About five minutes into the eight-minute cross-country course, the oldest horse ever to compete at the Olympics, the 21-year-old Forever Young Wundermaske, popped his rider out of the saddle going into the second water obstacle and loped off. Watching at home from my house in Australia, I laughed when a soggy Ronald Zabala-Goetschel, the Ecuadorian rider who has owned the horse he calls “Patchito” for nine years, got up and stared after him. Being dumped in the water by an old horse who then heads home for the stables is a canon event: every equestrian has experienced it at least once.
Patchito has a relaxed schedule. Goetschel told the Chronicle of the Horse that after two failed attempts at retirement Patchito is ridden once a week, and jumps maybe once a month. “He knows what to do,” he says.
