Carl Hester » Horse Clips

The Olympics and the medals won by Charlotte Dujardin, Carl Hester and Laura Bechtolsheimer seems like a long time ago but it was only 9 months ago. I thought that it was time to take a look at what the horses and riders in the senior dressage team have been doing in 2013.

Valegro – Olympics Individual & Team Gold

There has been a lot of discussion about Valegro being sold. And the inevitable press speculation about how many £millions he would be sold for. There was an attempt to set up a consortium on Facebook that would buy him for Charlotte to compete and ride. Carl didn’t endorse the large consortium because of legal and practical issues of working with such a large consortium. I had a look at the Facebook page and I must admit I was not comfortable with it because the page asked for money to be sent to a solicitor who was not based on the UK mainland – I cant remember the exact location. I am sure the initiative was started by a well intentioned Valegro fan but I personally was uncomfortable sending a cheque. I don’t think it was a scam but there was a possibility.

photo credit: JudySharrock via photopin cc

Carl and Roly Luard have tried, and possibly are still trying, to set up a smaller consortium by contacting a small group of friends. The aim is to keep Valegro in the UK for Charlotte to compete and to continue training with Carl even if it means compromising on the price. I have read that Carl is even happy to underwrite the day to day costs of keeping Valegro.

Since the Olympics, Valegro has only competed at Olympia where he scored a new world record score of 84.447% to win the class and qualify for the Freestyle where he won with a score of 87.975%. Since then he has been in light work. Carl has been quoted as saying “…If we were to do anything, we would bring him back at the end of May.” So there may be another opportunity to see Valegro in competition in the next few months.

Uthopia – Olympics Team Gold

Following the Olympics it was announced that Uthopia is up for sale. However, Uthopia is caught up in an ownership dispute which resulted in an injunction that has prevented him travelling outside the UK to compete internationally. The terms of this injunction were subject to legal review in a Northern Ireland court with the aim of releasing Uthopia to Carl who as the part owner could then take him outside the UK and sell him.

Since Uthopia has recently competed at Saumur, which is obviously outside the UK, the implication is that the court has now sealed this agreement. If this is the case then the good news is that Uthopia can now compete internationally but the bad news is that this presumably means he can also be sold. However, I have not been able to find anything on the Internet about potential buyers.

Recently, the big news has been that Uthopia has a new rider. Charlotte is now competing on Uthopia and she took him to Saumur where they scored 72.255% to win the Grand Prix qualifier for the Freestyle. And in the Freestyle they continued their domination to win with 81.600%. In both these tests all the judges scored them to win. With all this international and Olympic success it is sometimes hard to remember that Charlotte’s first international competition was only in 2011. The fact that she can win international competitions on both Valegro and Uthopia demonstrates the depth of her talent.

Mistral Højris – Olympics Team Gold and individual bronze

Mistral Højris is now 18 years old and it was thought that he would retire after the Olympics. However, Laura now plans to compete him in 2013 and retire him after the European Championships, Denmark in August where Great Britain will be defending the team title. Laura is quoted as saying that she will not compete him unless he is 100% and that the European Championships will be his last competition at Championship level.

Mistral Højris returned to international competition in April 2013 when he competed at CDI Hagen. Mistral Højris demonstrated that even at 18 he can still win both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special with scores of 79.064% and 81.021% respectively.

Laura has also married and now competes under her married name of Laura Tomlinson. I have to admit this is a bit of a relief for me because I am never confident that I have spelt Bechtolsheimer correctly

A few days ago the UK’s New Years Honours were announced. Today New Zealand have just announced their New Year Honours. Mark Todd has been knighted for his services to Eventing and so will be known as Sir Mark Todd.

I congratulate Mark Todd because he has made an enormous contribution to Eventing but surely there should be some consistency in awarding Knighthoods by different countries. If Mark Todd has earned a knighthood then Carl Hester must also have earned a knighthood.

