Kauto Star at Olympia last night

Whatever anyone says , the way he was ridden was awful, you wouldn't expect to see someone riding like that at a local show, kick, yank, tap, repeat. Tap with whip, jab in mouth. Poor horse. I would also say he had been doped, the sweaty neck is a sign.
If he was not happy she should have called a halt to it.
It's one of the biggest shows in the world, not the place to ride like that.
 
Allover said:
The comment I hated from LC was along the lines of "I am very busy with my eventers and don't have time for him". EXCUSE ME does she know who He is? IMO this Legend of a racehorse should be somewhere where he is absolute top priority!
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Yes Allover, I hated that too. It clearly came across that one of the greatest chasers of our time was with her under sufferance, when he should be someones world.
 
SkewbyTwo said:
Exactly! Ditto "stage fright". He's won two Gold Cups. Go away.

All the chatter beforehand re "we don't know how he'll cope" showed the rider and 'team's' state of mind. And they utterly underestimated him. He was SO generous. They drugged, overworked and then bullied him. He tried but good grief, the riding is there for all to see and whatever we say, there will be repercussions from this, subtle and long term perhaps. But there has to be, and I hope for the better.

I bet there are plenty who would be more than willing to give him the spin he deserves out doing low key fun stuff. More likely to find someone in the hunting community who will have been in awe of him for many years now and would ride and treat him with the respect and love he deserves. He's getting neither of those things I believe. Horrible day for horsemanship.
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But in a totally different atmosphere doing a totally different thing, why would he not possibly get stage fright?

I have no problem acting on stage or delivering a speech or presentation in front of large crowds, but get major stage fright if there's people watching me showjump for example. The atmosphere and environment of the Gold Cup, with all the training etc he had and knowing his job well, is totally different from being at Olympia with not a single dressage comp under his belt, and his retraining still new to him.

My exracer wouldn't have faced crowds as big as Kauto, but he still would have had race atmosphere - and yet even very quiet dressage shows were stressful for him til he got used to it. I can definitely understand Kauto getting stage fright in an atmosphere like Olympia.

I can also understand the backwardness - Geoff can get like that too when overwhelmed. However I do wonder if the long warmup and a calmer may have been a bad mix too.

I do feel for him and LC, but do think she should have called it a day!
 
Allover said:
The comment I hated from LC was along the lines of "I am very busy with my eventers and don't have time for him". EXCUSE ME does she know who He is? IMO this Legend of a racehorse should be somewhere where he is absolute top priority!
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I completely agree with this. I thought this was a really sad comment. After winning over 2 million pounds I think the least he deserves is 1:1 with someone who treats him more like a pet. For LC I'm sure it's her life but it's also her job. Obviously there are lots of ex racers that go on to have really successful second careers. I just think it's sad that he's been put under this pressure to perform and be this flagship horse but maybe mentally low key events are his limit. He deserves a team to make decisions that are best for him. If you look on all the ex racehorse rehoming websites, they aren't all dressage prospects! The centres have taken time to get to know each horse before deciding where it's future might lie.
 
To clarify my comment above, it was supposed to be quoting paddi22's very sensible post.

I couldn't agree more with the poster who made the point that the owner can do what he likes with his own horse! Just because he is a famous horse doesn't mean to say that the general public have any more say over what he does on a day to day basis, than they do over any old Tom, Dick or Harry's horse......... I agree that the display probably did not go according to plan, but I honestly cannot see that it is appropriate for everyone to leap on the bandwagon and post such appalling comments about LC, her riding, her yard, her intentions for/with the horse/ her relationship with the owner and so on. I would love to see some video clips of some of the people that have posted on here riding as I would bet that very few of them are as accomplished a rider as LC! I personally am prepared to admit that I have made errors of judgement continuing on when it would probably would have ben wiser to stop and my own horses have had to put up with plenty of occasions when I am "having an off day". However I don't think for one moment that anyone could claim that they are abused/neglected/deserve to be with someone better as quite frankly they are far more fortunate than many equines in the world - even if on occasion they are "forced" to do things that they wouldn't naturally volunteer for - like be schooled when they would rather be turned out with their mates, or be vaccinated, clipped & shod. I just wish everyone would put it into perspective and think what it must be like to be LC who came back from a riding accident that nearly killed her, has managed to resume her career, has an off day and now must feel that all of Britain is condemning her!
 
