Gem Twist - Original Version

Gem Twist, the handsome grey Thoroughbred gelding, is regarded as one the greatest show-jumping horses in history.  He is the only horse to have won the American Grand Prix Association Horse of the Year Award three times.  He may also be the first gelding to sire several offspring... by cloning! 

Registered originally as Icey Twist, Gem Twist was born a chestnut with a star and one front sock, but quickly greyed out into the eye-catching color we all know.  In his debut year jumping Grand Prix he won his first Horse of the Year award, and never looked back.  He also helped win Team Silver at the Pan Am Games that year, then went on to bring home two silver medals at the 1988 Olympics.  In 1990, he was named "World's Best Horse" at the World Equestrian Games in Stockholm.  He took three different riders to championships, and retired a champion in 1997.  He was inducted into the United States Show Jumping Hall of Fame in 2002.  Gem passed away in 2006, at the age of twenty-seven.

Despite being a gelding, his first foal arrived on September15, 2008.  The foal, and several others born since, are clones of Gem Twist.  It appears all were born chestnuts with a white star and a single front sock, and have begun to grey out, true to their sire's color.  It is hoped that they will carry on his magnificent bloodlines.  The first foal, called Gemini, is owned by the Chapot family of New Jersey, owners of Gem Twist.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Chapot rode in the Olympics, with Frank campaigning on Gem Twist's sire Good Twist, so they had a sentimental reason for cloning the big grey:  "It was something I could give to my daughter," he said.  So, did Gemini become a great jumper?   At ten months old, he escaped his pasture by jumping a 3-foot, nine-inch fence! 

Breyer honored Gem Twist with his own portrait sculpture in 1993, depicting him cantering lightly between fences, ears pricked.  For the first year and possibly part of the second, his braids were painted with red on every other braid.  Later, this was changed to red dots on each braid.

This fellow is still attached in his original box with his hang tag.  (Tag will be tucked behind the box insert for safety.)

Breyer Model #495