PARIS: Charlotte Dujardin’s withdrawal after repeatedly whipping a horse has increased the pressure on her mentor Carl Hester to rally his team-mates if Britain is to regain the 2012 Olympic team dressage title.
At 57, Hester will be Britain’s oldest rider and take part in his seventh Games – he was once the youngest ever when he rode at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Hester, who gave Dujardin her first job in the sport as a groom in 2007, strongly condemned her actions in a letter.
Dujardin became known as “The Girl on the Dancing Horse” thanks to her partnership with Hester’s horse Valegro when she won double Olympic gold in 2012 and another gold and silver four years later in Rio.
Now, having once told AFP that he is sometimes too relaxed and needs to “kick the bum”, he must reignite the morale of his two team-mates ahead of next Tuesday’s competition.
She will join 2022 world champion Charlotte Fry – the 28-year-old was part of the team that won bronze in Tokyo in 2021 – and Becky Moody, 44.
Dressage is never short of glamorous settings for riders to perform in, but the venue for the Paris Games will take a beating – the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, built for Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’.
“Yes! I really wish to be the Sun King,” a smiling Hester told AFP as she spoke before Dujardin’s unveiling.
“Versailles, that’s a wonderful backdrop.
Hester already had a gold letterbox to his name on the island of Sark where he was brought up – all of Britain’s gold medalists from the London 2012 Games received the honour.
It’s been quite a journey for Hester to the point where she’s set to be the subject of the biopic ‘Stide’.
“That goes up to 2012 and that’s very beautiful,” he said.
“The producers approached me years ago, by the way, it didn’t show up until now.”
Hester said he only had one “no no” for the producers.
“They wanted my dad on a horse, but dad wouldn’t fit on a horse, he would piss himself laughing.
“The next piece is being able to sell it.
Hester admits he often has to pinch himself during his unlikely rise from taking tourists around Sark in horse-drawn carriages to being widely recognized as one of the best riders and trainers in the dressage world.
What’s more, it does all this from the stunning stables in Gloucestershire – jokingly referred to as ‘Hestershire’ – where peacocks, boxers and horses mingle freely.
“I pinch myself, I often do,” he said.
“It’s slightly surreal to be in my situation, the movie, the book, remembering your journey. It’s beautiful, it was beautiful.”
“My story is inspiring to other kids, not just the success, but how you get there, being in teams rather than just winning, which is obviously amazing.”
Good-natured Hester rarely cowers, but he loathes the assumption that you can only succeed in sports if you come from a wealthy background.
“It’s so frustrating that the question that often comes up is, ‘Is your sport suffering from elitism’?
“It’s really frustrating. For example, my story coming from a family that couldn’t afford a horse showed that there is another way to do it.”
“My family wasn’t even interested in horses. I don’t know where my interest came from. “My family is more surprised than I am where I ended up.
