a couple of things: I have only vague memories of the '88 Olympics. I do remember it being in the middle of the night, and only seeing snippets of the horses. I do not remember commentary from Steinkraus. I have heard him though at other events. He was probably the best. Although I follow eventing, and I love Lucinda, I think she is fine for all events. After all, Melanie was an Olympic gold medalist, and her commentary is not wonderful. I think several things. Those two are geared for different audiences. Melanie is for the more accessable ‘everyman’ who might want to watch but isn’t very up on equestrians. Lucinda, is broadcasting to supposedly a more knowlegable audience. There is no way they are going to hire seperate people for the disciplines. That is ridiculous. What ever happened to Robert Dover? He had a way with words and might be good at this. And Steffan, if he does retire, might be good at it too. But there is no way they are going to pay for seperate teams. Eventing costs too much already.
Blood-Horse has also had a couple of nice articles about Ilex and McClain.
It reminded me of the old panel type jumps that were popular in the 1960s.
Laura is my favorite. i remember watching the selection trials at Gladstone in the early nineties when the AHSA was still around and just thinking she was unbelievable. She wasn’t super well known yet, but has turned out to be quite the horseman. I listened to her being interviewed on Practical Horseman’s podcast I believe. When she talked about retiring, she said basically everyone is worried about what retirement means and what they will do but as long as she’s around horses, she’s ok. She really loves horses. I really enjoyed that podcast. I’d never heard her speak in such depth.
Laura is 3 or so years older than me; I spent my middle/high school years attending many of the same shows (as a groom) in the southeast. Laura’s sister and manager Mary Elizabeth is also a very talented rider and horsewoman, and their mother Carol was as sweet as could be.
I read an older article about Laura recently where Laura said that she and Mary Elizabeth ride pretty similarly and have similar taste in horses, so if Mary Elizabeth tells her she’ll like a horse, she almost inevitably does. And she definitely credits her sister for doing a lot to help Laura be as successful as she is.
She used to work in the different horse show offices, right? Very nice lady, as I recall.
Y’all know I’ve always adored Laura, without whom there would be no Rox Dene, but what I think is most impressive now is how she keeps working at it. Baloutinue was amazing last Olympics, but he’s more rideable in less tack now.
She did - she was such an energetic little woman. I say “was”, but I think she’s still with us. IIRC, she taught both girls through their pony years.
So much for the E! jumping reruns from today. Instead of the 3 pm central showing, they’re showing the women’s 3 on 3 basketball gold medal match between Germany and Spain.
Schedule now says 4 pm central for the jumping rerun.
Tomorrow is supposed to be 6 am central on E!, and NBC 9: 15 am central.
As a kid growing up in the Midwest, I idolized Laura. Loved watching her ride in the big classes and seeing her on TV. I remember really early one morning I was walking my pony back to the barns from schooling at a show and happened to be walking next to Laura on one of her jumpers. She said hi and asked me about my pony, which was like one of the coolest things that ever happened to me in my life.
I also had a huge crush on Kent when we were teenagers and used to linger around the rings when he was riding just to watch him 
It’s available on Peacock now.
I don’t have Peacock, but basketball is running over anyway on E!. At last! Horses.
I had the hots for Peter Wylde (and his horse Native Surf). That was never going to work out in my favor, for several reasons. 
I used to love watching Laura ride Simba Run!
My Laura story is years ago when World Cup was in Vegas, maybe 2003?, it was my first time at such a big event, we were walking through Bellagio and I saw a rider in breeches and knee socks and was so excited I went up and asked her who she was.
She said “oh you probably don’t know my name” and I said maybe I do and she said “Laura Kraut” and she was SO incredibly nice and we talked about the Bellagio having an Hermes store and I showed her the bar of saddle soap I had just bought there because what else could I afford, lol.
Man time flies.
Go Karl and Laura!!
Just FYI, he still looks great. I’ve seen him at a couple of different shows lately. He still rides beautifully as well.
I know. His husband is no slouch in the looks department either!
I’m not familiar with the husband. Is he a horse person?
