Julia Krajewski and Samourai du Thot after their win at Luhmuhlen in 2017.
© Luhmuhlen
German Olympic silver medallist Julia Krajewski has announced the retirement of her 15 year old Selle Francais gelding Samourai du Thot (Milor Landais x Flipper d’Elle), following the recent removal of one of his eyes.
On her Instagram page, Julia wrote:
Today I have to share tragic news: I am devastated to report that Samourai du Thot has been retired from sports, due to the loss of one eye. He got struck by a very severe infection and battled it tremendously, but sadly wasn’t able to completely beat it. To save his life, his left eye had to be removed.
He has shown me many times how much of a fighter he is, but seeing how he always kept his spirits and never gave up during the hardest of times for him, leaves me even more in awe of my little pocket rocket.
Together we achieved more than could ever be hoped for when I first got him as a cheeky 5yo. Of 56 competitions we did, he won 18 and finished 40 times in the Top 5, barely touching a pole and becoming one of the speediest horses around. Winning numerous 4* and the 2017 Luhmühlen 5*, becoming back to back German champion and traveling to two championships is only a bit of what this special little horse has achieved… I would have loved to cruise round some more xc courses with him and hoped for a happy ending to the very last, but it wasn’t meant to be. THANK YOU SAM for everything you gave for me.
Despite everything he is in fairly good spirits now and we will make sure that he gets the sort of retirement life that suits him!”
Equestrian Life wishes this wonderful horse, a lovely retirement.
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