Sir Caramello, India's Olympic Trailblazer, Retired from Sport

Dressage

India

Sir Caramello OLD, the career starting horse of Indian Grand Prix rider Anush Agarwalla, has been retired from sport.

Sir Caramello OLD is an 18-year old Oldenburg gelding by Sir Donnerhall out of Katherina (by Feiner Stern x ). He is bred by Günther Harms.

Hof Kasselmann

Sir Caramello was first competed in Germany as 3-year old by Oliver Luze. They were 14th at the Bundeschampionate.

In 2011 the stallion went into ownership of Hof Kasselmann and qualified for the Bundeschampionate under Eva Möller. They finished third in the qualifier with 8.50 points, but couldn't ride the finals because she had fallen off a pony and injured her leg.

Denmark and Russia

Sir Caramello then sold for 500,000 euro at the 2011 PSI Auction to Andreas Helgstrand, who qualified him for the 2012 Danish Young Horse Championships, but got eliminated for blood on the spur.

Möller on Sir Caramello in the 2011 PSI Auction

Sir Caramello sold to Russian Oleg Efremov and was briefly competed in 2012 by Ukrainian Sergey Puzko. The horse then disappeared from the scene for several years

U.S.A.

The chestnut resurfaced in the U.S.A. as a gelding, owned by American amateur Grand Prix rider P.J. Rizvi.

Under Rizvi's trainer Ashley Holzer who trains with Canadian-American Olympian Ashley Holzer. She competed the horse for 1.5 years - between April 2017 and July 2018 - at CDI's in Tryon, Wellington, and Hickstead.

India

Sir Caramello OLD was sent to a sales barn in Germany to be sold. Anush's father, Gautam Agarwalla, acquired the horse as a Tokyo Olympic hopeful.

Holzer on Sir Caramello at the 2018 Palm Beach Derby

Trained by Hubertus Schmidt in Germany, the pair premiered at the CDI Oldenburg in November 2019 and pursued Olympic qualification points for the Tokyo Games. In 2021 they showed at CDI's in Munich, Le Mans, Herzlake and Ludwigsburg.

Tokyo was not in the cards, but as of 2022 the pair competed in the two consecutive major championships, representing India as a trailblazer. At the 2022 World Championships they were 72nd in the Grand Prix with 66.832%.

In 2023 Anush and Sir Caramello made their push towards the Olympic Games in Paris. They showed in Munich, Wroclaw, Stuttgart, Kronenberg, Frankfurt, and Mechelen and ended up qualifying as the highest ranked rider on the Olympic ranking of a nation not yet qualified. In 2024 they did only two CDI's before heading to Paris (Wiesbaden and Kronberg). At the Olympics they placed 52nd with 66.444%.

Anush finished his career on Sir Caramello with two further CDI's in the autumn of 2024: in Donaueschingen and Hagen.

Retirement

Sir Caramello has now joined Anush' 18-year old Hanoverian Loro Piano (by Lord Loxley x Rohdiamant), in retirement.

With Anush at the 2022 World Championships

"Caramello is now stabled two mins from Fleyenhof, still in the same city Ettel, where Loro Piano is also stabled and goes on the fields for most of the day," Anush told Eurodressage. "He is continued to be ridden lightly 2-3 times a week so that he stays fit. The stable is only one minute from my home, so I visit both of them almost every other day."

Anush paid tribute to the Oldenburg gelding who made his dreams come true.

"Thank you Sir Caramello for being more than just a horse for me- my partner, my strength and most importantly, my friend," he wrote. "You carried not only my dreams, but the dreams of an entire nation. Because of you, I believed in myself. Because of you, India stood tall at the Olympics. You lit the Olympic fire in countless young equestrians. Always remember- you changed everything for me."