Until
today, British dressage had never won an Olympic medal of any colour. This
afternoon, they smashed it and picked up gold ones. They did so in London. They
did so by beating Germany (who dominated the sport forever – I exaggerate only
very slightly). And they beat them by a Gloucestershire mile. Could anything be
better?
Obviously
I’d like to thank World Class support and lottery funding. Big up the grooms
and experts who keep these stunning horses fit and well. And before they turn
up the music to encourage me off this acceptance speech stage, I’d really like
to thank the lynchpins of this gold medal success – rider Carl Hester and
former rider Dr Wilfried Bechtolsheimer, for being very clever, very talented,
and very nice.
You
see, the gold that the team of Carl, Charlotte Dujardin, and Wilfried’s
daughter Laura Bechtolsheimer took home today has been a good 20 years in the
making. Carl couldn’t afford a superstar dressage horse, he learnt to ride in
Sark, on a donkey. He travelled to Gloucestershire to work for Dr B. There, he
honed his natural talent, competed some extraordinary horses, and locked a then
five-year-old Laura in the feed room when she got on his nerves. Today, they
hugged as she cried over what they’d achieved.
There
are few families with the wealth to possess one, let alone several, of these
incredible grand prix horses, but where Carl landed firmly on his feet was that
Dr B was prepared to let him ride them, too. Most stable jockeys can expect to
spend the majority of their time getting bucked off the newly backed youngsters
and contesting the odd novice class.
Carl
had to sell his 2004 Olympic ride Escapado in order to afford a yard and set up
on his own. There was a risk he’d never have a horse so good. Still, he never
forgot the break Dr B gave him, and passed the favour on. First, he wanted
partner Spencer Wilton to be the one he trained to gold medal glory, but just
as they parted ways, Charlotte rocked up to work in return for training and
took on some of Carl’s top horses.
The
best was Valegro. Not only has Carl moulded the pair into the best in the
world, he has protected Charlotte from the sale of that horse. Whoever owns the
best dressage horse in the world is offered millions for it. Millions. That’s
hard to turn down, particularly since a horse could rip a tendon tomorrow and
be worth nothing. That’s jolly, jolly nice of him – and joint owner Roly Luard.
Three
people asked me today: “If Carl owns Valegro, why isn’t he riding him?” Well
one, he has Uthopia to ride, two, he didn’t just want to win a gold medal in
London on a horse he’d trained, he wanted to train another horse and rider to
do the same alongside him, and three because he’s Nice like that. And being
nice is smart, because by making that decision, he didn’t have to rely on
others to make up a gold-medal worthy team, he had two thirds of it in his
stable. He’s not just a pretty face that Carl.
So
to the former colleague who once told me: “You’ll never get anywhere in life
being nice”, Carl just proved that’s bollocks. He was good enough to give a
girl a break, because someone had done the same for him, and those two men’s
actions secured unimaginable success for British Dressage today. Niceness is
underrated. I’m very happy it exists in my sport. Thank you.