Charisma

“WHEN I look back, I just think about how cool Charisma was – and how lucky I was to have him,” says Mark Todd. “He was so easy to do anything with, and so kind. But as a competitor, he was feisty, fiery, and exceptionally tough and brave.”

Charisma’s enduring fame pivots around those back-to-back individual Olympic gold medals at Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988, and the extraordinary partnership between the 6ft 2in rider and the 15.3hh horse. Anyone who took an interest in eventing during the 1980s will be able to recall Mark’s tall, lean upper body crouching low over Charisma’s compact form, the rider’s head almost further forward than the horse’s pricked ears.

“He had limitless stamina; he never felt tired underneath me,” remembers Mark. “He was very fast, and never questioned anything I pointed