Equestrian: Todd mourns golden horse

By CATHY ARONSON

The greatest partnership in the equestrian world came to an end yesterday with the death of Mark Todd's double Olympic gold medal-winning horse, Charisma.

Charisma was put down at Todd's Cambridge stables in the morning after he was found in his paddock with a broken shoulder.

He was 30 years old, the equine equivalent of 100 human years.

Yesterday, Todd was too upset to talk, but said in a statement that Charisma had become part of his family in the past 20 years and would be sadly missed.

"He loved people and he had the most wonderful nature and personality."

Charisma was nicknamed "Podge" because of his love of oats and his 15.3-hands-high brown gelding shape.

But despite the horse's size Todd said Charisma "had a stride on him like a 16.2-hands-high horse - very fast, very quick and athletic".

Charisma and Todd won their first Olympic gold medal for New Zealand in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games. At the time Todd said his close rapport with his horse had been a key to their winning.

Four Years later in Seoul, Todd and Charisma, then aged 16, won their second Olympic gold medal. Charisma was only the second horse in Olympic history to score a double.

Charisma also came second at Burghley and twice came second at Badminton. He won the British Open Championships twice and also won several titles in Europe and New Zealand.

Shortly after the Olympics in 1988 he was retired in England and came home in 1999 to spend his twilight years frolicking in the grass at Todd's home in Cambridge.

In a personal dossier written for the book Eventing Down Under, Todd spoke fondly of his "fabulous" horse.

He said the first time he saw Charisma, in Taupo on a winter's day in 1983, the horse looked like a "fat, hairy, pony".

"I thought to myself, 'I can't ride this, but as I'm here I'd better sit on it'. As soon as I sat on Charisma he just felt amazing."

They went on to win five one-day events, the Taupo three-day event and the national one-day event, and then qualified for the Olympics.

"He just got better and better every time. I thought, 'This little thing's cool'."

Charisma's sire was a thoroughbred horse called Tira Mink and his dam was a showjumping and polo horse called Planet. He was bred by the Williams family of Wairarapa.

But just after their famous win at the Los Angeles Olympics the Todd-Charisma partnership came close to an end.

Charisma's owner, Fran Clark of Taupo, was determined to sell the horse - but not to Todd.

After a seven-month wrangle with Todd's sponsors, Bill and Judy Hall of Woolrest, Clark sold Charisma to British eventing rider Lizzie Purbrick.

Todd says in his dossier that the sale to Purbrick was part of a plan. The Halls had put the money - rumoured to be $125,000 - into Purbrick's account.

"I rang the former owner the next day and said, 'Hi, we've got the horse'. She hung up on me and that's the last we've heard of her."

Judy Hall and Todd eventually became Charisma's joint owners.

In 1990, at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, Charisma and Todd carried the Queen's baton into Mt Smart Stadium.

That same year, Todd released his book, Charisma.

He said the horse became more enthusiastic and less manageable as his experience increased. Charisma could be naughty and after a disagreement was known to knock over a few fences in a show-jumping competition just for spite.

But that same determination helped Charisma and Todd form what would become known as the greatest partnership in the equestrian world.