"He seemed to be the horse that no one wanted. Undersized, overexcited, too small to excel and too wild to win.
"Hickstead wasn’t preordained for greatness. That would come later. He was, at least for a time, a four-legged gamble that no one was willing to make.
The powerful 15-year-old stallion died of heart failure this week, a champion crowned in accolades. He was an Olympic gold medalist for Canada, a peerless athlete, and at his time of death, the greatest jumper in the world."
For Mr. Lamaze, there will never be another Hickstead. He said this week he will try to look for a replacement while contemplating his future. But he could come up empty-handed.
Olympic team gold medalist McLain Ward of the United States says it’s not impossible for a top horseman with wealthy backers to get top horses. But it’s not so easy to find a horse like Hickstead. He could win all three events he contested at a tournament, for example, while other horses achieved less consistent results.
“He will probably never match that horse,” Mr. Ward said. “I don’t think there’s been a better horse in this sport, ever.”
It’s likely that Mr. Lamaze sees it the same way. He chose the one that others passed up, and the horse returned the confidence. Speaking in Toronto, Mr. Lamaze said the pair was successful partly because they were so alike.
“I think we had a bit of the same personality,” he said to reporters in French. “We both liked to win. We had the same energy that transformed itself into incredible things.”
In the process, they became one of the great teams in Canadian sport.
“There’s an old horseman’s proverb that for every horse there is one rider and for every rider there is one horse,” Mr. Maharaj said. “There is no doubt in my mind that Eric and Hickstead regarded one another that way.”
Hickstead’s legacy a soaring love story - The Globe and Mail