I'm pretty unimpressed with the situation but what I don't understand is, did they not think it might be an idea to take him to some places before hand to help prepare him?? If he was struck down with stage fright then surely it would have helped if he'd been out and about doing some stuff before hand? I'm sure if he's good enough to do a demo at Olympia then he is a good enough to do some prelim competitions. Sounded to me like she hasn't really got time for him, they didn't know how he'd react because he doesn't get out much so they doped him up just in case. Either that or he just really really hates dressage! Wouldn't blame him.

I agree with people saying he might not suit hunting, hunting is hard on them! I'm sure Denman has settled in nicely but he did nearly die from a joint infection.. after he'd been pictured jumping stone walls out hunting..?? Does anyone know what happened there? I don't know why he has to be "a dressage horse" or "a hunter" or "an eventer".. he's a flipping race horse for gods sake! Not sure why he couldn't have just stayed at PN's OR gone to a normal low key home doing normal low key things like 99% of other horses in the country..
 
LCH611 said:
To clarify my comment above, it was supposed to be quoting paddi22's very sensible post.

I couldn't agree more with the poster who made the point that the owner can do what he likes with his own horse! Just because he is a famous horse doesn't mean to say that the general public have any more say over what he does on a day to day basis, than they do over any old Tom, Dick or Harry's horse......... I agree that the display probably did not go according to plan, but I honestly cannot see that it is appropriate for everyone to leap on the bandwagon and post such appalling comments about LC, her riding, her yard, her intentions for/with the horse/ her relationship with the owner and so on. I would love to see some video clips of some of the people that have posted on here riding as I would bet that very few of them are as accomplished a rider as LC! I personally am prepared to admit that I have made errors of judgement continuing on when it would probably would have ben wiser to stop and my own horses have had to put up with plenty of occasions when I am "having an off day". However I don't think for one moment that anyone could claim that they are abused/neglected/deserve to be with someone better as quite frankly they are far more fortunate than many equines in the world - even if on occasion they are "forced" to do things that they wouldn't naturally volunteer for - like be schooled when they would rather be turned out with their mates, or be vaccinated, clipped & shod. I just wish everyone would put it into perspective and think what it must be like to be LC who came back from a riding accident that nearly killed her, has managed to resume her career, has an off day and now must feel that all of Britain is condemning her!
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I think the position they have put themselves in is only to be judged by the public.. why else would they be doing to demo at Olympia? They probably indented everyone to be saying "oh hasn't she done a fantastic job".. but it's not really worked out like that!
 
Starbucks said:
I think the position they have put themselves in is only to be judged by the public.. why else would they be doing to demo at Olympia? They probably indented everyone to be saying "oh hasn't she done a fantastic job".. but it's not really worked out like that!
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Have to agree with this.
CS is not known for his knowledge or love of horses but he is known to love the publicity surrounding success; hopefully, this has back-fired on him big style; I mean to say, can you think of any other owner that would like it known for their horses to be treated that way in front of such a large audience?
 
Starbucks said:
I think the position they have put themselves in is only to be judged by the public.. why else would they be doing to demo at Olympia? They probably indented everyone to be saying "oh hasn't she done a fantastic job".. but it's not really worked out like that!
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Bear in mind that LC is only the rider, she may well have very little say in what the horse does or where he goes. I'm not sure she would have chosen such a high profile indoor demo following a bunch of GP dressage horses of her own free will.
 
Swirlymurphy said:
Bear in mind that LC is only the rider, she may well have very little say in what the horse does or where he goes. I'm not sure she would have chosen such a high profile indoor demo following a bunch of GP dressage horses of her own free will.
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I'm not saying it's all down to LC, when I say "they" I mean the whole team of owner, rider and then Yogi, whatever his involvement is. The point is LC and KS have been put in a position where they are going to be judged publicly. Now it's all gone a bit tits up! If you put yourself out there with a horse like KS and make a mess off it what do you expect to happen.

Just doesn't sound like they have the horses best interests at heart.
 
Starbucks said:
I'm not saying it's all down to LC, when I say "they" I mean the whole team of owner, rider and then Yogi, whatever his involvement is. The point is LC and KS have been put in a position where they are going to be judged publicly. Now it's all gone a bit tits up! If you put yourself out there with a horse like KS and make a mess off it what do you expect to happen.

Just doesn't sound like they have the horses best interests at heart.
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Agree 100%

I assume that if the will had been there the horse could have stayed at PNs, being treated like a king but being regularly schooled (and possibly competed) in dressage by somebody with the time to do him justice.
 
