Michael Jung has retired his triple Kentucky and multiple medal-winning mare FischerRocana FST after a stellar career.
The 16-year-old mare (Itunago XX x Carismo) is one of the world’s best event horses and will enjoy her retirement with her celebrity field companion, La Biosthetique-Sam FBW.
Michael has also indicated that motherhood is in the pipeline for his world team gold medal-winning ride.
He announced her retirement on Monday (12 April), adding she only went to a few small events in 2020 owing to the coronavirus pandemic, with the hope things would be back to normal this year.
“She enjoyed a great winter break with Sam in the paddock and when we realised it wouldn’t be much different this year with the big classics [being impacted], I decided to take her out of the sport,” he said.
“Because what else can she prove?
“I think my little fighter has shown more than enough what she can do, and just for something three- or four-star, she doesn’t have to keep running.
“I’m very excited about her offspring and seeing her every day with Sam in the meadow.”
He added: “She is super fit and it’s time to get some foals from this amazing mare.”
FischerRocana secured her first medal as a six-year-old, winning the World Championship for young horses at Le Lion in 2011, and went on to take victory in eight further international events.
Her three back-to-back wins at Kentucky CCI4* (now CCI5*) in 2015, 2016 and 2017 are a stand-out statistic in a career that boasts so many highlights. She came within a fence of winning the US event for a fourth time in a row in 2018, finishing 2.8 penalties behind winners Oliver Townend and Cooley Master Class.
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The mare’s first senior championship was the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy as a nine-year-old, where she jumped double clear to take individual silver and help Germany to its fourth consecutive team championship gold medal. The pair also won individual silver at the 2017 Europeans in Strzegom.
She has countless placings to her name, including second at Luhmühlen and Pau in 2014 and 2015 respectively, and represented Germany on many Nations Cup squads.
The pair led after dressage at Burghley 2015, but were unlucky to stumble and fall on the flat at the first water. Michael later found he had broken his ankle in the fall, a discovery he made only after he had gone on to win both that year’s Burghley title (La Biosthetique-Sam FBW) and the eventing Europeans team and individual gold medals (FischerTakinou) the following week.
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