Becky Moody Climbing the Ladder to the Highest Rungs with Jagerbomb

Focus

F.O.C.U.S.

British professional Grand Prix rider and breeder Becky Moody has made a spectacular climb up the ladder moving to the highest rungs of British dressage and team consideration with the home bred Jagerbomb.

After an illustrious career as a British team young rider, Moody retreated from the international stage and built her career and business in Great Britain. Her last international start on the European continent was almost six years ago.

She is not really a familiar face on the European scene unless you followed youth sport in the late 1990s - early 2000s. This is about to change after her career best scores at the 2023 CDI-W London.

It All Started with Pony Club

Born in Northern Ireland, the Moody family originally lived in Scotland until the age of six, when they moved to Sheffield area where they are still now. Becky and her sister Hannah has been passionate about horses and dressage from the start. Both started with pony club and as of 1989 Becky started competing at the age of 9.

This brought her to celebrated British pony trainer Ian Woodhead when she was 13 and in 1994 she was named reserve on the British pony team with Maximilian.

In 1995 she first represented Great Britain on Sir Fred, a Highlander x Thoroughbred cross, at the European Junior Riders Championships. Then she won team bronze with Jordas (by El Corona x Raimond) at the 1998 European Junior Riders Championships and returned with him to the 1999 European Young Riders Championships, round the time her career-launching horse Kwadraat came along.

Kwadraat

Kwadraat was a 1992 born KWPN gelding by Farmer out of Furella (by Wisconsin). He was bred by H. Ten Hoor in The Netherlands.

The bay gelding began his show career with both Moody sisters in 1998 as they alternated rides for two years. As of 2000 Becky was steadily on board and got selected on the British team for the 2000 and 2001 European Young Riders Championships, where they won team bronze in 2001. They became the highest placed British pair, finishing 9th in the Kur Final in 2000 and 9th again in 2001.

Becky continued riding Kwadraat at national level in the U.K. until 2006 after which he was leased to British young rider Samantha Harrison. She took Kwadraat to the 2007 European Junior Riders Championships in Nussloch, where they finished. In 2008 it was Sarah Hinchcliffe's turn to compete him internationally and in 2009 Samantha Brown got her chance to learn from Kwadraat. She rode him at the 2009 and 2010 European Junior Riders Championships in Ermelo and Kronberg. In 2012 Kwadraat returned to the national ring with Kristy Mellor and in 2013 and 2014 he competed nationally with Lindsay Cameron. In April 2014 Kwadraat did his last show age 22.

Bridging the Gap

Leaving the youth classes behind her and establishing herself as a professional rider, Moody began training with David Hunt in 2002.

The Danish warmblood bred Humble Pie, which Becky discovered in Holland as a 3-year old, took her into her first Intermediaire II tests in 2002 and Grand Prix tests in 2003, riding the British Nationals with him at the highest level to finish 13th. In 2005 Moody briefly returned to the international stage at small tour level with the Hanoverian bred High Fashion (by Hohenstein).

However it wasn't until the Dutch warmblood Carinsio (by by Painted Black x Beaujolais) came along that Moody was back into the spotlight. She rode him to a 7th place in the finals at the 2012 World Young Horse Championships in Verden. She did CDI's in the U.K with him at small tour level in 2015 and at Grand Prix level in 2017. In between there was also briefly small tour rides Tirsa (by Nourejev x Samber) and Euroka (by Uphill x Cabochon). With the latter she rode her last CDI on European soil back in May 2018 !

When asked why she doesn't venture over to Europe more often, Becky told Eurodressage, "partially because of the cost - especially since brexit. - but also because I haven’t really felt I’ve been ready to go there and do really well so I prefer to train at home and get better, and as we are lucky enough to be able to ride against Carl and Charlotte and Gareth, etc in this country I’ve used that so far."

Jagerbomb

In the past 25 years Becky has recorded almost 2000 competition starts at national level in the U.K and the database does not include her scores in the first ten years of her competition career on ponies. Many horses have been trained and produced by Moody of the past two decades, her last Grand Prix horse, Famke PF, was sold abroad.

It is the home-bred Jagerbomb (by Dante Weltino out of Becky's GP mare Udysee (by Jazz)) that has given her career new impetus. She admitted she found "Bomber" boring as a young horse and it was only on sister Hannah’s advice he wasn’t sold. Once the difficulty level of his work went up did the talent and aptitude for dressage. Since then it has been going at rocket speed.

In 2021 Becky and the 7-year old Jagerbomb won the British Championship for 7-Year Olds and were reserve Small Tour Champions. Half a year later they made it a Small Tour triple at the 2022 British Winter Championships. They rode one CDI at small tour level in July 2022.

In February 2023 Becky and the 9-year old Jagerbomb competed in their first national Grand Prix test and 11 more classes followed this year, including winning the 2023 British Grand Prix Kur Championship and riding him in the CDI's in Wellington Heckfield, Hartpury and last week's World Cup qualifier in London, where they scored 75.087% in the Grand Prix and 83.675% in the Kur, twice finishing third.

Upward Trajectory

In August Moody made a spectacular jump on the FEI Dressage Riders Ranking from 258th place to 44th. She is currently ranked 43rd. They attracted the interest of British selectors who put her in the reserve position for the British team for the 2023 European Dressage Championships in Riesenbeck.

With Jagerbomb winning the 2023 British GP Kur Champion's title

“I never thought he would end up being my top horse,” Becky told Horse & Hound in September. “As a youngster, he didn’t articulate his joints very well, and didn’t have mega movement. He was a bit straight in the leg and lacked energy and sharpness. But he has let me create it."

Becky calls him a people pleaser and credits his remarkably character and rideability for allowing her to mould him into a Grand Prix horse.

Busy Times Ahead

And the future looks bright for her as Jagerbomb is a strong contender for the Olympic race to Paris. Becky also has a second Grand Prix horse in the wings, the rising 10-year old KWPN stallion James Bond (by Desperado x Fidertanz), whom she rode in his first GP test on 7 December 2023.

"I very much hope to do more in Europe now I feel like I have the horse power and the experience to hopefully do a good job," she told Eurodressage. "I hope to campaign Jagerbomb with Paris in mind, but he is still young and he’s a big horse and I’m conscious I want to keep him happy and fresh so won’t do loads of shows. I am aiming for the Nations cup show in Compiegne."

Moody and Jagerbomb impressed at the CDI-W London

She continued, "And then hopefully another European one, plus maybe 2 CDI’s here. We need more GP Special practice as I mostly ran him in the freestyles last year as it was a floorplan that suited him and wasn’t so physically challenging for his young body! But he’s way stronger now even that a few months ago."

Becky continues to rely on David Hunt, her trainer of 20 years.

"David helped me warm up in London," said Becky. "He is very much a mentor to me as well. I train with Carl for a couple of days every 6 weeks or so as unfortunately he is 4 hours from where I live. I actually find the combination works very well. Carl's attention to the test riding aspect is something that’s really helped me."