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With Joe Stockdale in the saddle, Equine America Cacharel (Cachas x Quinar Z, bred by Helmut Bohm) helped Great Britain to team bronze at the 2022 FEI World Championships in Herning, Denmark, delivering a clear when it mattered the most – in the final round of the team competition.

Regardless of her consistent results at the highest level of the sport, it is hard not to love Stockdale’s charming championship horse; there is simply something special about the presence of the 13-year-old mare. It was precisely this – a little something about her – that captivated Joe and his late father Tim when they first saw her at an auction as a youngster. “We saw her and loved her,” Joe recalls about the beginning of a beautiful family story. 

It was, however, Ricardo Slooff who discovered Cacharel – as a yearling. “I was trying another horse at the stable where she was at, but I didn’t like that one and then I saw Cacharel," Ricardo tells. "Her breeder was very sick at the time, so his horses had to be sold and unfortunately he passed away shortly after."

"Cacharel was a nice yearling with big, beautiful, eyes and when I saw her standing in the box, I asked if I could see her instead of the horse I was there for," Ricardo continues. "So, we let her lose and she jumped over a ground pole twice – and I decided there and then that I wanted to buy her. She comes out of a very good mother-line, so my original plan was to use her for our breeding. However, when she was three, I brought her to the Brightwells Auction in England instead. I wanted to bring a good horse over; to advertise our stable. I was hoping that she would end up in a good place, and when Tim Stockdale was interested in her, I really wished for him to be the buyer in the end. And luckily, that happened!”

I decided there and then that I wanted to buy her

Cacharel marked the beginning of a friendship between the Stockdale-family and Ricardo, as the family later went on to buy other horses from him as well. “It has been very nice to follow her journey,” Ricardo tells. “Cacharel has been a very special case. I am glad that Joe is so successful with her, they really are a dream couple."

"I think her mind is what makes her so special, and it is what we saw in her already when she was very young; she was always very focused, she never wanted to make a mistake," Ricardo explains. "She also has a very good pedigree. Even though her father Cachas – who died young in an accident – was not very popular in Germany back then, many of his few offspring have ended up successful. What she and Joe have done together is remarkable; Joe was young when he took over the reins, but so was she, and when they went to the World Championships in Herning, they did not have a lot of experience, but they did very well there. I believe that as much as Joe has improved Cacharel as a horse, she has also improved Joe as a rider. They have a beautiful partnership.” 

“Brightwells is an auction for three-year-old horses here in the UK, very close by us, and for a few years we used to go there and usually bought one or two horses,” Joe begins to tell about how he and his late father Tim found Cacharel. “We went there, saw Cacharel and loved her! She was a lovely jumper – she wasn’t super flashy or over the top, she just did everything in a really nice manner and she had a lovely way about her. We really liked her, bid on her and, thankfully, we won and managed to bring her home. She was three at the time and had only been free jumping, she had not been ridden and it was so nice to get to do all that with her.” 

She wasn’t super flashy or over the top, she just did everything in a really nice manner and she had a lovely way about her

“When we got her used to the saddle, she was lovely to deal with,” Joe continues. “She has always been very clever and very sensible. She has blood, she enjoys working, but as any young horse, she could be a bit cheeky back then. However, generally, she was very easy to deal with and had a great attitude – both in the stable and when we were riding her. With all our horses, we usually get them used to the saddle, ride them and get them started with jumping a few fences and then we let them have a full summer out on the field. So, this is what she did as well, and after the summer we brought her in from the field, and repeated the same process again.”

Throughout the start of her career with Joe’s late father Tim in the saddle, Cacharel did not do young horse classes but national shows nearby. “We really took our time with her, because she is a big mare and it took a long time for her body to fill out,” Joe tells. “That is why we didn’t do the young horse classes; we did not want to rush her into anything. My dad was leading the way with her and we could see very quickly that she was a very special horse."

"There was something in her that the others didn’t have. I think it was mainly how easily she picked up things; the way she learned. You only had to tell her once: As soon as she learned to change the lead, she got it right immediately and kept at it. She was very impressive in this regard, and from when she was five to when she was seven, she was very consistent whenever she competed. She jumped a lot of clear rounds as a young horse, and even though she was not jumping in her age categories, she was doing good things in the ring.”

