Ingrid Klimke’s multi-medallist SAP Hale Bob OLD has been injured. The horse suffered a tendon injury while competing at the test event for the eventing World Championships in Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy, last weekend.
“Bobby” was a member of the German team as this fixture was also a Nations Cup competition. Ingrid said on her social media that after a confident first half of his cross-country round, the horse injured a tendon on a stretch between the obstacles. She immediately noticed something was wrong and pulled up.
She added that the injured SAP Hale Bob OLD is in the best hands with German team vet Dr. Matthias Niederhofer “and will be taken care of and spoiled by us”.
Ingrid finished second individually in the competition on her other ride, Equistros Siena Just Do It, behind Swiss rider Robin Godel on Grandeur De Lully CH. Switzerland also won the Nations Cup. Britain did not send any competitors to the test event.
The 18-year-old “Bobby”, by the thoroughbred Helikon, has become one of the greats of eventing over the past decade.
He has been European champion twice, in 2017 in Strzegom, Poland, and 2019 in Luhmühlen, Germany, and also won two European team golds (2015 and 2019) and one team silver (2021). He was the individual bronze medallist at the 2018 World Championships in Tryon, USA, and contributed to Germany’s team silver at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
Bobby missed out on a chance to contest a second Olympics last year when Ingrid sustained a chest injury in a fall from another horse in May. The pair came back to be selected for the European Championships in Avenches, Switzerland, in September and finished fifth individually, helping Germany to team silver.
The horse has also won at five-star, at Pau Horse Trials in 2014, and has been second (2015) and ninth (2017) at Badminton Horse Trials.
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