Laura Tomlinson (née Bechtolsheimer) has announced that she will be officially wrapping up her show career on the 18-year old Mistral Hojris at the 2012 CDI-W London Olympia Horse Show in December.
"I’m hoping that Alf will make an appearance at Olympia, perhaps to compete, but at the very least to give a farewell and thank you to his home crowd," Bechtolsheimer revealed in an interview.
After winning team gold and individual bronze at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Tomlinson decided to compete her tall chestnut gelding one more year and conclude his career at the 2013 European Championships in Herning. Unfortunately the pair was unable to make it to Herning. After a successful show come back at the 2013 CDI Hagen in April, the duo no longer appeared in the show ring. The Danish warmblood gelding sustained a minor tendon injury in the summer and had to withdraw for Herning.
"Alf picked up a small tendon injury over the summer which he has recovered from now but it meant that we lost some time building him up to peak form towards the lift off for the Europeans," she explained. "After the Olympics, Dad (Wilfried Bechtolsheimer- and I both agreed that Alf owed us absolutely nothing, that everything from then on would be a bonus and that we wouldn’t compete him unless he was absolutely 100% and we could show him at his very best. We stuck to that promise."
Laura Tomlinson and Mistral Hojris were for years the leading British dressage duo before the rise of Carl Hester on Uthopia and Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro in 2011. Tomlinson and Mistral remained key competitors for the British team banking team gold and individual bronze at the Olympics, which Laura describes as the biggest achievement in her career.
"It’s so hard to describe how that moment felt, it was such a mixture of emotions from relief to the sinking in feeling of realising that you have achieved the biggest thing that you could," she stated. "Winning the Olympics has changed things for me in such a positive way; I’m still hungry for success and remain 100% motivated, but it has afforded me the most relaxed contented feeling because I don’t feel like I have to prove myself so much anymore."
Mistral Hojris is a 1995 born Danish warmblood gelding by Michellino out of Virginia (by Ibsen). Laura will continue her competition career with the home bred small tour horses Polar Bear (by Polarion x Landadel) and Pamina (by Polarion x Landadel) and the rising Grand Prix horse Unique (by Carpaccio x Lord).
Photos © Astrid Appels
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