Despite Loss of Top Horse, Great Britain’s Paralympic Strength Goes On

Cabral, also known as ‘JP’, passed away on Sunday after a short illness. According to Baker, the dark bay gelding, born in 2001, died after a small wound he contracted in the field became infected. Reaction to his death online was quick to arrive, including from the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) on Twitter: “FEI HQ is sending you all our #TwoHearts today #bestrong & RIP JP x”. For its part, Equestrian Great Britain told Baker, “So sorry to hear the sad news on your superstar….”

And indeed Cabral will go down as a star in the equestrian history books. As Natasha Baker herself put it: “JP was a horse like no other, a true legend…. 11 gold medals, Paralympic records, endless national and international titles, we defied the odds and he gave me absolutely everything he had.”

That effort was recently on display at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, where Baker was part of a powerhouse Great Britain team which topped the Paralympic equestrian standings with 11 medals, including seven golds and four silvers. The next best team was the Netherlands with seven medals in total. “I’ve run out of tears,” an emotional Baker told Horse & Hound at the time, as Cabral’s Paralympic career drew to a close. “That was our last championship test together and it was magical. He has never been beaten at a Paralympics.”

But if anything, the passing of Cabral is a timely reminder that despite the individual loss right now, the Great Britain para-equestrian scene remains a huge force in the sport. In Brazil, for example, 3-time gold medallist Baker was joined on the podium at different moments by compatriots Sophie Christiansen, Sophie Wells, Anne Dunham and Lee Pearson.

Britain’s Rio showing followed an equally impressive medal haul on home soil in London in 2012, where Baker and her teammates also pocketed 11 medals, ahead of Germany with seven. In the British capital, Baker — who suffers from permanent nerve damage and severe weakness in her legs — took home two golds and established a Paralympic record (76.857%) for her Grade II class in the Championship Test.

Whatever the case, in high-level equestrian and para-equestrian sports, horses like Cabral cannot just be replaced with the snap of a finger. He himself was discovered by ‘fluke’, as Baker describes it. But the continued success of Great Britain in the sport is in contrast no fluke, and the champion rider will undoubtedly continue to be part of that success — all the while retaining treasured memories of the horse who made it all possible.