Riding With God

Great Britain’s dressage superstar Carl Hester gives his first U.S. clinic in Southern California.

- Kim F. Miller

The clinic organizer described him as the Steve Jobs or Elon Musk of the dressage world, and one participant shrieked “I get to ride with God!” when she learned she was selected to ride in the Carl Hester clinic in Southern California, April 8–9. If “God” is anything like the five-time British Olympian, we’re all in good hands.

Funny, down to earth and with a penchant for the positive, Carl educated and entertained a crowd of about 1,400 in San Diego’s Del Mar Arena while coaching 13 horse-and-rider pairs over two days. All but one were professionals and they rode horses ranging from 4-year-olds to the 11-year-old Danish Warmblood Hamilton, whom Olympian Charlotte Bredahl-Baker hopes to debut soon at Grand Prix. That spectrum allowed Carl to address many common issues and broadly applicable training exercises for horses and riders. The building-block nature of dressage training was a recurring theme in Carl’s teachings. For example, a good piaffe and passage come from a good trot; a good flying change comes from a good canter; a good pirouette comes from a good shoulder-in, etc.

He applauded the riders’ willingness to work on their own and their horses’ weaknesses in such a public forum as he shared one of many personal anecdotes from his 30-year career. In this case it was recounting that on winning his first world championship, “I finally felt I had learned to ride,” he said. “I grew up riding without any of this intricate training.” One of his mentors, however, informed the then 21-year-old Carl “that he had only learned to steer.” He still had a long road ahead as does everyone who embarks on the dressage journey. He encouraged all to be open-minded to criticism, to different ways of training and to suggestions from experts and non-experts alike.