Fred’s Finest Moments : A Horse By Any Other Name Probably Wouldn’t Go From High-Level Reject to $2-Million Jumper

To the top with Fred .

That’s the wording on the cover of the horseman magazine featuring Lisa Jacquin and her 13-year-old jumper.

Inside is a lengthy article by 26-year-old Jacquin of Rancho Palos Verdes detailing the long road to success with what used to be a mediocre animal.

It’s taken almost a decade to make Fred, who’s also known as For the Moment, a top-notch jumper, something that seemed virtually impossible.

In 1981, when Jacquin first saw him in Connecticut, she wasn’t impressed. She thought the gelding was stiff, tense and out of control. On top of that he lacked proper training.

But Jacquin bought the horse because she thought he had potential and the price was right.

“I’d say he was a higher level of rejects when Lisa bought him,” said Kaye Love, an Arizona riding instructor who had worked with Jacquin. “That’s why I think you have to give a little bit of credit to outright fate that the two of them came together.”

Call it destiny or good judgment on Jacquin’s part, but Fred turned out to be one the planet’s most successful four-legged creatures.

Today Fred is worth about $2 million, according to Judy Martin, a horse trainer at the Seahorse Riding Club stable in Rolling Hills Estates. He’s qualified for the World Cup four years in a row and was selected to represent the United States in this year’s Olympics on Sept. 26 in Seoul.

He’s temporarily left his home at the Seahorse Riding Club to train in Pennsylvania before heading to Korea on Sept. 10.

Actually, Fred’s taking it easy these days after the lengthy Olympic Trials, because as successful as he’s been in the last five years, the Olympic screening process was an extremely difficult endurance test.

He and Jacquin went through five observation trials on the East Coast in order to qualify as one of the five U.S. equestrian teams.

After the fourth trial the Olympic committee made a list of 16 horses and their riders. At the end of July, in Long Island, those top contenders competed in a grueling three-day event that included obstacles of maximum heights.

“It really takes an amazing athlete to do it,” Jacquin said of the trials. “The horses do very strenuous high jumps and put out an extremely difficult effort. They have to take the day in, day out competition without any medication because they (Olympic committee) don’t allow medication of any kind. It’s hard not to get sore without medication after all that.”

In the seven years that Fred and Jacquin have competed together, they’ve won 16 Grand Prix titles and numerous others. Her Palos Verdes apartment is flooded with trophies, ribbons and certificates symbolic of Fred’s tremendous success.

The victories started in 1983 when Fred competed in his first Grand Prix event and won it, something few horses do.

Fred only got better. He won two Grand Prix titles in 1984 and two in 1985. In 1986 he won three and received a ribbon in all 13 of his Grand Prix competitions.

“He’s a very consistent horse,” Martin said, “and he’s an extremely clean jumper. I’d have to say those are his strengths because he’s not a real pretty horse. There’s nothing about him that will strike your fancy, but he has a lot of charisma.”

Last year was Fred’s biggest. He earned more than $100,000 in prize money and finished as the second winningest horse on the circuit. He won eight Grand Prix titles out of 14, including the American Invitational in Tampa, Fla., the United States’ most prestigious event.

Fred also placed third at the World Cup in Paris and won both selection trials for the Pan American Games. At the Games Fred and Jacquin received a silver medal for the three-day team competition.

This year Fred hasn’t competed in any Grand Prix events in order to prepare for the Olympics.

“They really make a special team,” Martin said of Fred and Lisa. “She started working with him when he was a very young horse and their relationship is a very good one. She knows everything about him.”

Jacquin started riding in Arizona when she was 10. She was a phenomenon as a junior rider and won more than 50 titles nationwide.

“She was exceptional for her age,” Love said. “In a show in Albuquerque she won 16 classes. She’d win the open division, too. It was almost to the point where it was embarrassing on occasion. Everyone who competed against her would just strive for second.”

In 1983 Jacquin moved to the South Bay to ride for the Portuguese Bend Riding Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. Four years ago she switched to the Seahorse stables where she spends at least eight hours a day training with Fred.

“We started from scratch,” Jacquin said. “It’s been a very slow process, like starting in elementary school and building your way into high school. It took seven years to do it, but he’s peaking now.”

Fred must be in college.