Meet Kynren's Newest Star Performer, Cosmo The Shire Horse
Get ready for the newest star of Kynren's 'epic tale of England' in Bishop Auckland
It’s a journey through 2,000 years of history you won’t forget – a 1,000-strong cast, a seven-and-a-half acre stage, pyrotechnics, combat displays and, throughout the entire event, a whole host of horses helping to bring it to life. Anna Warnecke, CEO at Kynren, is ecstatic about how far the show has come.
‘Kynren was created from the point of view of having the area come together and create a visitor attraction to help it blossom again,’ she explains. ‘It’s been an extremely special journey for me and my team because the beauty of having volunteers, who we call actors, come together and create something as stunning and special as Kynren means everyone is here for the right reason.’
Running successfully since 2016, part of what makes Kynren so popular is its animals, who are involved in every aspect of the show and have had a central role since the early days. In her previous role as Director of Cavalry, Anna became intimately familiar with how much goes into the care and training of the horses and other animals. ‘Animals are very close to my heart,’ she says. ‘We have more than 150 different animals involved in Kynren and we have some of them here on site. We train them all and train our volunteers to ride them or drive them.’
‘It was an amazing first year trying to put the show together with volunteers that had never done it, horses that had never done it and we had never done it either. It was crazy, but wonderful’
Although Anna mentions a herd of very affectionate sheep who are used in the show (‘they have absolutely no desire to run away from you, they just want to be with you’), it’s the horses in particular who play an important role in a number of scenes, from the invasion of the Vikings and clashes with the Romans to the drawing of Queen Victoria’s carriage. But training the horses to not only be comfortable during the loud combat scenes and pyrotechnics, but also know their marks and cues, takes time.
‘I’ve been involved from the very first year and the horses came from France at that time. They’d never been in a show before or been around lights and noise. So Laurie Robinson [the current Director of Cavalry] and I decided together that we would do it. We rode an awful lot ourselves and trained our volunteers nearly every second of the day.’
‘He wants to get nothing wrong, do everything nicely and is just the friendliest horse’
Anna is an accomplished event rider and was keen to get stuck in. ‘It was an amazing first year trying to put the show together with volunteers that had never done it, horses that had never done it and we had never done it either. It was crazy, but wonderful, because it really pulls the team together when you’re working on something like this,’ she says. ‘There were a lot of tears of happiness (and sadness), but the end result when we did the first show was just the most magical moment for everyone involved.’
Now though, the horses are pros. ‘It’s got easier for us because we now have a team of horses that have been in the show for years. The music starts and they know exactly where they have to be and what they have to do, and they just love it,’ Anna explains. ‘Our animals grow old with us and have their whole lives with us which is wonderful. They know exactly what they’re doing and we call them by name and they will come over.’
Kynren has recently gained a new leading man that will join its impressive cast of horses. Cosmo, a rare grey shire horse who stands at a whopping 1.86m, is proving to be a true gentleman. ‘Shire horses were bred in England from medieval times and most of them are black with white legs, but Cosmo is completely grey,’ Anna explains. ‘Shire horses are a rare breed anyway, but there’s believed to be only around 200 left in the world that are grey, so he is really special. Because it is an English breed and really rare, we had always wanted to have a shire horse at Kynren and Cosmo is particularly nice. He is a gentle giant – he wants to get nothing wrong, do everything nicely and is just the friendliest horse.
‘He’s already had a few photo shoots and everybody just loves him. He’s on a really good path to be a superstar of the show.’
Although he may be enjoying his celebrity status for now, Cosmo will soon have no time for press and will be an important part of Kynren once fully trained. ‘He most likely will be driving in the Georgian harvest, in the Durham Cathedral scene, and then most likely will be ridden for the Viking attack,’ Anna says, ‘so he will be multi-tasking.’
When it comes down to the nuts and the bolts of coordinating riders with horses, Anna appreciates that there needs to be some flexibility, and the comfort of the horses is paramount. ‘It depends on the roles and it depends on the person. Sometimes we have a rider that clicks with one horse particularly well and we try to keep that pair together. Other horses are a lot more adjustable between one rider and another and can be ridden by different people,’ she explains. ‘We are obviously training all of the riders to ride correctly and the volunteers are some of the kindest people. The horses have learned to trust us as a group because the rider is always directing the horse in a nice way and they know exactly where they need to be, so there is no stress involved.’
With such a strong and well-bonded cast already, there are of course plans to continue to expand Kynren for visitors. ‘We are opening a Viking village as a pre-show attraction. Usually when you come to Kynren you can have food and drinks but you still have to wait a little while before the show starts. So soon we will have a Viking village with a blacksmith, cooking, weaving, woodwork… and the animals will be in that too!’