TPO said:
Jeez

I watched the first clip and didn't think it was *bad* enough to merit this outpouring. Then as several other posts help the BBC clip up as the *worst* I relented and watched it braced for a car crash but again I didn't see anything that would justify the online campaigns to get him removed from LC.

If you've never had a horse bail on you, never mind publically, then you've not ridden enough horses in enough situations! Whether it was the location, atmosphere or an assumed calmer OD things happen. I don't think anyone currently connected to the horse purposely decided to do anything detrimental with the horse and there's every chance they had no say in the decision for him to appear there.

I don't think she was jabbing him or taking his back teeth out as implied. Even though I hate flash nosebands I didn't see him being yanked etc To me the "flapping" seemed more focused on the loose reins against his neck while trying to mobilise/free it to get him moving. Yes he was swishing his tail and that can be an indicator of many things but in that situation it's certainly not enough to publically hang LC for.

An eventing yard seems like an ideal halfway house for a horse that's been institutionalised his whole life in a racing regime. If he'd been sent hunting, even if no disasters prevailed, there would have been the same outcry that he should have went to a RC/hacking/low level home. You can't please everyone!

I really feel for LC reading this thread; she is but human!
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^^ This totally................
 
Pigeon said:
When mine was last in pain (had a minuscule bit of grit stuck in his frog) it looked like his leg was going to fall off. There was much rolling of eyes and snorting and dangling said leg in the air. I promise you, I think you would know if he was sore. My tb also very much expresses his emotions. He will flash his tail and kick out with a hind leg if I feed another horse a carrot. He will do it if he pre-empts a canter transition and I don't let him go. It's a frustration thing. He also does it out of fear - if something really scares him, and I promise you it doesn't take much, he will run back, snort, and do the tail flash/kick. It's a quirk, it does indicate unhappiness, but unhappiness to him is witnessing a scary leaf blow across the yard, or not being turned out first or constantly hand fed fruit. ;) He has been examined to within an inch of his life and there's nothing physically wrong with him. Tbs are very sensitive souls. This was an overwhelming environment. I'm not surprised he didn't look at his best.
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This made me laugh, must be related to mine!

Mine once had what can only be described as a fit: threw herself onto the ground, making awful noises, groaning. Got the vet out within 30 minutes, I truly thought she was dying or something had gone seriously wrong. Vet gave her a painkiller and 10 minutes later she was stood munching haylage happy as larry. She had pulled something....

Freaks out at injections, wont let you touch the slightest injury. Drama queen with a capital D!
 
LCH611 said:
It's a sad day when the internet hysteria has reached such a head of steam that it is the Mirror that is making most sense.......
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That is your opinion, and a tabloid that knows very little about equines, and makes no sense at all to anyone that does not read the Mirror on a daily basis.
 
Lanky Loll said:
Well said Kerry, I really think Yogi should have done more to help the situation instead of prolonging the agony.
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I was baffled by this and my opinion of him has changed dramatically I have to say. This has done him, LC, dressage and RoR no favours. I don't care about all that as much as the horse. The owner is at fault here and the horse will be a pawn for his ego for some time. My heart bleeds for a horse who has done what he has and who now appears to be viewed as a necessary evil by his rider, for the sake of her career.
 
SkewbyTwo said:
I was baffled by this and my opinion of him has changed dramatically I have to say. This has done him, LC, dressage and RoR no favours. I don't care about all that as much as the horse. The owner is at fault here and the horse will be a pawn for his ego for some time. My heart bleeds for a horse who has done what he has and who now appears to be viewed as a necessary evil by his rider, for the sake of her career.
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well said
 
What, so is there some kind of deal worked out between Laura Collette and Kauto's owner -- he will buy top eventers for her to ride if she also rides this horse, who isn't ever going to be a top eventer.
 
I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Does anyone else remember Milton being paraded around after his retirement and having to do his "party trick" which was to rear on command? I saw him at Olympia and he didn't look very happy, but rather than judge and scream abuse all over the place I just remembered that I saw him for 10 minutes on 1 day, I'm pretty sure any one of the horses and ponies here can look miserable and pee'd off for at least 10 minutes a day and that's without being in an enormous atmosphere!

The pressure was on Laura, Kauto and Yogi to perform for the paying public, he may have been fine warming up, we don't know that but either way Laura tried her best and rather than continue and push she did in fact bring him back to walk. If this kind of thing continues then that's a different matter but at the moment I cannot see any issues.
 
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