Lara Butler's Rubin al Asad Retired from Competition Sport

Dressage

Great Britain

Lara Butler has announced the retirement of her top ride, Rubin al Asad, from competition sport.

Rubin al Asad is a 19-year old Hanoverian gelding by Rubin Royal out of Wandergirl (by Wanderbusch II x Lemon Tree x Akzent II). He is bred by Hans-Hermann Wiemer in Germany.

German Start

Originally owned by Roger van Engelant, the bright bay Rubin al Asad made his show debut in Germany as a 4-year old under Helen Langehanenberg.

He competed in a few local riding horses classes in 2006, before moving up to L-dressage horse level in 2007. A year later he moved up to M-level and by 2009 Helen had the gelding working at small tour level.

Langehanenberg last competed him in February 2009.

Sold to the U.K.

Rubin al Asad sold to Wilfried and Ursula Bechtolsheimer for their daughter Laura to ride, but the gelding found a more permanent match in assistant rider Lara Butler (née Griffith).

The pair made its national show debut at small tour level at Addington Manor in the spring of 2012. In 2014 they moved to medium tour level and in 2015 they did their first national Grand Prix.

Grand Prix debut at the 2015 CDI Wellington

They made their international show debut at Grand Prix level at the CDI Wellington in February 2015. That year they spent the winter-spring competing at the Global Dressage Festival and clocked their first international victory two weeks later in the Grand Prix Special in Wellington.

In 2018 the pair became British Grand Prix Champions.

The pair consistently competed at international Grand Prix level through 2020. They represented Great Britain at Nations' Cups in Hagen, Rotterdam, Aachen, Geesteren, Hickstead and Compiegne. Their last CDI was the 2020 CDI Keysoe last October where they placed second in the Kur with 77.455%.

Retirement

Butler and Rubin al Asad did their final competition at the 2020 British Dressage Championships last December, where they placed 7th in the Grand Prix and 6th in the Kur to Music.

On 23 April 2021 Butler announced the horse's official retirement from sport.

"There’s a time in every riders career that you have to make a decision that is very very hard but you know it is the right one," said Lara. "Rufus has been the king of the arena but now it is his time to become the king of the field and enjoy his retirement the way he truly deserves. He is super happy and fit and after 5 years at top level we want to allow him to finish feeling fresh and healthy in himself as we owe him that for he has given us (the team) and me especially, everything."

Butler hopes that a special retirement party could be held at the 2021 Olympia Horse Show but with the covid-19 restrictions all this is very unclear.

"It would have been amazing to give him a retirement party somewhere (maybe Olympia as it is one of our favourites) but with all the current restrictions it’s just not been possible," she said. "He ended his show career rocking to his dire straits showing his current great form at the British dressage national championships to finish on a near 80% which really does sum up this amazing horse."

He Truly Taught Me to Never Give Up

Rubin al Asad has been Lara's career making Grand Prix horse.

"He is the first horse that I have produced to Grand Prix and he has taken me to so many places that I never believed would be possible and shocked us all at getting to where he has," she said. "Riding at the great shows like Olympia, Aachen and obviously out to the Olympic Games in Rio as travelling reserve to name but a few. He has truly taught me to never give up and sometimes it takes a little longer to get there but it’s certainly worth the wait. I will forever be grateful to the Bechtolsheimer family for giving me the opportunity to ride him and must thank everyone who has played a huge part in our journey together."

Butler works at Bechtolsheimer's yard and will still see "Rufus" each day.

"I will massively miss riding this special boy and seeing his face in the stables every day demanding his bananas but for sure he will still get them out in the field," she concluded.