At the age of 24, the durable eventer Mr. Medicott left us last weekend. Retired in Virginia at the farm of Jacqueline Mars, the Irish-bred son of Cruising was a star for the U.S. with three different riders.
The first was Karen O’Connor, who took over the reins from Germany’s Frank Ostholt.
Karen O’Connor and Mr. Medicott at Rolex Kentucky 2012. (Photo © 2012 by Nancy Jaffer)
The horse, originally named Crag Cave Slieveluachra, was nicknamed Cave throughout his life. Cave was twenty-fifth with Frank at the 2008 Olympics, where he was on the German gold medal team, then came to the U.S. in 2010 for the FEI World Equestrian Games, where he was twenty-first. After that, the Mr. Medicott Syndicate, which included Sarah Broussard, Jacqueline Mars and Suzanne Lacy, bought him for Karen as a prospect for the 2012 London Olympics.
While it took some time for Cave to transition from having a male German rider to a female American rider. On the plus side, “he loved the job and continued to do his thing,” said Karen’s groom, Max Corcoran.
Karen and Cave were fourth at Rolex Kentucky in 2012 before finishing ninth as the highest-placed American entry at the London Olympics.
After Karen’s retirement at the end of 2012, a group of owners including Bruce Duchossois, Annie Jones, Stephanie Speakman, Tom Tierney, and Caroline Moran joined the Mr. Medicott Syndicate and got the ride for Phillip Dutton.
“I didn’t have a lot of time to get to know him, as I remember as we started to compete straight away, but fortunately we clicked from the beginning,” Phillip said.
In competition, Cave’s enthusiasm took “a bit of managing,” said Phillip, adding, “However, I always felt this came from Cave loving the sport and his job.”
In the spring of 2014, Phillip and Cave were third after cross-country at Kentucky, but the horse aggravated an old tendon injury and withdrew. He basically spent the next two years recuperating, with a brief return to competition in 2015 before going to the sidelines again.
Then at age 18, in the last event where Phillip rode him, he was fourth and the highest-placed American entry at the 2017 at Rolex Kentucky competition. After that, Phillip’s daughter, Olivia, began riding Cave to a series of top-10 finishes at the national Training and Preliminary levels during the latter half of 2017 and early 2018 before finishing third at Fair Hill.
“It was a big adjustment for me, but we took it one step at a time and I truly think that Cave knew he had to take care of me,” said Olivia.
“We grew a strong relationship where we could both trust each other.”
Olivia and Cave earned their qualification for the North American Youth Championship in the Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event CIC 2-star, then contributed to Area II’s team gold medal at the championships.
Cave was formally retired following show jumping at the NAYC. He had quite a record, competing at 50 FEI events in a career that included five different riders. He finished in the top 10 at 30 of those competitions.