Olympic show jumper Laura Kraut’s four-decade career includes three appearances on both the U.S. Olympic team and the World Equestrian Games team. She has also competed in numerous World Cup Finals, has ridden in countless Nations Cups and has more than 100 grands prix wins. 

In 1991, Laura got the ride on her first big-time grand prix partner, Simba Run. After a year together, Laura and Simba earned a spot as alternates on the 1992 US Olympic team in Barcelona. Simba helped draw national attention and sponsorship to Laura’s career, opening the door to a string of partnerships with other talented horses, including Liberty, her partner at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Anthem, Miss Independent, her partner at the 2006 WEG in Aachen, and Cedric—perhaps her most famous partner. When Cedric was only 10, he and Laura wowed the world by finishing the 2008 US Olympic selection trials with the best overall score—and then went on to win the team gold medal in Beijing. Most recently, Laura won a team gold medal at the 2018 World Equestrian Games with Zeremonie. 

Based in Florida for half the year and Great Britain for the other, Laura and her longtime partner, the legendary British show jumper Nick Skelton, run a successful training and teaching business. In this episode, Laura talks about how she gained experience in the sport and how those experiences shaped her into the rider she is today, the qualities she looks for in a show jumper (and some of her favorite horses), what she thinks makes a good horseman and more.

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