Uthopia - nearly lost to Sweden

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millimoo

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Theres been quite a heated discussion taking place on the BD forum about the rumour of Uthopia being sold, culminating with Carl posting himself to set the record straight.

What no-one knew till today was the extent of it all, and how close we came to losing the horse to Sweden - poor Carl

It appears the cut off date has been missed and sporting rights will be paid for by Carl and his many supporters Inc. BD to secure the horse for the UK.

http://tinyurl.com/89gujt9
 
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Carl must have had a dreadful xmas with all this going on. So glad he has managed to raise the money to keep him. l hate the way people think thay can buy a medal!!!!!
 
Should point out the URL is to the Eurodressage article - Quite an eye opener by all accounts.
Horrible situation, but thank god the cut off date was missed. Not a nice way for him to find out either...

Anyhow, onwards and upwards and keeping fingers crossed all out horses & riders are safe and fit for the Olympics :)
 
how terrible. glad that it seems he is staying in britain. Britain has already lost two excellent show jumpers this week to other nations.
 
Pleased Carl has kept the horse.I can understand why people despise horse sports, I do myself often.Hope when Carl wins his Gold we don't have endless gushing articles about and from the owner.
 
eahotson said:
Pleased Carl has kept the horse.I can understand why people despise horse sports, I do myself often.Hope when Carl wins his Gold we don't have endless gushing articles about and from the owner.
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That's very harsh. What are owners supposed to do? Pour hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not millions, into the sport but then self-sacrificingly refuse to make any money back? For every offer for a Uthopia there are dozens if not hundreds of horses that don't make any money back. At the end of the day anyone who is so critical of owners should just go ahead and buy the horse themselves or buy the next Uthopia as a youngster and then do with it as they please!
 
Normally I would agree, but this is a stallion and if (when) he gets gold at Greenwich then the longer view must surely be towards his stud value. Fine if it prompted a syndication but it does seem to have been handled poorly. Escapado was different, top of his game and they would never make that money on him again.

So very glad this horse is staying put. On the human side, anyone who ever watched Carl Hester at home and saw how devastated he was to lose one of his horses will have an inkling of how upset he must have been.
 
Booboos said:
That's very harsh. What are owners supposed to do? Pour hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not millions, into the sport but then self-sacrificingly refuse to make any money back? For every offer for a Uthopia there are dozens if not hundreds of horses that don't make any money back. At the end of the day anyone who is so critical of owners should just go ahead and buy the horse themselves or buy the next Uthopia as a youngster and then do with it as they please!
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Well put itanother way.Why did Carl have to hear by phone on his way back to London.Could she not have called Carl? Did he not deserve at least that? Discussed it with him and offered him a nice pay off if the deal went through.Perhaps he didn't derve that either???
 
I don't know the ins and outs of how Carl was informed but its a bit karma like when owners sent him Lennie and Anna Ross Davies wasn't told in a very professional way. Seems like a done deal needs to be confirmed before anyone knows but then you are left with gossip and chinese wispers.

On another note most riders have a stake in top horses so its unlikely he would have been left without anything.

Also for top owners they take the rough and the smooth and I can fully understand selling a top horse when you are offered huge life changing sums. Emma Philips top owner of Ben Mahers horses bought Balvaro from Holland last year for a sum guaranteed to be significant and unfortunately he died this week but no-one will compensate her for her loss of funds so you can see that owners suffer losses aswell as rewards.

Its all a huge lottery.
 
eahotson said:
Well put itanother way.Why did Carl have to hear by phone on his way back to London.Could she not have called Carl? Did he not deserve at least that? Discussed it with him and offered him a nice pay off if the deal went through.Perhaps he didn't derve that either???
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Sadly I am not mates with Carl so I have no idea how he was informed or whether he is upset with his owner. I am available though if Carl is reading this! ;)
 
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