. He was last-to-go in the inter I on Honey D’Or before the break in which the prizegiving for the four-year-olds was held which necessitated a rapid wardrobe change.
“I had to quickly swap from my tailcoat to my short jacket, it’s probably the fastest I’ve changed!” Jezz laughed.
“I’m lucky, my groom Molly Ryan is amazing, she keeps everything running smoothly and I can stay in the saddle, train and help all the clients we have here.”
As well as his team at home, Jezz explained how important having the backing of an owner like Martin is as a professional rider looking to make it to the top.
“He’s set up a breeding programme at Anmore which is going to be huge and it’s so exciting for me to be his rider.
“Funnily enough, we got to know each other when I was riding his show cob. He had bought some two-year-olds from Caledonia Dressage – who’ve supported us a hell of a lot in setting up our stud – and then asked if I’d be interested in riding them in a couple of years time.
“He then bought a couple of my rides who I had in to sell, so we’ve just built this whole team of horses quite quickly, with at least four every year coming through.”
On what advice he’d offer other younger riders coming through the ranks Jezz added: “One of the things I always say is ‘When you’re working hard, work harder,’ because there are always long days, it’s always hard but then you get days like this and it makes it all worth it.
“So always stay focussed through the ups and downs – becauses there a lot of downs but remember there are also ups.”
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