When I saw the opportunity of going for a tour around dressage legend, Carl Hesters yard through the British Dressage Northern Region I jumped at the chance to join in and it couldn't have come at a better time.Driving through the gates to his yard is impressive as the rest, and you cannot help but be in awe of what he's built up from nothing and being the "boy that grew on up on Island", to now one of the greatest dressage riders of all time.
The day started with us all filling into the indoor arena to watch Carl demonstrate a couple of horses he has in at the moment - all of which are at different stages of their training and a variety of ages.
Starting with a gorgeous 4-year-old chestnut gelding, Carl explained how this horses training started and where he hopes he'll progress to, before showing us a 5-year-old and telling us of the difference between where each horse is working and the sort of exercises that will benefit dressage horses of similar ages.
For me it was insightful to hear the way in which Carl would deal with a young horse and especially when he began to explain the best way to deal with a youngster that's spooky, like Ziggy. He explained he felt the best way to deal with a particularly spooky horse is to teach it shoulder in and shoulder fore early on in its training, so if there's something you know he's going to spook at, stick him in shoulder in as you ride past.
Next up was the 6 and 7 year olds, which demonstrated where the higher levels of training came in to play and how best to introduce shortening and extensions of strides, leg-yield and so on.It was amazing to watch the difference in each horses way of going, with very little age difference and how Carl would deal with each horse individually, depending on their temperament, age, strength and development.
Another thing I found helpful is to hear the man himself tell all of us not to get caught up in what other horses the same age as ours are doing, or what our peers are doing and so on. I've regularly complained to my friends that there's horses the same age as Ziggy achieving much more and let it frustrate me. So to hear from someone as respectable as Carl to say we need to take things in our own time and treat each horse as an individual is inspiring and gives all us amateurs that sometimes struggle on a day-to-day basis with something like a spooky horse, hope that one day we'll get there!
Finally we were treated to a demonstration by a horse competing at PSG that Carl has great hopes for in the future. To watch him transform an average trot into one of the most amazing medium trots I've seen was eye-opening and all through the way you ride. Seeing him ride the piaffe and passage and basic training on how to achieve it was quite frankly one of the greatest things I've seen and I was completely in awe of how he gets the results.
Carl is nothing but down to earth, and it is more than evident he cares for each and every one of the horses in his care.However, a visit there wouldn't have been complete without meeting the one and only Valegro - a four times Olympic Gold Medalist. An absolute sweetie, he is obviously living a very happy retirement under some of the best care.
It felt surreal fussing him over his stable door and watching him around the grooms whom he clearly adores.
Never in a million years did I imagine I'd be able to ask Carl for his advice on how to best ride through Ziggy's spookiness as well as stand outside Valegro's stable fussing him.
A truly fantastic day was clearly had by everyone and I urge anyone to go that gets the opportunity. The advice and demonstration from Carl is invaluable and its certainly left me more than inspired.... so watch this space!
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