King Edward | King Edward

چهار نعل: King Edward | King Edward

At a stature that no one would expect of an Olympic champion—only 165 centimeters and without shoes on his hooves—King Edward proved that greatness is not in a…

Kینگ ادوارد was born in 2010 in Belgium and at the stable of Wim Impens; he was the twelfth foal of his dam Koningin de Lauzelle (by the stallion Feo), who had been mated with the Hanoverian stallion Edward 28. Contrary to the account sometimes heard about this pedigree, Edward 28 never reached Grand Prix dressage level, and his competition record remained at S level and young horse level; his sire, Embassy I, was also not a dressage specialist, but according to reliable sources, a successful stallion in producing show jumpers and especially event horses, and he himself had only competed up to 1.30 meters.

At a very short height for an elite jumper—only 165 centimeters—and competing barefoot, Kینگ ادوارد was from the outset in contrast with the usual clichés of this discipline. According to those around him, before reaching the peak of the sport he was nothing more than a home leisure horse that shared a stable with a pony so he would not be alone.

The Swiss rider Janika Sprunger was the first to work with him; but around 2019 to 2020, her husband—the Swedish rider Henrik von Eckermann—took over the reins of Kینگ ادوارد as a temporary replacement during Sprunger’s pregnancy. What was meant to be a temporary partnership turned into one of the most enduring rider-and-horse combinations in the history of the sport.

The turning point in this path came at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (held in 2021), where Kینگ ادوارد went through all six rounds of the week without knocking down a single fence and helped the Swedish team win their first Olympic team show jumping gold since 1924. He also placed fourth individually and became one of only three horses in Olympic history to finish the entire Games without a single fault.

In August 2022, at the Agria FEI World Show Jumping Championships in Herning, Denmark, this duo, with a completely flawless performance, won both the team gold—the first team world championship title in this discipline in Sweden’s history—and the individual gold; an honor that made von Eckermann the first Swede in the history of these competitions to win the individual world championship title. This victory took them to world number one in the Longines FEI rankings, a position they held for 33 consecutive months—the longest uninterrupted time at the top of the world rankings in FEI history.

Kینگ ادوارد then won the Longines FEI World Cup Show Jumping Final in Omaha, United States (2023)—Sweden’s first victory in the history of this event—and in 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, without knocking down a single fence in all three rounds, defended his title. This made him the first horse in 25 years to win the World Cup Final two years in a row; before him, only Baloubet du Rouet with Rodrigo Pessoa had achieved such a feat in 1998 and 1999.

In Paris 2024, where he was considered the leading favorite for the individual gold, the Swedish team finished sixth and von Eckermann, in the individual final, fell off Kینگ ادوارد after a slight miscommunication before a fence. However, this rise and fall could not diminish the equine legacy of the horse known as “Shah” (The King); a small, barefoot horse with a pedigree from which no one expected a champion, but one that forever changed the definition of a modern Olympic steed.

افتخارات

مشاهده در وب‌سایت اصلی