October 8, 2023 
According to Robert Blanchette (IRL), his mare Chardonnay is “basically perfect.” She’s also “400 pounds of cookies.”
It comes as no surprise if you’ve seen them in the ring. The mare’s training regime was built on treats. Blanchette routinely pulls her up after the last fence, grabs a treat from his pocket, and reaches forward to reward her.
And true to her name, the 12-year-old Westphalian mare is only getting better with age. The pair notched their biggest win yet Saturday night in the CSI4*-W Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Qualifier at Sacramento International. In front of his home crowd, Blanchette put in the fastest of two clear jump-off efforts (by a margin of almost six seconds over second-place finisher Sophia Siegel) to take the win.
“I was strategizing with some of the other riders before and they were getting very technical,” Blanchette explained. “I said, ‘I’m just going to run like hell and see what happens.’”
It’s not a strategy that works with just any mount, though. Blanchette knows he has something special in Chardonnay.
“She loves her job. She loves going fast,” he shared. “She can go full speed and then I walk her on a loose rein. She knows when it’s time to jump and run and she knows when it’s time to relax.”
The mare is exceptionally careful and seems to know exactly where the poles are—and to do everything in her power to avoid them. In round one, she took down the jump flag, bumping the boxy FEI World Cup™ Jumping standard, in an effort to keep the poles in the cups.
For a horse capable of such speeds, she is all business in the awards ceremony. She stood quietly, while other horses jigged around her, as she was crowned the winner and her rider took to the podium.
It’s been years, and many treats, in the making that has honed this well-mannered behavior. “The prize ceremony has been a three-year training process with about 400 pounds of cookies,” Blanchette joked. “She’s basically just looking at me waiting for a cookie.”
Six pairs jumped clear over Marina Azevedo (BRA) first round track to advance to the jump-off in the first leg of the North American League season. Chardonnay is a petite horse, smaller than most of the field, so Blanchette aims to protect her when the jumps get bigger.
“I was a little worried about the oxers, so I came in forward anyway. I gave her a little tickle with my whip [before the combination] and she was like, ‘Okay, okay, okay!’ She was perfect.”
Blanchette acquired the horse in 2020 as a 9-year-old during a spontaneous trip to Sweden while the world was still shut down. His Irish passport got him a ticket on an empty plane and, fittingly, he celebrated his newest acquisition with some wine.
“She’s 12 now and better than ever,” he said of Chardonnay. “She had a great season at Spruce this year. She really grew. It’s big jumps and a big open field. Some horses back off and some horses grow and she really grew.”
The mare has limited experience at 1.60m, having jumped just five rounds at the height, but finished top 10 in each, according to Jumpr App. Her last performance at the height was at the World Cup in Sacramento in 2022, when she finished seventh.
What sold Blanchette on the mare during that trip to Sweden to try Chardonnay was how she reacted to a pole down, giving her all the next time. That fighting spirit is what he believes has made the horse a winner.
“She’s physically stronger,” he said of the change he’s seen in his mare over three years. “She’s getting more confident. She has more scope than she thought she had. She’s more capable in this class now than she would have been a year ago.”
With seven legs to come in the North American League of the World Cup series, Blanchette now tops the standings. Don’t expect to see Chardonnay at the FEI World Cup™ Finals this season, however. Blanchette doesn’t want the mare to lose the confidence she’s built in her, as the courses at the Finals can be quite taxing with very wide oxers. He will continue placing her where he knows she can shine.
