Kauto Star at Olympia last night

Santa's-a-scam said:
The horse didn't want to do it, it's that simple. Everything was wrong, walk, trot, canter, as another said Pony Club kicking him on. If his rider sees the video of herself, I suspect that she'll be rather embarrassed.

He should either be back at Ditchet, or Hunting. Failing that, they can send him up here and I'll treat him like a King! I can ride him out when I check my sheep, perhaps!! :)

It was a sorry display, I thought, of a horse which was arguably the greatest Chaser ever. Those who have control of the horse, need to be having a serious re-think, in my modest opinion.

Alec.
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But without a crystal ball, nobody could predict that so criticising it seems a bit pointless.

Goya said:
Watching the video, it looks like they overdue the calmer, whichever one they used.
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Possibly, but I don't see anything wrong with using calmer for an environment like that. Lessons to be learned possibly, but I don't think it was anywhere near bad enough to warrant some of the comments.
 
SussexbytheChristmasTree said:
I'm only saying what I saw first hand and hope I'm not being classed as "outraged" or "criticising". It was not to do with comparing him to the dressage horse previously. Quite obviously he was bothered by something (most probably stage fright as I said first) and there was nothing Laura could do to keep him moving really except maybe give him a wallop which would have gone down badly in any case. The video posted here ends before he gets to the point where she struggled to keep him even walking whilst the commentators rambled on.
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It got increasingly uncomfortable. Racing Post promised a full write up of his appearance today, but I can't find it as yet.

It did make me wonder though. Wouldn't I rather see him out and about, team chasing and the like, like a good few of the other racing greats have got to do? It's such a far cry. Why did she choose dressage for him, and not eventing, also?
 
SkewbyTwo said:
It got increasingly uncomfortable. Racing Post promised a full write up of his appearance today, but I can't find it as yet.

It did make me wonder though. Wouldn't I rather see him out and about, team chasing and the like, like a good few of the other racing greats have got to do? It's such a far cry. Why did she choose dressage for him, and not eventing, also?
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I expect there's a very very good reason they chose a non jumping retirement 'job ' for him.
But it's their business .
 
Sorry I don't understand why he should be back at Ditcheat or hunting or team chasing or anywhere else except in the care of LC ??
He was the greatest chaser of a generation no question but that doesn't mean he can't have a quieter life, still active and doing something meaningful but at a slower pace. He spent about 9 years at the top of his game. Most race horses have one good season and then they are finished. And he was raced in France as a 3 & 4 year old, so he's pretty much been on the go for all that time, he's not had a quiet life really. I don't know why Clive Smith chose dressage, but he's being advised by Yogi Brisner, so we perhaps should assume that the advice is good. I think its unfair to suggest his 'team' don't have his best interests at heart. I think LC takes the responsibility of having him in her care very seriously.

Its impossible to re-create the atmosphere of Olympia so no-one knows how he would react first time. LC said herself she didn't know if he was going to boil over. That would suggest he's chipper and happy at home, so its very likely he was a bit overawed by the whole thing.
Is very easy to criticise but I wonder how many of us would be able to do better.
 
Goldenstar said:
I expect there's a very very good reason they chose a non jumping retirement 'job ' for him.
But it's their business .
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Despite everyone knowing he's jumping at home and jumping well too.

I saw KS at Barbury last year and it didn't really do anything for me watching a great example of a fantastic racehorse just doing walk, trot and canter for 15 mins. It's a pity that ROR don't focus on the likes of Denman to raise their profile. I guess they'll have their reasons though...
 
Hets83 said:
I saw a video on Facebook and my first thought was that he looked like he had been given 'something' to take the edge off him. Laura Collett had publicly said she was unsure about how he would cope with the atmosphere and being a person who regularly retrains and competes ex racehorses, I can understand her concern. Mine would go mad in that atmosphere but think it was disappointing to see him dopey and not going forward. Think his lack of impulsion made him look slightly unlevel.

We all know that ex racehorses can be retrained to a high standard in lots of disciplines, not sure how needed his appearance was if he did have to be given 'something' to get through it without blowing up.
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My thoughts exactly Hets83. He looked exactly like a horse that had been "given something".
 
Perfect-Piaffe said:
It was awful to watch- everyone around us was saying the same too. I had to turn away in the end- what was she doing?! The dressage before was great though :)
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I left halfway through. 3 rows from the front. I couldn't watch anymore. The horse wasn't happy, put it down to stage fright or something else but I didn't see the need for the pony club kicks and sawing on the reins. I'm not part of the kauto star fan club but no horse should be displayed as he was.
 
joey&jess said:
I left halfway through. 3 rows from the front. I couldn't watch anymore. The horse wasn't happy, put it down to stage fright or something else but I didn't see the need for the pony club kicks and sawing on the reins. I'm not part of the kauto star fan club but no horse should be displayed as he was.
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Very upsetting to hear this
 
forever broke said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/equestrian/30516647

video clips and interview with Laura here - I can't hear what she's saying though as I've no sound on my pc so won't comment on it
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Looks doped to me. Sweaty neck, unaware of surroundings, unreactive to anything rider is doing... rider yanking at the front end to try and keep him from dropping his nose to the floor..... I would actually prefer to think this was a mistake in over-doping rather than that the horse is this switched off and unhappy.

