Jump straight to the latest news about Carl Hester
Carl Hester MBE is one of Britain’s most successful dressage riders. He is an Olympic gold medallist and multi-medallist at European and world championships. He is also the holder of 68 national dressage titles, and was crowned British national champion in 2019.
Carl grew up on the Channel Island of Sark, where his first mount was a donkey called Jacko. He moved to mainland Britain aged 16 to work at the Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy in Dorset. Just 18 months after taking up dressage, Carl became national young rider champion.
In 1989, Carl started riding for the Bechtolsheimers. In his three and a half years with them, Carl went to the World Championships in 1990 and the European Championships in 1991 on Rubelit Von Unkenriff, as well as the 1992 Barcelona Olympics on Georgioni. Carl credits the Bechtolsheimers for setting him on his path to international success.
A top trainer as well as a competitor, Carl Hester is the mentor of the double Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin and part owner of the dressage wonderhorse Valegro. Carl has successfully trained numerous horses up to grand prix level dressage during his career. These include Uthopia, with whom he won gold medals at the European Championships in 2011 and the London 2012 Olympics, and Nip Tuck, on whom he won team silver medals at the 2014 World Equestrian Games (WEG), 2015 Europeans and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Carl’s current top horses are Hawtins Delicato and En Vogue. With the Diamond Hit son Delicato, Carl helped Britain win team bronze at WEG in Tryon in 2018. They were also part of the British team at the 2019 European Championships, where they finished ninth in the grand prix special.
Carl took over the ride on Charlotte Dujardin’s Jazz gelding En Vogue in spring 2020. The pair made their international debut at Keysoe CDI in October 2020, finishing third in the special. In 2021, they were part of the British team at the delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo and took team bronze.
Carl Hester has a regular column in Horse & Hound magazine, which is also available to read online.
In the week that is historically the week of the Liverpool International Horse Show, we take a trip down memory lane to last year’s action, when the master of British dressage posted another impressive win on his Olympic partner Nip Tuck
“En Vogue is an absolute powerhouse; he has medals written all over him”
Charlotte Dujardin breaks the 90% barrier for the first time since taking individual gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016
“The partnership and the silhouette of Edward and Toto became iconic, something those of us lucky enough to see them live will never forget”
Joanna checks in one last time for 2020, reflecting on what has been a very tough year for her
“The championships will be a celebration for us all to bring a difficult and challenging year to an end”
To hopefully lift some spirits, here is a selection of this year’s best feel-good moments...
The sport of dressage often comes with certain stereotypes, but outside the pristine white boards of the arena, there are plenty of dressage riders getting up to antics you might not expect...
‘We wanted to work on a campaign together that could actually spark real effective change”
With debates in the dressage world surrounding top hats and helmets just one equestrian topic that has been gaining a lot of traction online recently, Carl Hester is concerned that social media might be putting young riders off competing
Polly Bryan talks to Carl Hester about his latest British team prospect, the talented 11-year-old En Vogue, who is “the most incredible showman” despite being a worrier under saddle
For Carl Hester, winning silver at the European Dressage Championships at Windsor in 2009 is a memory that will never fade
H&H’s dressage columnist discusses a great tribute to Valegro and the top hat debate
