Katie Bailey

The upcoming grand prix rider tells Polly Bryan about riding Valegro while working for Carl Hester, and how she’s developed her own dressage career

- Polly Bryan

WHEN Katie Bailey went on holiday to the south of France in 2009, she never expected to receive a message that would transform her dressage career.

“My mum texted me to say she’d just seen an advert in Horse & Hound for a job at Carl Hester’s yard, and had applied on my behalf,” says Katie, now 32 and one of Britain’s most exciting up-and-coming dressage riders.

“At the time I was doing a six-month scholarship at Talland, and I had a very intense lesson without stirrups the night before the interview, to help prepare,” remembers Katie. “Carl put me on Super Nova II [Neville, who went on to be Spencer Wilton’s Olympic horse]. I trotted around his beautiful arena on Neville, sat up tall and tried to smile, and just did the best I could.”

Carl spotted Katie’s potential, and so it was that she found herself living every dressage lover’s dream, riding and caring for some of the most famous horses in the world.

“Sometimes I can’t believe that I got to hack out Valegro!” laughs Katie. “He really is as amazing as everyone says; such a genuine horse and so powerful. I only had to think of the aid for something and he would do it. “Carl’s Nip Tuck [Barney] was also one of my favourites,” adds Katie, who competed the Olympic silver medallist during the early stages of his career up to prix st georges, finishing advanced medium reserve winter champion in 2013. “I hadn’t ridden a horse like Barney before – very big and sharp – and he taught me a lot.

“I feel privileged to have ridden horses like these. During the Rio Olympics, where Valegro, Nip Tuck and Super Nova were on the team together, I remember thinking how cool it was that I had ridden them all.