The oldest event rider at the Paris Olympics, Ronald Zabala Goetschel, has kicked off his bid for glory in the Olympic eventing competition. But Ronald’s 57 years pale into insignificance compared to his equine partner, who at 21 is the oldest horse to compete at the Olympics – certainly this year, and possibly in history.
Ronald has tried to retire the Weltbekannt-sired bay, known at home as Pachito – but the horse had other ideas.
“When I retired him I had to send him to a different barn because he was going crazy, and then the grooms there said he was running round in the paddock all the time, so here we are,” says Ronald. “He does not like to retire – he has the same problem as I have, we think we are younger than we are.
“He never gets tired or sick, he’s never had an injury in his life,” Ronald says. “I’ve actually tried to retire him twice, and bought another horse, but when that hasn’t worked out, I say ‘Pachito, come back!’. I felt I owed it to him.
“I have done a lot of research and I cannot find any horse older than 20 who has competed at the Olympics.”
Weightless exercise and swimming for the oldest horse at the Olympics
Wundermaske’s bespoke home routine may be the key to his longevity. While the pair have been in Europe since February, Ronald has ridden him six days a week, but at home he is ridden only once a week or every 10 days.
“He does a lot on the walker and I also have a trotter with rubber shavings, which is perfectly flat on a big circle, so he trots without a weight,” Ronald explains. “I gallop him and jump him once a month. He’s happy and it’s perfect for him. It’s like if you run with a 20lb backpack compared to with nothing. He also goes swimming – he’s a very good swimmer.
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“At shows we give him a lot of therapies and massage,” says Ronald, who scored 37.7 in his Paris test. “He isn’t the best at dressage, but mostly his changes were clean and he was relaxed. But when he left the arena, he charged up the ramp saying, ‘Where’s cross-country? Come on’.”
The combined age of horse and rider is 78, and Ronald also takes care of his own fitness, and has lost 11lb this year.
“I was living in a truck for four months this year, and whenever we got to a show, I’d clean it and set up a little gym in the back,” he says. “Wherever I go I set up a gym in the barn with my treadmill and weights. I read a study that said over 100m, 1lb is equal to 3–5m, so imagine the impact over long distances.”
“It’s a beautiful course,” he says. “Although they are bigger, I think the straighter routes are easier than the options, so I don’t think I will take any options. I think five or six riders will make the time, but I think there may be some surprises because even though it is not hilly, it is challenging. And we will need big studs, it’s been raining a lot.”
Ronald adds that he has developed a great relationship with this horse, who was produced by Sharon White up to five-star.
“He’s always there for me,” he says. “In Chile in December, there was a skinny fence of a face with a big nose. The horse’s leg got caught on the nose and so I fell, but he went ahead and jumped the next fence, and then looked back to say, ‘where are you, what happened?’”
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
