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Days in Horse Country – Charisma
One of the
greatest champions in the world of three-day eventing was a 15.3 hand, dark bay
gelding named Charisma. Born in 1972 in
New Zealand to a Thoroughbred stallion carrying some Percheron blood and a
Thoroughbred mare, Charisma was known for being easy to train from a young age. He demonstrated his jumping prowess early on
when, as a yearling, he escaped his pasture by jumping a 4 foot (1.2 m)
fence. It was hard to keep this natural
jumper confined, and by the time Charisma was four years old, he had bred four
mares on his own. He was finally gelded.
In the early 1980s, New Zealand rider Mark Todd made Charisma his mount. The two began a successful eventing career that culminated in two individual Olympic gold medals, one in 1984 and one in 1988, and a bronze team medal, also in 1988.
Charisma was the subject of some intrigue when his owner, Fran Clark, decided to sell the horse out from under Todd. Clark didn’t want Todd to have the horse for personal reasons, and instead sold him to another rider. That rider schemed with Todd to transfer ownership to Todd despite Clark’s feelings, and Todd ended up owning Charisma in the end.
Charisma, whose nickname was Podge because he loved ot eat, was retired in 1988 after his second Olympic visctory, and lived to be thirty years old. He was euthanized at Todd’s Cambridge, England farm in 2003. Todd wrote a book about his famous horse, simply titled “Charisma”
Michael