Irishman James Gentleman moved to the United States in 1987 and runs a successful training stable in Ocala, Florida. He is a trainer of showjumpers, he trains students, knows how to produce (young) horses, does some buying and selling and is one of the very few showjumper breeders in the U.S. In many respects his Irish roots show him the way. 

“I left Ireland 18 years old. The big recession made me move to the Unites States in the hope I could make a better living there. In those years I was riding showjumpers, I was working as a groom, actually I was doing everything that crossed my path,” James Gentleman remembers.

“I am in Florida since 2008 and run my own stable in Ocala. I have a farm with 63 acres of land. I have between 15 and 25 training and sales horses, four mares for breeding and many of their youngsters in the fields.”  

Although breeding showjumpers is not very often done in the United States, Gentleman is breeding approximately four foals per year. “I am probably one of five breeders,” laughs the Irishman. “I’ve always been interested in breeding. I had a couple of mares, they were good showjumpers with good pedigrees, and I had the land, so I decided to give it a try to breed them.” 

Breeding is expensive in the United States. “The initial costs are about the same as in Europe, but taking care of the young horses and raising them is a lot more expensive. But there is another side to this as well. You can go to Ireland, Belgium or France and buy a young horse, but it costs another 10.000 to bring it here. You can also use that shipping money to breed a horse here.”

“I have favourite stallions like Baloubet, Cornet Obolensky and Chacco Blue, however their offspring is a little sharp; personally I like that. When I develop them as young horses and they come up a little bit, I can sell them. But a lot of the amateurs can’t ride these type of horses, they are just not for everybody. I also love using the Nabab de Reve line. I currently have two sons in the field and a grandson. The Nabab’s have very good brains, so are also suitable for my clients. I look at my mares, see their pedigree and conformation and try to match with a stallion that compensates her weaknesses and confirms the qualities. I try to breed for the top sport, and if they don’t make it to the top they can go another way. We have an old saying in Ireland: ‘Breed up, don’t breed down’. In my early years as a breeder I was very lucky with one horse, that kind of hooked me up with breeding showjumpers. From that moment on I kept trying to repeat that success."

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"We breed only showjumpers and raise our homebred horses ourselves. We school them and we take them to a couple of small shows to see how they are doing. If they show scope and quality we keep them for some more years. If they don’t, they go the hunter route. Then they become more pets than horses.”

“If I buy a horse, I never buy the top ones, because they peak at that stage. I’ll buy the ‘in between ones’ and see what happens and go from there. It’s probably an Irish thing too, but we had to learn to get the most out of a horse. I train some horses so they can be sold. They have scope but their rideability was not great or the way they use their body could be improved. I take time to develop them and sell them at some point. I produced a couple of grand prix horses. I do a lot of gymnastics with my horses, about twice a week. They only jump a course once in every two weeks, just to see how they progress. The rest of the week is dressage, just to make them stronger, see their weaknesses and try to improve them. Some you can, some you can’t.”

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When it comes to management and feeding the horses, James is quite conservative. “When it works, don’t change it. I don’t change the feed every week, I think the horses are on the same feed for the last ten years. Also in the way I take care of my horses or give medication I’m a bit old fashioned. What I learned from my father and my uncles I still practice that way.” 

But sometimes James makes an exception to that unwritten rule.

“I had a client with a horse that was bossy. When he was walking out of the ring after a good round I asked him ‘did you give your horse something’? He said ‘No, I gave him only some natural paste’. It appeared to be the Equine 74 Stomach Calm Relax paste, but I didn’t pay attention to it, because I thought this is again just another new product. Then another client of me bought herself a horse in Argentina, which wasn’t a good match. She started to give her horse Equine 74 Gastric pellets, and after three weeks I noticed a huge difference, so it actually worked.” 

Sometime later I met Christian Dietz, founder of Equine 74, at the Nations Cup in Ocala. He is very knowledgeable of horses and breeding. We had a nice chat and I told him about my Irish horse, a Quickstar, that was always very nervous when going to shows. He said ‘try my product on this horse’. I hesitated, because everyone tries to sell you something, but Christian explained to me what it was. I tried it and the horse changed, I was really like ‘holy shit’, it works!”

Currently all of Gentleman's horses get the supplement pellets. “My dealing horses now keep the same attitude all the time, while they have different riders. They just become more steady. I am totally impressed by the products and even asked Christian if he would sell the company to me. I recommend the products to everyone I see, because I can tell them it works.”

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for more information, or feel free to text or call Christian Dietz, CEO of Equine 74:

Europe: +49 172 5184099

USA: (352) 207 6857

You can also meet Equine 74 in Ocala—we look forward to welcoming you!