Horse of a Lifetime: Shutterfly

We celebrate a three-time World Cup winner...

One of Jumping’s great champions, Shutterfly, passed away at the grand old age of 30 at the end of January.

The Hannoverian gelding took Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum to an incredible three Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ titles in the 2000s, matching the achievement of Rodrigo Pessoa’s Baloubet De Rouet. Shutterfly’s brilliance also helped her to become the first female athlete to reach the top of the World rankings.

“He was a unique and irreplaceable part of our lives,” Meredith said in a heartfelt post as she announced his passing some 12 years after his retirement.

Here we look back at the career of one of the greats…

What was Shutterfly’s background?

The horse who became Shutterfly was originally named ‘Struwwelpeter’ when he was born out of sire Silvio I and dam Flamm in January 1993. Originating in Hessel, north west Germany, he was bred by Uwe Dresmann.

Struwwelpeter is a character from a German fable, on whom the movie Edward Scissorhands was based, and translates as “thicket Peter”. His name was reportedly a reference to his scraggly hair.

This young Hannoverian seemed a talent from the off and was soon catching the eye in Jumping competitions. He was able to qualify for the Bundeschampionat at the age of five.

In 1999, at the age of 6, his life changed when he was spotted at a national show by Michaels-Beerbaum, who in that same year was part of the German team that won gold at the European Championships. Later that year, the gelding was bought for Meredith by Jim and Nancy Clark.

However, while Meredith was impressed by his talents in the ring, she wasn’t sure about his name. Our hero saw his name changed to Shutterfly, the digital photo company owned by the Clarks, although the nickname “Petey” stuck with him for life.

Meredith realised that while her new horse had potential there would be plenty of hard work if he was to replace Stella as her long-term No.1. “He was spooky and frightened of everything, and nervous and anxious,” she recalled.

She focused on keeping his stress level low and only entered him in junior competitions as she sought to settle his nerves.

This patient approach began to pay dividends when he won the young horse championship as an eight-year-old and followed it up with a win in the German women’s national championship. While they missed out on a place at the 2002 FEI World Equestrian Games, they were soon totting up the tour victories.

Please click here to read the rest of the article as it appears on the FEI website.