I came across this footage today and thought I would share a snippet of a story of an amazing little horse that jumped his heart out.
He raced as a 3 year old but wasn’t successful and as a result ended up being passed on to show jumping and eventing. He competed in both until he was given to a Polish show-jumper, Jan Kowalczyk, to ride and specialise in Show – Jumping. He won Olympic Gold and 8 CSIO shows.
He was 16hh...
The video below shows them at Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980. Artemor, bred at the famous (mostly for breeding top Arabian horses) Janow Podlaski Stud, was by a Thoroughbred stallion Eros and out of an Anglo Arab mare – Artemiza.
There is a lot being said about cross-country courses and jumps changing drastically over the last 20-30 years but so had show-jumping. The jumps at Olympic Games at the time during top classes were 1.7m (about 5ft6) – 1.9m (6ft2)…the water jump was 15ft wide…In modern Olympics the jumps at Grand Prix are up to 1.6m (5-5ft5) with water jumps being up to 14ft wide.
That little horse had virtually jumped a course of Puissance jumps 😉 The fact the riders wore some soft military berets gives me shivers.
In December 1984, Artemor was diagnosed with Encephalitis and put to sleep.
Official Blog by Aspire Equestrian Riding Academy 