Kelly Layne's Grand Prix Ride Udon P Passed Away

Dressage

Australia

Australian Grand Prix rider Kelly Layne has sad goodbye to her former number one Grand Prix horse, Udon P, on 14 October 2020. He was 19 years old.

Udon P was a Dutch warmblood gelding by Hierarch out of Maleida (by Uniform x Vosmaer). He was bred by J.H. Prakken in The Netherlands.

Harris and Udon P

The tall bay gelding was sold to the U.S.A. and made his first claim to fame as a developing Prix St Georges horse, owned by April Harris from Tennessee.

He was competed at the 2010 U.S. Developing PSG Horse Championships by Sommerville Harris and they placed 10th in the Finals test. She also showed him at the 2010 Palm Beach Derby CDI. Harris and Udon P competed one year together in 2010.

Udon was sent to Canadian dressage rider and horse dealer Chris von Martels in Florida to be sold. He briefly showed the horse in 2013 and the gelding was then acquired by the Florida based Australian Kelly Layne and Whistlejack Farm.

Layne and Udon P

Udon P was Layne's Australian team hopeful for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Caen but she had to pull him out of contention when he was diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia in the spring of 2014.

After a conversion procedure, Udon P recovered and returned to the arena in the autumn of 2014. He was competed at the 2015 Wellington show season and showcased a Gary Patterson arranged freestyle with songs such as ‘If I Only Had a Heart’ (Wizard of Oz) and ‘My heart Will Go On’ (Titanic).

In 2016 they were in the running for an Australian team spot for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Layne had her hopes high for Rio with good scores on the board. She was officially nominated on the team, but in July had to withdraw him due to a splint issue and got replaced by the first reserve, Sue Hearn and Remmington.

Udon P competed one more season in Florida in the winter-spring of 2017. His last CDI was the CDI 3* in Wellington at the end of March, when they were second in the Kur (71.800%).

"Udon had a strong presence, not just because of his size but also his personality. He was always happy and excited to do anything," Layne told Eurodressage. "He was easily excitable and especially by other horses in the warm up. But once you got in the competition arena alone he was 100% with the rider. I had to learn to trust that feeling and then our relationship flourished."

Retirement

Anne Barrett and Udon P at the 2019 CDN Wellington

While Udon P was retired from high performance competition sport, Layne continued her Grand Prix competition career on Von Primaire in 2017 and most recently she has been campaigning Samhitas.

Aged 16, Udon became a schoolmaster for Anne Barrett in 2017, who made her show debut on him in September 2017 at Fourth level. In January 2018 they competed in Wellington in the national Prix St Georges and in 2019 they rode at medium tour level.

"It was a perfect match for the second phase of his life as teacher," said Layne. "Noodles was skilled at training the rider how to be soft and subtle with the aids. You only needed to whisper to him. I immensely enjoyed training them. When Anne bought him the top priority was that nothing in his life would change. He loved routine - Even how you picked out his feet and especially how you held your hands to put the bridle on. If you did it the right way he would put his head down and open his mouth for the bits. If you put your hands above his head he would only put his head up higher. He would march to the arena everyday and stand square at the mounting block, like a statue waiting for a treat. He was a genius at halting square. It’s all these little things we will miss so much. His work ethic is unparalleled. A total over achiever."

Udon P died on 14 October from returning cardiac arrhythmia.

"About 10 days ago he went into A-fib again," said Layne. "It is caused by an electrolyte imbalance. He was fit and healthy when it happened just like before. I knew it immediately when I saw him fall out of canter a few times. It was only noticeable at the faster pace. We listened to his heart and could hear the disruption in the rhythm."

She continued, "The cardiac specialist said he was a good candidate for conversion and because it was so successful the last time we decided to do it again. He was fit, healthy and a young 19! Unfortunately this time instead of returning to normal rhythm his heart went into fatal arrhythmia. The hospital who have done this procedure 1000’s of times said that this has never happened before. We are totally devastated."