Friday Video from SmartPak: Team Ireland’s Golden Boy Preps for Tokyo

We’d never, ever be so frivolous as to fall in love with a horse just because of its colour – but it’s awfully hard not to spot Sam Watson‘s Tokyo mount Tullabeg Flamenco without noting that creme brûlée coat, those limpid eyes like chocolate truffles, and those Oreo cookie legs. Sorry, we’ve made ourselves hungry now – and okay, okay, we’re totally and utterly in love. But Tullabeg Flamenco has much more going for him than just a unique dun coat; the 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding is also a serious competitor, with a European Championships appearance under his belt already and a string of recent top-ten FEI finishes that’ll ensure plenty of eyes are on him as he and Sam make their Olympic debut later this month.

As we head into the quarantine countdown, Tokyo-bound partnerships around the world have headed to their final outings to eke out those marginal gains and put their practice to the test – and for Sam and Tullabeg Flamenco, that outing came at last week’s Kilguilkey House CCI3*-S in Ireland. Our friends at the Irish Eventing Times were on hand to catch their 27.2 test – we dare you not to fall head over heels for this butterscotch beauty.