Story by Chris Hector and photos by Roz Neave
We caught up with Charlotte Dujardin in Jerez when she was still glowing after her ride on Rafael Soto’s Andalusian stallion, Adivino.
You looked like you were having fun…
“I’ve always really enjoyed Spanish horses. We’ve had a couple in our yard for training, and I’ve ridden them, and I’ve loved them. I’ve always said, when I retire, that’s what I’m going to do – I’m going to get a couple of Spanish horses because they are so comfortable, so much fun, they are lovely natured, and so talented.”
“I saw Rafael (Soto) just before his performance in the Royal School yesterday, training this horse, and I was like, Wow! I love your horse. And he said, tomorrow you can have a ride on him. Brilliant.”
“So today I had my ride. It is completely different to my normal feeling. Their necks are so big, when I sat on him I couldn’t feel where it was right for his neck to be. They are so big, it feels like they are really round, and Rafael’s telling me, rounder. I’m like Oh my god rounder! It was great fun.”
Charlotte tries Rafael Soto’s Adivino
Getting the rhythm looked a bit tricky?
“Yeah I think it came in and out. Obviously he’s been trained by Rafael, he’s a man, he’s probably much stronger in the way of his riding, and totally different to the way I ride, so the horse is was like EEK what does she want! At one point I had the Spanish Walk, the poor horse was trying to work out what I was asking. It takes months to know a horse, but it was so nice just to have fun. It is so serious dressage that it was good to get on and just have fun and Rafael gave me a bit of a lesson. I really really enjoyed it.”
You must be excited about Barolo – that looks like a gold medal horse too…
“Yeah I’m really excited about Rolo, I’ve had him four years now. Last week was his fourth Grand Prix and he has literally done three low-keyed shows at home. He did our National Championships, that was his second Grand Prix. He’s had 70% every time. He’s still green, I could feel in the Grand Prix here last week, things were moving in the crowd, and he’s What’s Happening! He has only done ten shows in his life, he’s really not been out, so to be able to come here, and educate him, and let him see the world. He’s a bit scared of other horses. It’s been fantastic to get him out and get him to relax and be able to enjoy himself.”
Update: Barolo has since been sold to Japan for a Grand Prix rider.
Barolo is completely different to Valegro
He’s got a lovely light floaty quality…
“Yes, he has, he is completely different to Valegro. His whole build, his shape, everything, but I’m really excited about him and I was so happy with him in the Grand Prix because he is really easy to ride. I know he’s green and inexperienced, but he’s very easy. I don’t feel like any of the movements are difficult for him, apart from the transition in and out of the piaffe, that’s where he probably is too green, and in a test situation, that’s probably where I lose the most marks. But he does fantastic flying changes, the zig zags, there is so much that feels so easy to do on him, and to think that was only his fourth Grand Prix, I was really happy with him.”
Interested in breeding a top dressage horse? Go to www.ihb.com.au and see the large selection of European horses that are available this season. Horses like Breitling, sire of Barolo. Or choose from other ‘B’ line stallions like Burlington.
Valegro – ‘he’s one in a million’
How does it feel to be out on the black horse again?
“Ooh, it’s always great to get on Valegro. He’s just one in a million. I think to come here and just do the training has been great, and I think I’ve made a few people’s dreams come true, to meet him and be able to touch him and have a picture with him. Not everybody can get to the big competitions to watch us compete, so the fact that we are here means something… I was here in Jerez when Valegro was eight years old, I did my first international competition here, and to be back with him as a gold medallist, the best horse of this time, it is very nice that these people get to see him.”
He looks really well…
“That’s the thing, he’s now been doing this Grand Prix business for six years, and I think a lot of horses lose their enthusiasm and the will to do it, but he just loves it. You really feel that when you ride him. He loves it, and he wants to do it. I always feel that he is trying to please, he never wants to make mistakes, he always wants to do his best.”
It’s great when he makes a mistake, and you say, you’ve made a mistake – he’s not frightened, he just says, sorry, let’s do it again…
“He’s very sensitive. He is not a horse that you could be like, right we are going to do this. He’s such a sensitive horse in the way he thinks, and is off your legs, he is always going, and you are always re-assuring him. He gives me so much confidence as a rider as well, and I give him the confidence, and between the two of us, it’s such a fantastic feeling. He’s like driving the fastest car in the whole world, you put your foot on that accelerator and you have that power. You just go – yes, you touch him, and he comes back, it is such an incredible feeling.”
more pictures of Charlotte and Valegro follow
Watching you is extraordinary, there is never a random moment, every second you are trying to achieve something, do something, now something new, you are never just sitting on the horse…
“Yeah I think it is important in your training that you have a plan, you know what you are trying to do in each session. I think it is really important when a horse makes a mistake, not to punish the horse for making a mistake – try and make the horse understand what it has done wrong, and correct, and get the horse to understand it in the right way rather than trying to force it and scare it, then you have a bigger issue. I’m just very lucky that I’ve been brought up with Carl and our training system is very black and white.”
But you seem so concentrated when you are on the horse…
“I am because I really feel like I absorb the horse. I can read the horse through my body, as soon as I get on, I know how the ride is going to be, and you have to be sensitive to that. Like with Barolo, if he is a little bit afraid, then trying to be calm in myself so I give him that confidence and that re-assurance, so he can do his job. I’m quite lucky that I don’t suffer with nerves, I don’t get competition nerves, it’s good that I can be positive, like come along then, off we go, let’s go and enjoy it…”
“When I go in an arena, and I go down that centre line, I always imagine that I am in my arena at home. I don’t imagine it’s any different, just because those five or seven judges are sitting around it. I just try and do my thing, I try and enjoy it every time. Sometimes dressage is taken far too seriously and at the end of the day, we do it because we love it, we do it because it is our sport. And that can easily be forgotten, then the pressure becomes too much, the expectation becomes too much, and I think as a rider, it affects you. People always say to me, how do you deal with it? I say, I just go in there to enjoy it, and I truly do. I love it. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t do it.”
Meeting the fans…
Looking forward to the next big competition? (this interview was before the Rio Games, and as we all know, the fairy tale of Charlotte and Valegro ended as it should…)
“I am really really looking forward to it. Going to London was my dream come true, the ultimate dream was to get to London, I didn’t think in a million years that I was going to come away with a gold medal, but then I came away with two. This time there’s the expectation that I’ll come home with medals, and I am just going to go there, I’m going to enjoy it, and if it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Valegro and I have nothing to prove, we’ve done everything there is to do, and I feel after Rio, I would like to retire Valegro. I feel I have done everything there is to do with him, I don’t want to keep going and going until he is not the horse he is – I want him to be remembered for the horse he is now. I know that he is truly a special horse and I want everybody to remember him like that. I owe it to him to end on a high.”
This article first appeared in the April 2016 issue of THM.
