‘He leaves a massive void’: tributes to international showjumper who turned his hooves to dressage

Kanon De Labarde, who enjoyed an international showjumping career before turning his hooves to dressage, has been put down in retirement aged 25.

The Concorde son was produced and competed by showjumper Robert Bevis. The pair jumped successfully on the continent, and their biggest victory at home was finishing second in the senior Foxhunter final at Horse of the Year Show in 2005.

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Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.

‘He leaves a massive void’: tributes to international showjumper who turned his hooves to dressage

In 2008 Maria Naynuk bought “Kenny” as schoolmaster for her daughter Cecilia, and the pair competed up to 1.30m level. Kenny had some lameness issues, and when he was rehabbed and came back sound, it was decided to retire him from showjumping aged 13.

Maria later took over the ride on Kenny and in 2014 the pair made their British Dressage debut at elementary level. Over the next three years they competed up to medium before Kenny was retired from competition aged 19.

Maria told H&H Kenny was nicknamed “La La Kenny” owing to his big character.

“He was an amazing horse,” she said. “What he did in his life was incredible. He was absolutely beautiful to look at, his eyes looked like melted chocolate.”

Maria said Kenny found his stride in dressage after initially proving to be quite sharp.

“I thought with his competition experience in showjumping he would be pretty bombproof, but at our first test he was so spooky!” she said.

“He was very good at the movements, and knew flying changes very well but he didn’t get to show them as he was retired before we got the chance to do advanced medium. The thing he had the biggest concern about was counter canter because he had to be on the correct leg all the time.”

Kenny has enjoyed six years of retirement spending time grooming with his pony friends, Trudy and Will. He was put down last month owing to increasing soundness issues.

“He leaves a massive void that will never be filled,” said Maria. “We had always hoped he would be with us a bit longer. He was very special.”

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