Cattle, Kiwi fruit and a magical mare; Phillip Steiner’s road to Omaha

When you have a dream, and you don’t let go of it, then anything can happen…

At the age of 51, and partnering the lovely 10-year-old mare Cassina Dior, Phillip Steiner will be a happy man when representing New Zealand at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final 2023 in Omaha, USA in two weeks’ time.

His is a story of horsemanship and hard graft, of opportunities grasped and firm friendships made, of family and commitment, and of following a dream.

Talking last week from his temporary base in The Netherlands where he has been for the past few weeks, he said he can hardly believe how things have evolved over the last year.

“It’s been a lifetime goal to get to the top of the sport. There have been times at home with the young horses when I’d look up at the sky and wonder if one day I might make it to Europe to jump a horse or compete in a big class. And now it has all happened!”

Selected

Things began to fall into place when putting himself forward for selection for the New Zealand team that will battle for a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this summer.

The first goal was to jump a season at home, and then to come to Europe and be ready for the Olympic qualifier in Valkenswaard in July. Omaha was not so much on the radar, but then High Performance mentioned halfway through the FEI season that the winner (of the FEI Jumping World Cup™ New Zealand League) might have the chance to go to the Final. That wasn’t really confirmed until the last day of January when our season finished, so I had about three weeks to put some clothes together and sort the horse out and get myself to Europe - it all happened very quickly!

“It was my plan to do three weeks to a month here and then get on the charter plane (to Omaha) with the big boys. I intended to do Lier (BEL) which I thought was two indoor shows, but when I arrived I found out it is outdoors so straight away my plan was on the floor!”.

But fortunately he is basing himself with Hilary Scott - “she’s an Aussie, a really nice person and she has sorted me out!”.

His link with Hilary began last August when he went to Australia to get some World Cup experience. “One of my Kiwi mates is based at The Oaks in Sydney which is Hilary’s mum’s breeding stud, and I stayed there for two months and we did two World Cups and another big show at Wallinga Park”. So it was a logical progression to ask Hilary if he could stay at her facility near Eindhoven (NED) when travelling to Europe this year.

‘She’s a 5-Star rider so every question I have about how I’m going to get to the plane or where I’m gonna go, or what show I should do, or how much work I should do, she’s just there on the ground and she has been really great”. And, being who he is, Phillip is very happy to give some payback. “I’m helping around the yard and riding a couple of horses for her every now and then, and then ride my one. I help keep the place clean and tidy and what-not”, he explains, as if any world-class rider would do exactly the same thing in the same circumstances.

Work ethic

His strong work ethic is long-established, as is his love of horses. Along with the rest of his family he hunted as a child, and when he saw some children showjumping he decided he wanted to try that, so he bought his own first jumping pony.

“I reared ten calves and sold them at a sale and then bought myself a B-grade pony and from there I did Pony Club and Eventing and then went to work for David Goodin, (legendary New Zealand Eventing and Jumping rider), Bruce Goodin’s dad. When I went to work for David I didn’t know much about striding, I knew that sometimes there was a deep one, sometimes a long one and sometimes it came up perfect! He taught me the mechanics of riding a related line and things like that”.

Phillip seems to have had a knack for learning from the best, because in 1992 at the age of 20 he went to America to work for 1984 Olympic gold medallists Joe Fargis and Conrad Holmfeld - the latter twice-winner of the FEI Jumping World Cup™ title. “I did two summers with them and learned all about style, how to bandage horses and how to groom, and I leased a horse off a girl called Debbie Dolan”, he said, casually referring to the athlete who competed for Team USA at the very top of the sport during the peak of her career.

After returning home to New Zealand for a while, he left for Europe in 1998 to work for legendary Swiss horse-dealer Max Hauri.

“I was in Max’s yard for a good year or two on and off and then I went to work for Lesley McNaught. I did my time, learning in the dealing yard and riding some quite good horses with Lesley. That was when she had Dulf (the horse with which she won team silver for Switzerland at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games)”.

His attraction to Switzerland was no accident as his grandfather emigrated to New Zealand from a little town close to Lucerne at the age of 11. And once again his uncanny knack for associating with the best of the best was triggered. “When I was there I got to know Pius Schwizer who was jumping at national shows, and Steve Guerdat was just starting to jump his first Grand Prix classes - now they are the best in the world!”

He returned home again in 2000 to settle down, buy a property, set up his business, get married and raise a family in Tauranga on the North Island with his wife Sally who, 20 years ago, won the same series that has qualified Phillip for the forthcoming Longines Final. They have an arena, 20 stables and about 80 acres of farmland on which they graze a herd of 100 cattle and exercise their horses.

Home life is fairly hectic with three children, plenty of horses and a small trucking business. “One truck brings Kiwi fruit off the orchards to the factories, and then two trucks go eight months of the year seven days a week from the coldstore at the back end of the factory and take the fruit to the boats”. That business stemmed from frustration with having to sell the good young horses he was producing in order to keep the family afloat.

Never got sold

One that never got sold however is Cassina Dior who he will proudly ride into the ring when the action gets underway in Omaha.

Known at home as Dolly, he bought her from her breeder Pip McCarroll.

“Pip had a horse that was on livery in our place that we were training for Mark Todd (Sir Mark Todd, Eventing superstar, voted Rider of the 20th Century by the FEI). She kept telling me about this three-year-old, so we went and had a look, watched her free-jump and ended up buying her”.

He had to promise that he wouldn’t resell Dolly right away, “and by the time she got to about seven years old I realised we had something quite special. A lot of people wanted to buy her but I always said I want to have a couple of years to take this horse as far as I can. At my age I don’t think I’ll probably see another one this good!”

The passage of time has made his arrival at the top of the sport all the more sweet. “You don’t take things for granted like you would at 25, but going to this World Cup Final is huge really and and I want to keep that in check so it doesn’t affect my ability to do my best when we get there”.

Pip will be ringside in Omaha along with all of Phillip’s family. Eldest son, 15-year-old James, is already well into the sport, recently winning three pony Grand Prix classes in a row, ten-year-old son Oliver “is more interested in motorbikes at the moment but he can ride” and his daughter, Francie, is a horse-crazy five-year-old who broke her collarbone in a fall from her 128cms pony the night before doing this interview. No shortage of drama for Mum to manage while Dad is away….

Support

Asked if, apart from wife Sally, he will have anyone else on the ground to support him in Omaha, Philipp dropped one more phenomenal name.

“Greg Best. I’ve trained a lot with him over the last 15 years. He married a New Zealand girl and they live in Hawkes Bay (NZL) and his kids are the same age as ours so they all play together and are best friends. I know I’m going to be a bit over-awed when I get there, and he’s someone who has ridden all the biggest Championships and he’s pretty amazing!”, he said of the man who won two silver medals for the USA in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea riding the fabulous Gem Twist.

At home right now his support system includes his wing-man Marcus who is keeping the business going, “and grandma who is looking after the kids while Sally is running around doing the farm”. It’s an all-out effort to make a dream come true for one man and his magical mare who will wear the silver fern with enormous pride….

Don’t miss a hoofbeat

All the information about the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final 2023 available here

Caption image: Phillip Steiner rides Cassina Dior

COPYRIGHT image: © KAMPIC / Kerry Marshal