Kaley Cuoco Offers to Buy Horse Punched by Coach at Tokyo Olympics: 'Name Your Price'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Kaley Cuoco is speaking out about the headline-making incident at the Tokyo Olympics involving a German modern pentathlon who hit a horse with her fist during the Aug. 6 competition.
The Flight Attendant actress and avid equestrian — who is married to horse trainer Karl Cook — shared a series of impassioned Instagram Stories on Friday condemning the coach and offering to buy the abused horse, Saint Boy.
"I feel it's my duty and heart to comment on this disgrace," Cuoco wrote. "This is not Olympic show jumping. This is a disgusting, classless, abusive representation of our sport in so many ways. This team should be ashamed of themselves."
Alongside her words were photos of rider Annika Schleu, crying while struggling to get Saint Boy to jump at Friday's competition.
Cuoco went on to address Schleu and coach Kim Raisner, who was disqualified after she was seen hitting the horse on TV.
"You and your team did not do your country proud or this sport. You make us look bad," Cuoco wrote. "Shame on you and godspeed to any animal that comes in contact with you."
"Pure classless behavior right here. Disgusting on all levels. This is not our sport. This does not represent our sport," Cuoco said in another post. "This rider and her 'trainer' are a disgrace."
The Big Bang Theory alum continued: "I'll buy that horse outright and show it the life it should have. Name your price."
Later, Cuoco clarified that she "wasn't kidding," sharing news stories of her offer.
The governing body for the modern pentathlon event, the UIPM, released a statement on Saturday regarding the incident, revealing that Raisner would not be able to participate in any additional events, including Saturday's men's individual competition.
"The UIPM Executive Board (EB) has given a black card to the Germany team coach Kim Raisner, disqualifying her from the remainder of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games," the statement said. "The EB reviewed video footage that showed Ms Raisner appearing to strike the horse Saint Boy, ridden by Annika Schleu, with her fist during the riding discipline of the women's modern pentathlon competition."
"Her actions were deemed to be in violation of the UIPM competition rules, which are applied to all recognised modern pentathlon competitions including the Olympic Games," the statement continued." The EB decision was made today at the Tokyo Stadium before the resumption of the men's modern pentathlon competition."
Prior to the UIPM's statement, Germany's Olympic team chief Alfons Hoermann had already said she had been pulled out of the men's individual competition.
"We were all in agreement that the coach will not be at the competition on Saturday," he said, per Reuters.
"We also consider that an urgent review of the incident is necessary, especially in terms of animal protection, and that the national and international federations draw their conclusions," Hoermann added.
Kayley Cuoco and her horse Bionetty
The modern pentathlon contains five different events: fencing, freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, and a final combined event of pistol shooting and cross country running. For show jumping, the athletes do not use their own horses but rather draw one at random and are given 20 minutes to warm up with it before the competition.
Horse-riding is a huge part of Cuoco's life. She's been riding horses since childhood, and met Cook at an equestrian competition in 2016.
The actress owns several horses, and often shows them off on social media.
It's something she has in common with Flight Attendant costar Zosia Mamet, who on Friday documented the experience of flying her horse from New Jersey to California, where she and Cuoco will be filming season 2 of the acclaimed HBO Max show.
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Why would someone punch a horse on world wide television? Or anywhere?
Apparently, she was also instructing Schleu to "really hit him" after one of the refusals, too. Turned out to be not the most helpful advice she could have given.
It seems Saint Boy had refused to jump earlier in the day for a male contestant, and Schleu could have requested another horse, but didn't.
I don't like the random selection of horse-rider pairings. It seems to me that there is no way to build the trust each pair must have to take the kind of jumps required.
I have heard that some horses don't like certain people.
LOL
That guy deserved what he got.
I think we forget that horses have a tendency to be nervous, and for good reason. In the wild, they're prey animals. In the wild, the horses that are nervous are the ones that live. If you want a skittish horse to be behave, don't stress it out even more. Schleu stressed her skittish horse.
When my horse was injured, my dad bought one from a coworker for me to train and eventually sell. Unbeknownst to us was the fact that this horse had been abused by a stable hand where he had been. One day, a boy went in to muck the stall and the horse grabbed him by his hair and actually threw him over the stall fencing. Everyone said to put him down for being dangerous, but my father felt there was more to his history than we knew. He contacted a friend of his who was a retired investigative reporter. Within a week, we had the full story. The guy that the horse tossed resembled the old stable hand and he was fighting back at what he thought was going to be more abuse. The horse, named Spare Tire by my father eventually went to a single mom with a daughter and turned out to be a prize winning barrel racing horse. The abuser got karma though. Once it came to light that he had abused it turned out, numerous horses, he got fired thanks to my mother and the op piece she did for the newspaper she worked for.
And never, never mess around the rear of a horse, that guy was asking for it.
Yep. Dumbass.
I need to find my Red from seventies show dumbass meme. Haha
That horse is a beautiful colour though. I don't remember seeing a blue gray like that before.
I believe that is a blue roan.
To anyone who thinks Mongo actually knocked the horse down, take note of the stunt rider's right arm and how he pulls on the reins at just the right moment to get the stunt that horse was specifically trained for.
There’s no justification for that kind of brutality.
The lot of them should be barred from the Olympics for life.
The ASPCA is now world wide under different names. They should definitely investigate this.
Not only that, but from all US sponsored trial events.
This is a C&P of a Facebook comment about Schleu's equestrian skills. I don't know anything about show jumping, but this woman sounds like she does.
And another:
Although my primary events were gymkhana, I would also do jumping to keep the horse supple. That horse never felt a bit in his life, only a hackamore or bozzel. Both used the nose as a pressure point and did not harden the mouth. You are so right about not looking down. I did once and although my horse stayed on balance and cleared the 5 foot jump, My stomach did flip flops. My jumping coach would stick a football helmet on students who had a habit of looking down so that they couldn't.