Lewis Carrier

The young grand prix rider has big dreams for 2023 and beyond, finds Polly Bryan, and he has every chance of making them a reality

“I TEND to move fast with things,” says Lewis Carrier, and indeed he is a rider who doesn’t hang about – in any area of his life.

The past three years have borne many life changes for the 25-year-old: jumping up to under-25 then senior grand prix, making the decision to set up a yard on his own, moving halfway across the country to a new base, and not only meeting his partner, Olivia (Liv) Robertson, but proposing as well.

Lewis’s life may sound like a whirlwind, but behind the film reel is a structured script, and he admits he doesn’t wait around when he knows what he wants. And the goal that has been front and centre of Lewis’s mind since he was 16 is to get to the top of the dressage ladder; to ride on British teams. If his successes over the past couple of years are anything to go by, he has a good chance of achieving his ambitions.

Having risen through the ranks of youth dressage, Lewis and Diego V, the 15-yearold gelding he’s had since a youngster, were the best-performing British pair at the under-25 Europeans in 2021, finishing 12th individually. In 2022, they made the step up to senior level, and swiftly made an impact, finishing third in the grand prix special at Wellington CDI3*, behind World Championships medallists Charlotte Dujardin and Gareth Hughes.

They were listed as reserves for the Nations Cup in Aachen, too. But Lewis wanted to make one more foray out to an under-25 European Championships with Diego before diving head first into their senior career.

“We tried to make our way out to Hungary for the Europeans, and that’s where the year took a turn for the worse,” says Lewis, who describes 2022 as a year of two halves for him.