Text © World of Showjumping

“Dynamix is a genius and the only place that she wants to be is in the ring, jumping big jumps,” Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat says about the 10-year-old mare Dynamix de Belheme (Snaike de Blondel x Cornet Obolensky, bred by Frederic Aimez), that in February this year won the CSI4* Horseware Grand Prix at the Sunshine Tour and finished fourth in the CSI5* Rolex Grand Prix at The Dutch Masters in March after also ending second in the CSI5*-W Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping in Stuttgart last year. In June, Dynamix took on the vast grass arenas at CSIO5* St. Gallen and CSIO5* La Baule. In La Baule, as part of the Swiss team in the 1.60m Barrière Nations Cup, Dynamix made it all look like a walk in the park, jumping clear in the second round after a light fault in round one – and continued impressing with her effortless style in the Rolex Grand Prix Ville de La Baule. 

To learn more about her route to Guerdat’s yard, World of Showjumping spoke with Dynamix’s breeder Frederic Aimez, Antoine Charlot – who discovered the ultra-talented mare at a national show in France – as well as Juan Ramos and Kevin Melliger who owned her as a young horse.

“Dynamix de Belheme’s mother Soudaine du Montet came to us as a 4-year-old,” Frederic Aimez tells. “She was born at our friends Brigitte and Hubert Mazeaud’s yard. Soudaine is a very beautiful mare; tall, very sporty, with a lot of energy and flexibility – as I like. For her first crossing, I asked our friends Michel and Eliane Ruel from Haras de Blondel for their opinion. We agreed on the choice of Snaike de Blondel, a pretty son of Calvaro with whom I had other very good, powerful horses by – such as Utchan de Belheme and So Nice de Belheme – with mothers very close to blood like Soudaine. I like the Snaike-family very much, with Vondeen, Jalisco, and the combination of Anglo-Arabian and Thoroughbred bloodlines. The combination of Calvaro's strength with the blood and genius of Cornet Obolensky works wonders, I like this cross-over. Soudaine is from the family of Ma Pomme – a full-sister of 1956 World Champion Pomone – and from the same maternal family as Starlette B, and Steve Guerdat’s Olympic Champion Nino des Buissonnets.” 

 She was a very beautiful filly, with a lot of charisma

“Soudaine’s first foal Cornetaux de Belheme was pretty, with quality, and he became a very good showjumping horse,” Aimez continues. “I did the same cross for the second time, and Dynamix de Belheme was born the following year. She was a very beautiful filly, with a lot of charisma, so it was a successful crossing again. I have often tried to cross Sudaine with fairly powerful horses, with a beautiful maternal family. Soudaine gives her foals blood and chicness, with the genius of Cornet. Soudaine’s third foal was a filly by Old Chap Tame, who was born with the same qualities as Dynamix and stayed with us as a broodmare. The fourth one, a filly by Viking de La Rousserie was sold, as was the fifth one – Harald de Belheme by Emerald. Laurent Guillet bought Harald de Belheme at the Fences Sales, and Harald is now ridden by Megane Moissonnier. Jentleman de Belheme by Vagabond de La Pomme, Jino de Belheme by Ogrion des Champs and Lynamix de Belheme by Feeling des Flagues were all sold, while Madyna de Belheme, a splendid filly by Balou Star, has stayed with us.”

“The first time we free jumped Dynamix at home, she was three,” Aimez tells. “We saw right away that she had something more than the other horses; I had never seen a horse jump with so much desire, ease, and quality. She was incredible, I still remember saying to my daughter Laure with whom I work: "Go quickly and find something to film with, I've never seen anything like this!” We then decided to have her participate in a free jumping competition, which she won with incredible ease. From that day on, we received many offers on her, but in view of her natural qualities, I absolutely wanted to have offspring out of her before letting her go – I knew that one day I could no longer refuse the offers. Therefore, I decided to do an embryo transfer with her and we got two foals by Zirroco Blue the following year; a colt and a filly.”

We saw right away that she had something more than the other horses

“When Dynamix was a four-year-old, we decided to do some small courses with her to introduce her to the competition environment – in parallel with embryo transfer, which resulted in a filly by Padock du Plessis the following year. When she was five, Dynamix had a slightly more complete season in the classic young horse cycle, but we also managed to have another embryo; a colt by Querlybet Hero, which looks like Dynamix in every way. The two fillies out of Dynamix are still at home with us for breeding,” Aimez continues.

“From her very first jumps, Dynamix jumped with a lot of fun and ease, with a very strong rise of the withers, a lot of suppleness in the back, and a wonderful technique. Already as a youngster, she was cat-like, a genius… Dynamix was sold when she was five, to Juan Ramos and Antoine Charlot, and she left for Switzerland. Now, with Steve Guerdat, a wonderful sequel is being written... The combination of Steve and Dynamix's talents is magical; a dream for our breeding. All her natural qualities are now put in great value, thanks to the great care and talent of Steve and his team – which brings us so much happiness,” Aimez says.

“I found Dynamix at Haras du Pin, one hour from my home,” Antoine Charlot tells about his first meeting with the mare. “The day I found her was just another day – but this day ended up making all the difference; this mare is so special! When I saw her, my feeling was immediately incredible. We have a lot of criteria for a horse, and Dynamix had it all; the scope, the rideability, the right mentality… She was very careful, focused on the fences and has such a beautiful type.”

“This was back in 2018, which was the first year I worked for Juan Ramos,” Charlot continues. “When I saw Dynamix, I called him to tell him that I had found a crack of a horse. She was five at the time, and her breeder Frederic Aimez still owned her. She was ridden by Luc Demarcy and had done a few rounds as a four-year-old and five-year-old at the classic young horse cycle in France.” 

