June/July 2026 Issue

June/July 2026 | EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN 35 By L.A. Berry Charlotte Jorst has already proven herself a force of nature, demonstrating how a woman in her third, fourth or fifth decade can start riding, competing and become one of the lead- ing adult amateurs of her day and discipline. She went from les- sons in her thirties — okay, a year-and- a-half of no stirrups with Guenter Seidel is a heckuva foundation — to igniting Grand Prix dressage arenas in her fifties and beyond. Along the way came the 2021 CDI3* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Free- style wins during Week 12 of the Global Dres- sage Festival, 2019 FEI Dressage Nations Cup team gold, the 2018 USEF Grand Prix Dres- sage National Cham- pionship, and 2015 CDIO5* Rotterdam team bronze in her first Nations Cup appear- ance. This, however, is not your average horse tale about mid-life mas- tery of timeless riding traditions. It’s more like mastering time itself. Because Charlotte has become one of the best-known, unabashed ad- vocates for the ultimate in building consistency in your horse: cloning. It’s Not What You Think “Oh everybody says you did this because you want more championships. No, it’s not,” says the Reno, Nevada-via-Denmark horsewoman and entrepreneur, who has translated an innate find-the-need-and-fill-it pragmatism into two successful retail companies from scratch. Her Kastel Denmark protective clothing line was born after a skin cancer diagnosis, and Skagen Denmark created lean, clean watches to nip at the wrists of Rolex. Now the former watch de- signer is cloning horses. Not to stop time, but to finely tune its gears. “People want to project their motives on you,” Charlotte says of the occasional backlash to her decision. “But for me, it [cloning] is a safety and comfort thing. “I already know their every idiosyncrasy. For instance, they [three clones of KWPN stallion Kastel’s Nintendo] have the same hooves that are weakest on the right side. I know when and where to look for quarter cracks and how to shoe for them because Nintendo got them, too. “Clon- ing wasn’t about winning. It has been a much simpler motive. It’s about my familiarity with how to care for them.” Charlotte, like her horse, wasn’t getting any younger when she began considering cloning. “I was facing Ninten- do getting older, and I was 61. I think that was where I was men- tally.” And let’s face it, 61-year-old bod- ies don’t bounce back the way they used to. Learning a new horse — and conversely, their learning her — can be fraught with “oops mo- ments” of parting com- pany that could lead to serious or permanent injury. Working with horses whose “feel” she already understood and knew how to ride would be arguably safer, especially after candid- ly admitting her own reflexes weren’t what they once were. Sure, she rode stallions — Kastel’s Nintendo and Zhaplin Langholt — but still. On the ground, a clone would offer horse care routines and decisions Charlotte was comfortable manag- ing, lending an edge to building out her budget and calendar. From the saddle, knowing how to ride a clone’s identical conformation and way of going might build a better performance partnership sooner. All boxes checked, right? Not quite. Continued on page 47 Charlotte Jorst Has a Recurring Dream For Reno resident Charlotte Jorst, cloning isn’t about the gamble of chasing championships. It’s about safety, familiarity, and the chance to ride a once-in-a-lifetime feeling all over again. Charlotte Jorst with Nintendo Switch