He wasn’t competing at Olympia – regrettably, one might say, as he looked as spectacular as ever – but he was nevertheless under the spotlight, and quite literally too. Laura Tomlinson’s Mistral Hojris, arguably one of the key catalysts of Great Britain’s current domination of the dressage scene, was retired in an emotional ceremony on Tuesday night at the 2013 CDI-W London.
The 18-year-old Michellino gelding can now look forward to a life of hacks, happy turnout and plenty of pampering at the end of a career with Laura which spanned eight years, starting with the 2005 European Junior/Young Rider Championships in Barzago, Italy, where they picked up team silver and individual bronze for their country, and then progressing to senior level with a bronze at the Windsor Europeans in 2009, three silvers at the Kentucky WEG in 2010, historical team gold and individual bronze at the Europeans in Rotterdam one year later and, perhaps the most notable of his ten medals, last year’s Olympic team gold and individual bronze.
At Olympia, it was like the clock had been put back one last time: a fresh, exuberant Alf showed off brilliant grand prix work to ‘Lion King’ music, from bold extensions to terrific piaffe pirouettes, looking in outstanding form and making the 8,000-strong crowd wish he had participated competitively. In typical Alf fashion, he concluded the performance by taking exception to one of the spotlights following him around the arena, as well as to the suited man walking towards him the wrong side of the boards. “He hasn't grown up, he hasn't changed, he's eighteen, but he’s still as silly as ever – but that's the way we love him,” laughed Laura when she finally managed to get hold of the microphone.
At first unable to single out one particular career highlight, Laura exclaimed: “It’s hard to put my absolute highlight with this horse into words. It’s probably the lows in our career – the start of our career – that made the ups so much more meaningful, because it took us a long time to get him to be able to perform in a place like this, at a championship level, consistently.” But of course, the culmination of Alf’s career was last year’s Olympic freestyle, where “he gave absolutely everything he had to me,” testament to the reciprocal trust and respect this once difficult horse and his rider had come to embody over the years.
After thanking her parents as “the first people to believe in me and completely believe in this horse with me, when most people wouldn’t have or didn’t” as well as the rest of her own and Team GB’s support teams, Laura cantered around the arena receiving a standing ovation from the crowd. Clearly, this wasn’t simply a great horse retiring; the success of this combination, and, behind it, the Bechtolsheimer family’s amazing support of the sport, has really become symbolic of a whole country’s supremacy –if not the start of a new era– and the audience had full awareness of that.
Alf will stay in exercise throughout the winter and then, come spring, will start hacking out more and spend more time in the field with Andretti. “For me it is a very weird feeling to think of my training days no longer including Alf, or my shows no longer including Alf, but I can say that he is leaving British dressage in extremely good hands,” Laura added later. Of course, the future of British dressage remains bright; but with no big, ‘orange’ Alf, perhaps a little less bright than we’re used to.
Thank you, Alf.
by Selene Scarsi for Eurodressage
Photos © Risto Aaltonen
Related Links
Eurodressage Photo Database: Mistral Hojris
Laura Bechtolsheimer's Mistral Hojris to Be Officially Retired at 2013 CDI-W London
Mistral Hojris Withdrawn from British Team for 2013 European Championships
Laura Tomlinson Makes Mistral Tick Like Clockwork at the 2013 CDI Hagen
Owners Pinocchio and Mistral Hojris Awarded at 2011 BDSC Ball
Mistral Højris Sold to Wilfried Bechtolsheimer
