Olympic silver medallist says last-minute swap from bit to hackamore is key to success

Martha Terry's avatar
By
Published In Features
Karl Cook and Caracole de la Roque in Olympic showjumping, Paris 2024
Caracole De La Roque prefers to jump in a hackamore bridle, but does her warming up in a bit.
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)

You don’t win medals without exceptional attention to detail in finding precisely what makes your horse tick. Karl Cook, part of the US silver medal-winning Olympic showjumping team in Paris 2024 with the finely tuned Caracole De La Roque, is also in the running for individual honours having jumped clear in the qualifier on Monday, 5 August.

This was the third clear of the week for Karl and 12-year-old Caracole De La Roque, who came off the bench as an alternate when Kent Farrington’s ride Greya was withdrawn with an allergy issue.

Martha Terry
Martha Terry
Features editor

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.