Charlotte Dujardin can’t talk about it without getting weepy. Neither can longtime groom, Alan Davies. But with Valegro’s final performance at London’s Olympia Horse Show fast upon us (December 13-19, 2016) there’s not much time left for any of us to pull it together.
On Wednesday, December 14th, “Blueberry” will make his final salute at X in Olympia’s Grand Hall during his official retirement ceremony, and we can almost guarantee there won’t be a dry eye in the house.
“Valegro is a once in a lifetime horse and owes us nothing,” Dujardin said of her two-time Individual Olympic gold medal-winning mount of more than five years. “I can’t wait to take him to Olympia and give him the send-off he deserves.”
You don’t have to be an avid fan of dressage to appreciate the fact that we may never see a partnership like Charlotte and Valegro’s again in our lifetime. Nor the power, precision, or beauty of this legendary horse that Hester describes as having, “the head of a dutchess and the bottom of a cook.”
And what a bottom it is.
Today, Olympia treated us to a special video preview of Valegro’s goodbye, complete with behind-the-scenes interviews with Charlotte, Carl, Alan, and a few celebrity cameos. And if you don’t start ugly crying in public when Charlotte, answering a question about her “best friend” and what the two of them have achieved, has to turn away from the camera to sob into the nearest horse’s neck…
Well, we can’t do anything for you. Valegro, here’s to you.