‘I did my first BE90 after Covid’: Hungary’s debutante has only been eventing for five years

Hungary’s Noémi Viola Doerfer only completed her first BE90 at Tweseldown in July 2020 and five years later she is making her senior eventing championship debut at Blenheim.

“I did my first BE90 after the events opened up again after Covid, so it’s only been a couple years,” said Noémi. “I had a little Haflinger mare and kept saying I want to jump over wooden fences and not necessarily the showjumps, but she wouldn’t go. Then I got a dressage horse that ended up eventing up to four star, and it jkept rolling from there.”

Tomorrow’s cross-county day is also Noémi’s 27th birthday. Her Agria FEI European Eventing Championships partner is Piltown Harry, a 10-year-old she started riding three years ago.

The horse was previously ridden up to intermediate level by Ireland’s Austin O’Connor, with whom Noémi was based when she first arrived in the UK.

“I got very lucky with Harry,” she said. “I did his first three-star with him and we kept going from there. He’s an absolute machine cross-country, as long as he sees the fences, he knows where he’s going.

“He’s not the biggest mover and he’s not the biggest fan of dressage. That’s his little quirk — you have to make him think it’s his idea, and then he’ll do the movements [to the best of] his ability.”

Noémi and Harry contested the eight- and nine-year-old championship here at Blenheim last year, but did not complete.

‘Go to England’

Noémi grew up in Germany but rides for Hungary, her mother’s native country. She came to the UK to try her hand at eventing after a stint in Hong Kong, where she worked in sports management.

“My first job was in Hong Kong in a riding school. My boss was British, and a couple of my colleagues were British, and I kept saying I want to event. They said, ‘well, go to England,’ so that’s how I ended up at Austin’s.

“I learned everything from him; it’s all down to his and [Austin’s wife] Amy’s training. I’ve also had great help from Gill Watson and Tracie Robinson, who help Austin.”

Noémi is now based back in Germany, at a showjumping yard half an hour north of Hamburg.

“At the end of 2022, I was talking through my plan for the Olympics 2024 and qualifying as an individual. Obviously it’s difficult and you need points, so my plan was to do a lot of European events. In order to not break the bank, I based myself back in Germany and I stayed there.”

Trilingual

Noémi is fluent in three languages: Hungarian, German, and English.

“My mom’s Hungarian. I really like the culture there and all the Folk-type things. My mum raised us bilingual. She would only speak Hungarian to us and still does to this day. If I don’t reply in Hungarian, she’ll be like, ‘I don’t understand what you’re saying’ — and she speaks perfect German.

“She [mum] used to ride our little Haflinger mare. My sister and I both did vaulting. If I tack her horse up, twice a year my sister will go hacking with me.

“So it’s only me really [that rides], but they’re very supportive, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible. My dad’s driver and videographer; my mum does the grooming, so it works out.”

Vaulting foundations

Noémi started out in vaulting.

“That was my mum again,” she says. “At six years old I said I want to ride and she said great, do that, but you’ve got to be able to tack up your horse, I’m not helping.

“She stuck me into vaulting and then aged 10 I was allowed to ride. The vaulting gave me a great foundation. You’ve got super feel for the horse, and you’re really balanced, so from the get go I had a really good seat.

“I would say, if any young kid wants to ride, stick them into vaulting for a year or two.”