Noémi Doerfer and Piltown Harry. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
More often than not, the path to riding at a senior championship is stony, steep and slow. Occasionally — aand cheeringly — it is not. Hungarian competitor Noémi Doerfer did her first 90cm class when eventing restarted following the first Covid lockdown in July 2020, and five years and two months later, here she is at a European Championship.
Noémi, who speaks accentless English but is also fluent in Hungarian (her mother still will speak nothing else to her) and German, explains — sort of.
“I had a little Haflinger mare, and for some reason I kept saying that I wanted to jump over wooden fences, but she wouldn’t really want to go,” she rattles off with a big smile. “And I got a dressage horse that ended up doing eventing up to four-star, so I kind of got into it with him, and it just kept rolling from there.”
Noémi grew up in Germany, and her first equestrian experience was in the world of vaulting.
“When I was six I said that I wanted to ride, and my mum said, ‘Great, but you’ve got to be able to tack up your own horse — I’m not helping.’ So she sent me vaulting, which was a great foundation. You develop super feel for the horse and you’re really balanced. When I was 10 I was allowed to ride ‘properly’. From the get-go I had a really good seat, and it all came together quite quickly.”
After leaving school she undertook an apprenticeship, and then went to Hong Kong to work in a riding school.
“My boss was British and so were a couple of colleagues, and when I said, ‘I want to event’, they said, ‘Well, go to England.’”
Fortunately, Noémi based herself at Irish rider Austin O’Connor’s Oxfordshire yard, and she gives Austin, his wife Amy and trainers Gill Watson and Tracie Robinson great credit for helping her get to where she is.
“I’ve basically learnt everything from them,” she says.
Noémi Doerfer and Piltown Harry. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
She was “lucky enough” to take over Piltown Harry, the 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse by Harlequin Du Carel on whom she scored 37.6 in the dressage today, from Austin.
“He’s an absolute machine across 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; his little quirk, I’d say, is that you have to make him think it’s his idea, and then he will do the movements within his ability,” Noémi says.
She is now based back in Germany, in a showjumping yard half an hour north of Hamburg.
“At the beginning of 2023 I was talking through my plan for the 2024 Olympics and how to qualify for that as an individual. My plan was to do a lot of European events, so it made sense to be based there,” she says. Though the Paris dream wasn’t to be, she’s been able to gain valuable mileage in competitive fields at Luhmühlen, Sopot, and Arville.
Her family aren’t particularly horsey — “my sister can ride if I tack up the horse, twice a year, and my mum says she is too old now” — but they are very supportive.
“My dad is driver and videographer, my mum does a bit of the grooming…” says Noémi.
It’s her 27th birthday tomorrow, on cross-country day; we’re looking forward to cheering her on as she gives herself good reason to celebrate that night.
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