April 22, 2025 
Winning the individual gold medal in show jumping at an Olympic Games is a little bit like walking on the moon. Once you’ve checked that box, tradition dictates there’s not a whole lot left to accomplish in the sport—either by choice or circumstance.
Take the two most recent champions. Nick Skelton famously retired both himself and his horse, Big Star, just months after their gold medal win in the Rio Games. (Big Star and Skelton had also taken the team gold for Great Britain in London in 2012.)
Ben Maher and Explosion W, who took individual gold at Tokyo in 2021, earned just one more 1.60m+ win (a big one!) in the 20th Rolex IJRC Final at CHI Geneva in December of that same year. Though they put in strong performances at CHIO Aachen and earned a podium finish at the Royal Windsor Horse Show the following spring of 2023, Explosion sustained a soft tissue injury in La Baule that June, and hasn’t returned to competition since.
Which makes the 15-year-old Westphalian gelding Checker 47’s string of performances since his win in Paris last summer all the more impressive.
Between April of 2023 and April of 2024 leading up to the Games, Checker was the highest-earning horse in 365 days, taking home €1,664,544 in prize money. That was just months before he won his gold medal in the City of Lights, then took a few months off to recuperate.
And then, Checker 47 got back to work.
That fall, he helped the German team to victory in the inaugural Longines League of Nations Final in Barcelona. Then, he and Kukuk rode to a 3rd place podium finish with Riesenbeck International at the 2024 GCL Super Cup Final in Riyadh.
This season in Wellington, Kukuk and Checker 47 earned two victories in the ‘Saturday Night Lights’ NetJets CSI4* Grand Prix in late January, then the coveted CSI5* Rolex Grand Prix during WEF Week 12—their second, consecutive year winning that class.
According to Jumpr Stats, Kukuk and Checker are once again on pace to meet or exceed their 2024 earnings, having already taken home two of the three Grands Prix they earned in 2024 (not to mention that little ol’ Olympic gold). By this time last year, the pair had pocketed €216,652 in prize money, more than €155,400 less than they’ve made a third of the way into 2025.
What’s more: Checker is currently jumping clear at a whopping 75% in 4 rounds this season at 1.60m+. Compare that to his 57% clear rate in 7 rounds during the same time period last year.
Next up: Kukuk and Checker 47 will head to Lexington, Kentucky to take on the $400,000 Saturday Night Grand Prix at the CSI5* Kentucky International to close out cross country day at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L.
After that, it’s likely the pair will return to Europe to gear up for their 2025 summer season. Whatever happens this weekend, they’ll do so as conquering heroes.
