‘A small horse with a genuinely big heart’: Olympic star still thriving in retirement at 33

Rascher Hopes, Emile Faurie’s team bronze-medal winning ride at the 2003 European Dressage Championships and the highest-scoring British horse at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, recently celebrated his 33rd birthday and is still thriving in retirement.

Rascher Hopes – or Streaky as he is known at home – has been based with Hilary Macdonald in Gloucestershire since his retirement in 2006.

He began his competitive career under Hilary Sawyer – who owns him alongside Leonie Porter – and produced him up to prix st georges level.

“I’d bought a mare from Denmark with very good bloodlines but who proved unrideable,” Hilary (Sawyer) told Horse & Hound in 2002. “I paid £3,000 for her and there was a stud in Denmark interested in her as a broodmare and they said they had an unbroken three-year-old who was too small to make the stallion grading and would I be interested in him (Rascher Hopes) as a swap.”

Needless to say that swap ended up being a bargain, and Hilary recalls Rascher Hopes having a “great presence” even as a young horse lacking condition.

“In the January of his fourth year, we took him to his first local show. He won first time out and hasn’t looked back since,” she added.

She gave the ride to Emile eight months before the Sydney Olympics, after the sudden death of Emile’s former Olympic hope, Legrini. Despite only competing at grand prix for the first time at West Wilts Premier League in April of that same year, Emile was convinced of the diminutive gelding’s quality.

“I knew Streaky would be a grand prix horse from the first time I saw him,” he said. “He is a real trier –a small horse with a genuinely big heart. We certainly didn’t push him for the sake of going to the Olympics and we weren’t necessarily expecting it, but because of his character, he kept on improving and it happened – he was always so willing and easy to teach.

“I have to say I was lucky as well because Hilary (Sawyer) did such a good job in producing him that when I took over it was just a continuation of his training rather than being completely new.”

Rascher Hopes was one of the youngest, and at only 16hh, one of the smallest horses in the field – making him an instant crowd-favourite down under.

He and Emile were the team’s pathfinders and despite his inexperience and the adverse weather conditions in Australia at the time – which Richard Davison recalls turned the surface into “porridge” – managed a personal best score of 66.96% in the grand prix, qualifying them for the special and making them the highest-placed British combination.

“I’d say Sydney was our highlight together,” adds Emile. “But getting over 70% in the grand prix at the CDI-W in Dusseldorf (2001) was also really special. The wonderful thing about Streaky was that he was so consistent – he put in solid scores every time he went out internationally.”

The combination went on to be a stalwart of British teams in the early 2000s, representing Great Britain at the 2001 European Championships and the 2002 World Equestrian Games before peaking with a bronze medal at the 2003 European Championships at Hickstead.

In many ways, Britain’s success in dressage in the modern era following London 2012 is built on the foundations established by horses like Rascher Hopes, with teams in the early 2000s operating under enormous pressure, with national lottery funding, big sponsorship deals and Olympic participation on the line.

Rascher Hopes went on to retire at the 2006 National Championships at 15 years old in what was his 54th grand prix outing, receiving a standing ovation after an emotional farewell speech by then-British Dressage chairman Desi Dillingham.

“I couldn’t have wished for a nicer way to end with him,” Emile said. “I just felt at the time that he’d done so much, he’d been all around the world and exceeded everyone’s expectations, I just wanted him to slow down, and be able to enjoy more time out in the field rather than travelling so much.”

“Hilary (Macdonald) had been having lessons with me for a while and she’d ridden Streaky from time to time and I knew she loved him and would be the right person to give him what he needed in retirement.”

Hilary added that it was extra poignant as she’d recently lost her own dressage horse when Emile suggested she take on Rascher Hopes as a schoolmaster. “It’s been my great privilege to look after him and have him as part of the family ever since,” she said.

“I remember going to Gatcombe the year Valegro was brought there to meet the general public following his retirement, and I went up to Alan Davies who used to travel with Streaky to competitions and was there with Valegro, and I said,  ‘Hello Alan, you don’t know me but I have Streaky at home’ and his face lit up and he said ‘Oh I loved that horse,’ and I thought that was so nice to see how many people who knew and loved him.”

And even in retirement, Rascher Hopes continues to be a pathfinder. In 2010 he helped check out new hacking routes in the Cotswolds for the British Horse Society (BHS). In 2020 he also went to a British Dressage South West senior dressage camp when Hilary’s other horse couldn’t attend. “Streaky put his head over the stable door and said ‘Is there a party? I’ll go!’ aged 29,” Hilary recalls.

“He still goes out for the odd little potter once a week or so which he seems to really enjoy. He’s slowed down a lot now but he’s just been the most extraordinary horse, and he’s still a real character and the yard favourite.”

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