Chillie Storm | A Thunderous Start for a New Combination

Chillie Storm, a 2012 bay gelding by Red Hot Choice, had 39 combined starts under trainer Roy Rogers and later Garry Delane. During his racing career, Chillie Storm produced two wins, two seconds and one third earning his connections $89,100.

Chillie Storm, known as Steelo to his friends, first caught Bethany’s eye during her time working for Roy Rogers Racing in Albany. Bethany is an avid eventer and instantly recognised Steelo’s potential as her next event horse.

“He had three great paces, a great working attitude and I could see the potential – we just kind of clicked.” says Bethany.

“He has this quirky teenage attitude but is one of the easiest horses to have around” Bethany continued.

After patiently waiting for Steelo to finish his racing career, Bethany bought home the gelding in August 2018 and commenced his retraining as an eventer.

“[Steelo] has been great to retrain, took to eventing like a duck to water” says Bethany.

Bethany’s belief in Steelo paid off; in 2021, his first eventing season, the pair started competing at 80cm and finished at 1* level. Over the course of their maiden season the duo produced three wins and placed in the top four at five out of the seven competitions they entered. These results include wins in the EvA80 OTT class at Capel, and the EvA95 OTT classes at both the Wooroloo CCN and Wooroloo CCI-L.

According to Bethany, “[our] favourite event to win was probably Wooroloo second event. We lead from start to finish and he gave me such an easy ride in all three phases – made me super proud of my training efforts and he proved he was ready to upgrade”.

Dipping their toes in other disciplines, Steelo and Bethany rounded out their very successful 2021 winning Supreme Champion Hack at the Albany Agricultural Show. Bethany gave the ride on Steelo at Equestrian in the Park to young rider, Brandon Ivic, who confidently guided the nine-year-old gelding around the technical course and through the finish flags.

The level of consistency saw Bethany and Steelo place third overall on the 2021 EvA95 Eventing Leaderboard.

After their incredible 2021 season, Bethany and Steelo made the journey east and are now based with two-time Olympic medalist, Shane Rose.

“We plan to be over here for about 12 months and hopefully move up to 2* around May and work towards a 3* start at the end of the year” says Bethany.

With an incredible start to their journey so far, we look forward to following Bethany and Steelo throughout the 2022 season!