Theodore O'Connor was a little horse with a big heart, certainly bound for the Olympics in Beijing next month. At only 14.1 hands high, he was one of the smallest world class event horses ever. He was actually a pony. Taller horses are understandably preferred for jumping events. Even so, he excelled at dressage, stadium jumping and cross country eventing, often beating the big boys (and girls). Since my horses are all around 14.2 - 14.3 hands, I have a special fondness for small horses.
Tragically, Teddy died on May 28th, 2008. He spooked while being walked to the arena for a training session and ran off back to the barn. Somehow, he severely cut his hind leg. It was so bad that he had to be euthanized. Now that he's gone, Karen O'Connor didn't even make the Olympic riding team. There is an article in Time magazine about them. See here. I've also included a video of them riding together.
RIP Teddy. You'll be missed.
Follow my journey into the future. I promise it will be full of random rants, travel and other photos, musical musings, especially BOWIE, general chaos, and all my animal family: four horses, three alpacas, three dogs, and three and a half cats.
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing the link to the Time article, Val. I hadn't seen that one yet. And the video...well, nothing like a good cry to start the morning, eh?
Such an elegant little horse. I swear he must have had invisible wings while jumping over some of those taller jumps...and that trailer? Wow!
What a loss when such amazing horses with exciting futures die such tragic deaths. Sad. :(
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