When I saw her, my feeling was immediately incredible

“I was at the Sunshine Tour when she won the four-star Grand Prix there and it was amazing,” Charlot says. “Having seen her and believed in her when she was young, to now see her win something like that with Steve makes me really proud. To have found a mare like her; it is not every day something like that happens. I am always looking for good horses for my clients, both young and experienced, so every day I am in the car and go to shows, I watch a lot of videos but Dynamix is for sure the best one so far! She has been a great motivator for me; I now try to find another one to match her talent – every day!”

“For her future, I do believe that she will be one of the great horses of our time,” Charlot says. “With Steve, I think she found her perfect match. I do hope that Dynamix and Steve will go on to win championship medals; she has all the abilities to be exceptional.”

“Antoine Charlot – who works for me – saw Dynamix at a national show in France and he called me and said he found a crack,” Juan Ramos recalls. “There was no video available, so I had to go to St. Lo in France to see her. After seeing her, we tried her, and we really liked her. The first try-out was good, but she was quite expensive, and my first offer was not accepted. After trying her for a second time, where she jumped even better, we found a solution and bought her together with Kevin Melliger.”

She did everything easily; it was like she was laughing at us

“I have to say that my first impression of her, seeing her jump at the show in St. Lo, was good, but when we tried her, I thought she was the best horse I have ever tried in my life; everything was there,” Ramos continues. “We did a very difficult trial for a five-year-old, and she did everything easily; it was like she was laughing at us. Dynamix is truly an exceptional horse and I have really high hopes for her future. Following her now, I feel really proud. In the end, seeing a horse like her go to a rider like Steve who has a great system is really rewarding: I am in this business because I enjoy the sport.” 

“Juan and I bought her together, after Antoine had found her for Juan,” Kevin Melliger tells about his connection to the talented mare. “We tried Dynamix two times. To be honest, seeing her in the ring, I was not so convinced about her. My first impression was that I did like her, but I was not as sure as Antoine was. However, when we tried her, it became obvious she was very special. We had Dynamix until the end of her five-year-old season; Steve saw her jumping in Oliva – he thought she was a special horse and he wanted to have one of his owners buy her for him to ride. Therefore, we sold her to the Cartossi-family. It is nice to follow her with Steve now, I think she is one of the best horses in the world at the moment. With Steve, I think she will do the biggest championships and the biggest Grand Prix classes there is.” 

“We bought Dynamix as a 5-year-old, and in the beginning it was great,” Steve Guerdat tells. “However, after half-a-year with me, I thought I have to do something not right; she was always very good in the ring, but she felt a bit empty. We took a bunch of tests, but everything came back good, so I thought she maybe was a bit tired and I decided to put her in the field for two months. When we took her back in, it was the same thing. I thought something must be wrong, but still she was always very good in the ring.”

I convinced myself that Dynamix is a genius

“However, there was just something I did not understand with her and this kept on bothering me the whole year that she was seven. I was missing something, something I could not understand,” Guerdat says. “As we were on the way to Oliva in 2021, the EHV-1 outbreak happened. We had stopped in Béziers with the horses, and as we heard they closed the facilities in Oliva we decided to stay one more day at the stop-over until the situation was clarified. Fanny and I were in Montpellier with Fanny’s mother and her husband Gerard Marragou, so we went together to ride the horses in Béziers. I asked Gerard to ride a few for me, as we had plenty of horses and the weather was really bad. Gerard is unbelievable at lunging, and he asked if he could take Dynamix for a lunge. He is incredible at it; he needs two, three, days to get his code to the horses, and then they do whatever he asks just by his voice. I’m not a big fan of lunging, I’d rather not lunge than lunge bad – so we normally don’t lunge the horses at all. But, despite not being on the lunge while she had been with me, it did not even take Dynamix two minutes to do everything Gerard was asking. Gerard said to me: ‘I have never seen that before; she is a genius’. That changed the way I saw her.”

“Probably, Dynamix can do everything, and what I had asked of her was so easy for her that she was just bored. The only place she gave me what I wanted was in the ring. So, from that moment, I stopped training things with her – now I only keep her happy,” Guerdat tells. “At home, I try to do different things with her every day. She is lunged twice a week, she hacks out a lot, she’s a lot in the field, she needs to move a lot as she is quite stiff – but I will never ride her two days in a row in the same place. In the winter it is difficult though as we have a lot of snow, and this is why it is really good for her to come to a place like the Sunshine Tour where she can hack out every day in the woods next to competing.”

“When you see her in the warm-up, you think she has a small stride, no blood and no scope – and then you get in the ring with her and she is a machine. So, I convinced myself that Dynamix is a genius and the only place that she wants to be is in the ring, jumping big jumps,” Guerdat smiles.“Dynamix has been very difficult for me to understand, which is quite funny because she is actually very easy, but maybe too easy for me in terms of not having enough character compared to many of my other horses." 

She has everything to be a horse for the history books

“If everything goes well, she will go to Aachen,” Guerdat tells about his plan moving forward with Dynamix. “She jumped very good in Aachen as a young horse, so I hope she can do the Grand Prix there this summer. Then, we will probably do Dinard, and if everything goes according to the plan, one more easy show before the Europeans – and I would like to do the Europeans with her. However, the main goal is the Olympic Games next year – even though we still need to qualify – so I think it will be a good experience for her to do a championship this year."

"I think Dynamix is a horse that can win championship medals; I know she has everything in her to do it," Guerdat says. "However, you need to do it first – there is no point to talk too much about it. She has everything to be a horse for the history books; I just hope I will be able to manage her in the right way so that she can have the career that she deserves.” 

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