Cedric and Laura Kraut’s mercurial partnership celebrated by Hall of Fame

It is fitting that Laura Kraut’s Cedric is being inducted into the show jumping Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Wellington, Florida next month, because if he had been showing in these modern times, he would have been an internet sensation.

“In this day and age he would have a huge following on Instagram because he was so cute and such a character,” said Laura of the diminutive Holsteiner gelding. “He deserves [to be in the Hall of Fame] because not only did he do what he did, but he jumped at a high international level for 10 plus years, which not many horses do. When he did it well, he did it so well. You appreciate that in a horse.”

Lightning-speed attraction has struck twice for Laura, when taking one look at a horse and immediately wanting to try it. Once it was her Tokyo Olympics horse Baloutinue, whom she spotted showing in the International ring in a 1m40 class with Adam Prudent and was able to acquire some three years later. The other instant connection came with Cedric, as she sat watching a Grand Prix at Lummen in Belgium, but glanced over to the second ring, to see a young, grey horse “jumping a mile over the fences.” At the time Cedric, now 26 and fully retired, was just seven years old.

The rider turned out to be a young – possibly 14-year old – Maikel van der Vleuten. Laura approached his father, Eric and on Monday morning she tried the horse. “I think I didn’t jump 20 jumps and I said to Emile I’ll have him,” said Laura. 

The horse was shipped to Calgary, where Laura was going to show – and that’s when the mercurial partnership began, starting with Laura’s surprise upon seeing Cedric in quarantine. “I looked in the stall and I was like ‘that’s a pony!’” she said. “It was funny because when you rode him he felt huge but when you stood beside him, he was tiny. He was probably on his best day 15.2hh  and he was very short from nose to tail so he was little all the way around.”

Cedric’s small stature belied his impactful personality. “He was wild,” Laura said simply. “He was a little bit of a runaway because he was afraid of everything. He would run and you couldn’t stop him. It was scary. There are many stories of us having to put two hands on one rein and try to turn him so he could go to a stop. He was very spooky and he wasn’t very good, but he jumped. The feeling was there, but the behavior was poor.”

Initially purchased as an investment, Laura quickly realized that Cedric, was not going to be the ride of a Junior Amateur jumper, as she had first thought. Instead he stayed in Laura’s string and after gradual improvement over three years, he  went on to partner Laura to major accomplishments.

“Our common theme probably all the way up to 18 was he would take two or three steps forward and one step back – that was throughout his whole career,” she said. “I would be winning, winning, winning and then I’d be falling off. He was always keeping me guessing.”

Laura forgave Cedric his vices, because “like the girl with the curl on her forehead, when he was good, he was very very good – and when he was bad he was awful,” she said. “I was completely in love with the horse. He’d do anything when you were on the ground. You could get him to bow, you could get him to follow you around, he would eat anything, he would come in the house if you wanted him to. He was so, so amazing when you weren’t on his back. The moment you got on his back everything changed. I think he had a lot of fear so when you were on the ground beside him, he felt comfortable.”

The fear factor that cropped up with Cedric meant Laura went into each class with uncertainty. “I could never ever walk in the ring and think that it was going to be easy because just when you thought that, he would decide that something was scary – a black plank or a wall or a funny looking fence or whatever. I don’t think there was ever a day when I went in the ring and thought I’ve got this – with him. I always knew that he could jump whatever was in there. That was never the question, it was whether he would spook or become afraid and then it was going to be a problem.”

In spite of the pitfalls, Cedric and Laura secured many notable victories. They were part of the US Gold Medal show jumping team in Hong Kong in 2008 when Cedric was just 10 years old.  “At that stage he was completely and totally unreliable and I had no idea what he was doing,” said Laura. “The fact that he went there and performed the way he did was a tribute to just what an outstanding animal he was.”

The pair also won four Global Champions Tour Grands Prix. “Those were very, very difficult classes to win,” Laura said. “It was three rounds every time against the best horses in the world and he won them easily when he won them.” One time, when he didn’t, was in Lausanne, Switzerland. “He was jumping clear; then I had a rail at one of the fences,” Laura recalled. “I got jumped loose and I still thought I could jump the next fence. However, he stopped and threw me off. In the process, the bridle came off. Then he galloped around the ring at top speed and jumped out of the ring beside a tractor and galloped back to the stable.”

Cedric, who was never ridden again after his retirement was announced in 2017,  had been living at Laura’s partner, Nick Skelton’s farm in England, but has recently moved to Holland, where Laura and Nick are now based. Still bearing the nickname ‘Monkey’ he is an inseparable paddock-mate of Lauren Hough’s horse Quick Study aka ‘Joey’. Cedric is still up to his tricks.

“He definitely recognizes us, but he’s feral,” said Laura. “Unless he’s positive that I have treats for him, he won’t come to me in the field. If I have treats he will come – if not he’s just like no…”