Fachoudette (Chewy)

• Stable Name: Chewy
• Gender: Mare
• Height: 16 . 1 hh
• Colour: Bay
• Foaled: 1993
• Sire: Kachou
• Dam: La Basson Dette
• Breed : Anglo Arab
• Grade : Advanced (910pts)

Fachoudette was my once-in-a-lifetime horse.  She was owned by the Spence Family, Judy Gardner and myself and I competed her for 8 seasons, gaining 910 BE points, during which time she became the second highest BE points scoring mare of all time. It was on Fachoudette that I first represented my country, at Young Rider level, in 2002 and again in 2003 when we won Team Gold and Silver medals. In 2004 we finished 3^rd at the Chatsworth CIC***, qualifying for the World Cup Final.  Sadly we missed the final as she picked up an injury which also ruled her out for most of the 2005 season.

In 2006 we became Under 25 National Champions after winning Bramham CCI*** and then went on to finish 21^st at Burghley CCI**** that autumn.

In 2007 we won the CIC*** at Burnham Market.  However this was shortly followed by disaster when Fachoudette was unable to go to Badminton due to an infection in her foot only a week before the off. Following this disappointment, Fachoudette rerouted to Luhmuhlen CCI **** in Germany, where we finished 3rd. This great result earned us a place on the British Senior Three Day Eventing Squad for the European Championships in Pratoni.

The Europeans didn’t go as well as I had hoped.  Fachoudette produced a nice dressage test to put us in 17^th place.  However, on the cross country she became very strong as the course went on and she didn’t feel quite right.  On the final section of the course we had a run out when she misjudged a fence, trying to take on part of the fence which wasn’t meant to be jumped, and I then had another run out four fences later, at what was proving to be the bogey fence on the course. We went on to finish the course without further problems, but it was very clear when she pulled up that she was very uncomfortable and badly jarred on both front legs.   Fortunately it was nothing more serious than that, and with lots of help from the support team, she passed the trot up with flying colours and went on to jump a good round in the show jumping, just knocking down one fence.  This meant we finished the competition in 28th place.

Fachoudette finished the 2007 season in 6^th place on the British Eventing points table, and was the highest placed mare.

In July 2007 we carried out an embryo transfer from Fachoudette.  We chose the French jumping stallion, Jaguar Mail, as the sire, and produced the first of Fachoudette's offspring, Cosette, a bay mare who is the spitting image of her mother.

In 2008 we finished our first Badminton in 10^th place, with a fantastic clear across the country inside the time, one of only two combinations to do so.  She was the highest placed mare, and I won the Laurence Rook Trophy for the highest placed first timer.  Sadly, Fachoudette struggled with soundness issues in the later part of the season and was retired shortly before Burghley. 

She currently has offspring by Jaguar Mail and Grafenstolz, the oldest of which, Cosette, we backed this year, and shows huge promise.  Let’s hope we can breed more Fachoudettes of the future.

She was a truly fantastic horse, so talented in all three phases and I really miss competing her, but look forward to the future, competing her offspring.

Click here for full BE results

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