‘He said I don’t want the shoes!’ Top barefoot horse shod for the Olympics kicks off a shoe

The superstar showjumper King Edward clearly decided he wanted to be barefoot for the Paris Olympics – as he kicked a shoe off during the opening round of the team showjumping.

World champions Henrik von Eckermann and the 14-year-old King Edward were first in for Sweden in the Olympic showjumping team competition today and flew round in their usual superb faultless form.

But the fantastic little Edward 28 gelding managed to kick off one of the shoes he does not usually wear; H&H has reported before that Henrik usually keeps him barefoot.

“He kicked it off,” Henrik said. “So probably he said ‘I don’t want to have the shoes again’!”

Henrik said he had King Edward shod in front as the ground at the Olympic test event in Fontainebleau was “very, very solid”.

“That means it’s compact,” he said. “And I felt that maybe I needed a bit of cushion. But today when I was in there, the ground was very good and much, much softer. So in that way I’m not nervous to put him barefoot again.”

Henrik said that the “first track is always” a challenge at such a competition, but the partnership he and King Edward have got them through.

“I know my horse very, very well,” he said. “So you know, but still, you never know. They’re animals, not machines, and you just want to have a good feeling. And you don’t know before you do it, but I’m delighted. He felt really, really good. So there was a nice relief when we went to the finish line.”

Henrik described King Edward as a “genius of a horse”.

“We know each other very well and and I know exactly how to support him and he’s very, very careful,” he said. “For example, to number two, I was a little bit too deep to the oxer, so he went really high. And then he froze a little bit from it because he’s very careful. If I didn’t have that trust that we work with, it would be a disaster, but he knows and I support him and it’s a fantastic feeling.”

He added that Sweden is looking forward to tomorrow’s final, when everyone starts again on a clean sheet.

“So then it’s a new game, then it doesn’t matter how many clear rounds we did today,” he said. “A new game and a tough one.”

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