I do not know any TBs that would normally switch off in this way - yes back off the leg maybe, but probably look aware of their surroundings at the same time...
 
Thanks for the BBC link. Pretty much as it looked from the blurry Youtube video - he got stage fright according to LC. She had worked him quite hard before hand hoping to avoid him boiling over in the arena, and he went the other way. It wasn't particularly pretty but you don't have a lot of options in a situation like that.
 
forever broke said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/equestrian/30516647

video clips and interview with Laura here - I can't hear what she's saying though as I've no sound on my pc so won't comment on it
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Interesting, they showed the bad bits.
LC essentially said he got stage fright and shut down, disappointing he didn't show himself off to his best.
Apparently going well at home and pretty ready to think about competing but she was non committal about when - citing eventing horses taking priority.

I don't know, I'm pretty 'meh' about Kuato doing dressage. It doesn't quite feel right to me. But then like I said earlier I don't know the horse at all, one would hope the owner only had his very best interests at heart.
 
Poor Laura. Watching that video is painful. She is practically smacking him repeatedly with the whip and he won't go. Bit strange for sure. But like she said, much better that than bogging off and decking her.

Something not right there though, seems somewhat extreme for stage fright, but I just feel really bad for Laura, she must have been mortified.
 
Just watched this, the canter looked nice, didn't see any trot but as for the walk.....sorry, but I would much rather have seen her take the reins into one hand and give him 1 good crack then that CONSTANT nagging...and what on earth is with the jabby hands?!

I'm not saying I could have done any better, but the flailing arms/hands is just bizarre.
 
To me it just looked like he had stage fright, nothing more but I'm sure Laura knows him better than anybody on here!!

As for whether he's in the right career as none of us own him then it's not really our decision!
 
I do wonder why Yogi didn't try and help her out at all - call her over, bring the interview to a halt, anything. I appreciate they had a time slot to fill, but he will have seen the trouble she was in and could have done something, surely
 
I think she spoke well, and did explain what the horse did. I'm sure she had nerves as well, and will probably not enjoy watching the replay, BUT, these things happen. I do agree with above poster that Yogi should have helped a little, even if it was to call her in, and talk to her while he was still.
Horse looks well, but i too, don't get the fascination of national hunt racing to dressage with a more mature aged horse.
 
"Stage fright" is a bit anthropomorphic, isn't it?

His racing career was hardly constant calm was it?

Also, if that were the case, why did he worsen so dramatically as time went on?
 
SkewbyTwo said:
"Stage fright" is a bit anthropomorphic, isn't it?

His racing career was hardly constant calm was it?

Also, if that were the case, why did he worsen so dramatically as time went on?
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There's a massive difference between the atmosphere at the track and down at the start gate - and that in a relatively packed indoor space with lights and people practically sitting right on top of the arena.

As to why he got worse - we took Kali to East Soley at the beginning of this year - he had been competing for two years but was having a particularly stressy day - he went into the indoor arena held his breath and shut his eyes (figuratively) and tried really hard . . . he got about half way through the test and then just lost the plot and shut down . . . got more and more backward until he was practically crawling down the centre line. It was not pretty - and thank God he didn't do it somewhere like Olympia in front of a large, live audience ;).

The thing is, we (none of us) know why the horse (Kauto Star) behaved the way he did - we don't own him, we don't train him and we weren't riding him last night.

P
 
I have just watched the Newbury video and it's not a whole lot better.

I have just edited this to add, I actually feel really sorry for Laura. They are not gelling, or something. But the pressure on her is horrific.

There is even a mention in one early article that she ruled out him doing the Olympics. Those are the expectations! Not fair on Kauto or her.
 
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No we were not riding him and we don't own him etc, however I would have thought that such a experienced rider should have made the decision to call it a day when he was clearly not right. The kicking and yanking display was not pretty.
 
Hmmm, I didn't find the BBC clip pleasant viewing. But as others have said we aren't LC and we weren't riding KS last night so it isn't fair to judge. I do however think it perhaps would have been better to retire him and say he wasn't happy with the atmosphere. Although doing that would have had its own issues- we as riders and horse owners would have understood however the less knowledgeable public and press might have responded differently.
 
Ive just watched the clip through twice and to me he just looks really reluctant to move forward, a lot of head nodding and tossing and just general disinterest. Would that suggest something is hurting him somewhere. To me it looked like a very polite horse trying to say "No". JMO though.
 
Video wasn't nice to watch. But the pressure she's under is unreal. I bet she would not have even ridden him at Olympia, given the chance.

Meanwhile, the BBC headline is: "Record-breaking Kauto Star is likely to compete in dressage in 2015, but will not take part in the 2016 Olympics." I started giggling when I read that. Ya think??

The media is obviously on another planet, one where they know very little about dressage, or horses. If he competes, it would surely be at Prelim or Novice which is, well, not at the Olympics, lol.
 
What the actual ******* was she doing with her hands at 00:35 on the BBC video?!?!?

I'm not surprised the poor thing didn't want to go forwards, he was being jabbed in the mouth every step :(.

I'm not saying I could have done any better, but the flailing arms/hands is just bizarre.
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I quite agree.
 
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