Hello Mango: The story and background of Scott Brash's mare, who won the team bronze medal at the World Championships in Aachen.

Hello Mango is made for what used to be a magazine cover. As beautiful as a supermodel and a sensation on the show jumping course. There’s no other way to describe this KWPN mare, who was born in 2015 at Harrie Vaessen’s farm in Maasbree near Venlo, 100 kilometers north of Aachen.

Hello Mango: A Start with Staack

The gray mare was first introduced to the sport by Dutch rider Patrick Lemmen, and later by Frederike Staack. Frederike, who had already enjoyed success for Germany in the Children’s class and hails from Schleswig-Holstein, has been living in Belgium for quite some time. She rode the mare for just under a year and a half when she was six and seven years old. In November 2021, the mare was sold to Poden Farms.

Stopover at Poden Farms

After Frederike Staack, the Italian Lorenzo de Luca brought the mare out. De Luca rides for Poden Farms in Worcestershire. Poden Farms is owned by the Moffit family from California. Emily Moffit rides the company’s horses; her father is from Great Britain. Poden Farms supported British Olympic champion Ben Maher for many years. His most famous horse, Explosion, was owned by Poden Farms.

In September 2022, Scott Brash rode the mare for the first time in Oliva. Today he says, “She’s a horse built for championships; I’ve known that ever since I first sat on her.” That feeling was enough to convince the group of owners behind Scott Brash’s “Hello horses” to purchase the gray mare.

The Owners: Lady Pauline (twice)

Lady Pauline Kirkham and Lady Pauline Harris have been the owners since January 2023. The two ladies, who share the same first name, have supported Scott ever since his talent was recognized at a very young age. Lady Harris’s husband, Philip Charles Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham, made his fortune in the carpet industry. He is a member of the House of Lords. The couple also previously owned the legendary Hello Sanctos, a gold medalist at the London Olympics and, as a Rolex Grand Slam winner, a once-in-a-century horse. Hello Jefferson, whom Scott rode to a gold medal with Team GB in Paris 2024, also belongs to the Harrises. Lord Harris was actively involved with the British Show Jumping Association for many years.

The family behind the “Hello Horses”

Lord and Lady Harris established the eponymous Hello Stud in Scotland. That’s also where Scott Brash’s competition horses spend their retirement.

The second owner, Lady Pauline Kirkham, is rather reserved by nature. She is regarded as an academically minded individual who is heavily involved financially in the medical field. Her husband, Graham, Baron Kirkham, is a self-made billionaire who rose from being the adopted child of a miner to become a sofa mogul. Starting with a rented room above a billiards bar, he literally built an empire—he even built the first sofas himself.

Brash Surprises All of Great Britain with His Choice

The fact that Scott Brash chose Hello Mango as his horse for the World Championships came as a surprise to many in Great Britain. On paper, the KWPN mare wasn’t necessarily the obvious choice. “The statistics aren’t everything,” says Scott Brash in his unmistakable thick accent, which gives no hint of his Scottish Border roots. “It may have been a surprise to others, but not to my team and me. We always knew she was built for championships.”

Breeding background of Hello Mango

Hello Mango’s sire, Untouchable by Hors la Loi, is the grandsire of Richard Vogel’s United Touch S. Hors la Loi traces back to Almé via Papillon Rouge and Jalisco (for breeding nerds—here’s the fascinating story of the exceptional stallion Almé from France). And just like “U.T. the Alien,” Hello Mango also carries the blood of the Thoroughbred Ladykiller xx. In Hello Mango’s case, this is through Numero Uno Landgraf. United Touch S, on the other hand, traces back to Lord, the second Holstein stamp stallion sired by Ladykiller xx. Interestingly, Lord Calando appears in the pedigrees of both horses.

In its third generation, Hello Mango carries more Holsteiner blood: Berlin by Cassini is crossed here with the mare Van de Rose by Gentleman, who traces back to the half-blood Jasper by Courville xx and was ridden by Hugo Simon in international show jumping. Thus, Hello Mango combines stallions that have had a significant influence on show jumping over the past five decades, both in breeding and in competition.

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Maturity Earned Slowly

But a rider like Scott Brash also knows when a horse has reached the necessary

level

of maturity. “It took some time for her to fully develop her body. She needed strength.” Systematic strength training—that takes time. At age eight, the mare competed once in a CSI4* show jumping event. After that, however, Brash scaled back by a level and a half: junior show jumping, 1.30-meter show jumping. Only on very rare occasions did the mare have more than one jumping fault.

It’s nothing new that there can be the occasional slump when building up systematically. In a 1.40-meter Grand Prix, the pair had four knockdowns. That was in October and has hardly happened since 2022. The pair had only two competitions with more than two knockdowns under their belt when they made their five-star debut with respectable rounds at the 2024 World Cup event in Lyon.

2025: Debut in “elite competition”

In late February 2025, she achieved her first top-ten finish in a five-star show jumping competition at Al Shaqab. In January 2026, the gray mare won her first CSI5* Grand Prix at the same venue. And Scott Brash knew which horse he would be riding eight months later in Aachen. Especially after he placed fourth and sixth in the two qualifiers for the Aachen Grand Prix as part of the (T)CHIO Aachen 2026 with the Untouchable mare. Needless to say, without a single knockdown.

A “championship horse”

Experience also plays a major role when competing in World or European Championships. “Mango is a horse that can definitely get a little fired up at times.” Championships traditionally begin with a timed jumping round. “Being able to ride him quickly yet in a controlled manner during that round and then bring him back to a calm state afterward” is a process of maturation, says the 40-year-old.

And what’s Hello Mango like off the track?

“It’s so much fun to work with her,” says Brash, “and it’s fun just to look at her. She’s simply gorgeous.” He’s certainly right about that. The mare really is a sight to behold. She has a smart, alert gaze, a pretty head, and a graceful build. And she’s a friendly horse, even in the stable.

The next Hello Sanctos?

Scott Brash brushes off comparisons to Hello Sanctos with a smile: “Sanctos was a once-in-a-lifetime horse.” Besides, he generally doesn’t compare his horses. “Every horse is unique. But we can expect great things from her.”

The knockdown on the first jump of the second round in the Nations Cup at the 2026 World Championships in Aachen cost the pair the pole position heading into the individual final.

Nevertheless, Scott Brash’s core conviction remains unshaken:

The best is yet to come!