We really took our time with her, because she is a big mare and it took a long time for her body to fill out

“We really went slow with her, and then I took over the ride when she was eight,” Joe continues. “We always knew she would be the one that was going to go all the way and be a top horse, so we were very protective of her and picked the shows for her carefully.”

“She has maintained her great attitude all the way through her career in the fact that she really wants to learn, she loves her job and wants to do it well,” Joe tells. “Throughout the levels, as she went from two-star shows to three- and four-stars and eventually to five-star events, she has always learned from mistakes; she would very rarely make the same mistake twice. She really is a very smart horse, and she fights for me. I think her attitude is her best asset. There are lots of horses that are as careful or scopey as her, but I think there are only very few that are as smart as her and have a similar attitude. When you go into the ring with her, she is going to try a 100%. She is never going to give up on you and I think that is what makes her such an exceptional horse.” 

“She is definitely a bit of a diva,” Joe smiles when asked to describe Cacharel’s personality. “She is very spoiled, and she knows that she is the queen at our yard. Sometimes she can be a bit funny with her food; she likes to have different foods every now and then and will stop eating, and then we have to do things like give her warm food in the evenings to keep her eating. She is a very spoiled diva, that is the best way to describe her. She loves to go out to the fields and work on the grass, and work on different grounds. It gets very boring if we just run around the indoor every day. She is at her best when she is fresh, and sees new things, so I have lots of variation in her work to keep her happy.” 

She knows that she is the queen at our yard

“Having a good relationship with your horse is essential, especially at top level,” Joe continues. “You need the horse on your side, and you need to understand their thoughts. Horses are not machines, and as a rider I have to know their abilities and manage them accordingly."

"With Cacharel, I have to understand what she might find difficult in the course. Knowing her attitude and the way she would react to certain fences is the most important thing with her because she is so careful. There are certain fences I know she is going to be trying almost too hard not to have down. She needs a bit of encouragement, but it is important not to create too much tension; she is a sensitive horse, and if you ride her roughly, she gets tight. You have to ride her softly, be gentle and encourage her to get to where you want her to go – you can’t force her into anything. She has to do everything a bit on her own terms, in a nice way.” 

After Tim very sadly passed away in 2018, having Cacharel and reaching for the goals they set together for their talented mare is something Joe cherishes. “It is very special,” Joe says. “We always said to each other that Cacharel is a horse that is going to go to the championships and the Olympics. I remember how one of the last things I told my dad was that I was going to take Cacharel there, and that I wanted to win a medal with her, for him – because that is something we had always said she was destined to do."

"I must admit that when I first took over the ride, I felt pressure, because I knew how good of a horse she is and that if I did a good job, she had the ability to go all the way. At the time, when I first got her, realistically my riding probably wasn’t up to her standard. It is nice to now see that I have progressed and that I am getting to a point where I maybe am good enough to be riding her.” 

I must admit that when I first took over the ride, I felt pressure

“I think it would be hard to point out only one highlight,” Joe says when asked which of their achievements has meant the most to him. “In 2022, obviously getting to the World Championships was huge. We had one down on the first day, which was a bit of an unlucky fault at that level, and then the second round did not go to plan. What was special for me there was the third round – that was the final round for the team. You could have expected it to go as badly as the second day, it would have been easy to say that it was going to happen again and maybe she wouldn’t be confident. However, she went in there and she wasn’t ever thinking about that – all she wanted was to do her job. I was really pleased it all came together in that last round and that we had a counting score for the team and helped in getting that medal. Coming back and showing a bit of grit and fight, and proving that we are a better combination than what we had done the day before, meant a lot for me.” 

“Ultimately, for me it is the Olympics in Paris – and it has been for a long time,” Joe tells about his goals moving forward. “We have had many offers on her and people that have wanted to buy her, and we have held off from selling because our ultimate goal is to go to the Olympics. We have a lot to do to get there, and a lot can go wrong and things can change, but at this point, that is where I am aiming.”  

13.2.2024 No reproduction of any of the content in this article will be accepted without a written permission, all rights reserved © World of Showjumping.com. If copyright violations occur, a penalty fee will apply.