Uthopia’s fantastic extended trot for Leisure Ride TV advert

Carl competed at the Olympics and was part of gold medal winning team but in addition to this he trained Charlotte Dujardin who won team and individual gold medals. Further justification is the fact that Uthopia and Valegro, ridden by himself and Charlotte at the Olympics were spotted by Carl as youngsters who had potential for the Olympics. He and Charlotte trained them to be gold medal winning horses.

Carl has made an enormous contribution to dressage and was critical to the dressage successes at the Olympics and I believe that this justifies a knighthood.

Uthopia’s fantastic extended trot for Leisure Ride TV advert

The saddle cloths worn by Uthopia and Valegro to warm up before their team gold medal winning performance at the Olympics are being auctioned on eBay. Apparently, they have not been washed so if you win the auction you will even have some genuine hairs from Uthopia or Valegro on the saddlecloth. To confirm the saddlecloths are genuine there will be a card signed by Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin.

The saddlecloths are being auctioned for the Gaddesden Place RDA Centre so the proceeds are going to a very good cause.

The saddlecloths are being auctioned separately on eBay. The postage will be paid by Classic Dressage. Good luck bidding !

The Evening Standard is reporting that both Valegro and Uthopia are to be sold possibly to an Arabian Royal for a reported price of £20 million.

If this price is true then these two horses would certainly justify this high price because they were both part of the gold medal winning Olympic British team with their riders Charlotte Dujardin & Carl Hester. Charlotte & Valegro also won the individual gold medal for their freestyle to music. Charlotte and Valegro are now world number 1 in the FEI World Rankings.

Carl Hester is part owner of both horses. Valegro is part owned with Roly Luard. Uthopia ownership seems to be the subject of some discussion. It is unfortunate that when a horse is worth several £millions the fact is that the owners, for totally understandable reasons, want to get a return on their investment and sell the horse. I would never criticise any owner for doing this – I would do it ! – but it is unfortunate that, as a general statement, the new owners generally do not have the same riding skills as the rider who trained the horse to international level. As a consequence the horse does not compete with the same level of success after being sold.

All horse owners know that there is a special bond between horse and rider, whether you are a happy-hacker or a professional rider. From personal experience I know how hard it is when you have to sell a horse. Charlotte is reported saying that Valegro’s sale is “heart-wrenching” but that she “knew it was going to happen”. Carl said “I’ve had the horses since they were babies. I’m emotional they have to be sold”.

From a personal point of view I believe that it was almost inevitable that Valegro and Uthopia would be sold following their success at the Olympics and would not criticise any of the owners for taking the money. However, I do feel sympathy for Charlotte because she must have a very special bond with Valegro because she did her first International competitions on Valegro, her first Olympic games and won two Olympic gold medals all within a couple of years.

I am not a betting man but I thought it would be interesting to see what odds the bookmakers are offering for Team GB winning gold in the Olympic equestrian events. A quick Google showed that only William Hill is offering odds at this stage – 2 weeks before the Olympics starts. It proved interesting particularly to see how William Hill rate Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester’s chances of winning individual gold.

Dressage – Team

Country	Odds
Great Britian	5 / 4	Favourite
Germany	5 / 2	Joint second favourites
The Netherlands	5 / 2	Joint second favourites
Denmark	10 / 1
Remaining countries	more than 14 / 1

Great Britain are clear favourites … in fact very close to evens to win the team gold. Lets hope the bookies are right
Germany and The Netherlands have identical odds
The remaining countries are all outsider with odds greater than 10 /1

Dressage – Individual

Rider	Country	Odds
Adelinde Cornelissen	Netherlands	9 / 4	Favourite
Charlotte Dujardin	Great Britain	3 / 1	Ahead of Carl
Carl Hester		10 / 3
Laura Bechtolsheimer		4 / 1
Helen Langehanenberg	Germany	9 / 2	Equal odds
Kristina Sprehe	Germany	9 / 2	Equal odds
Steffen Peters	USA	10 / 1
Others		more than 20 / 1

Charlotte is second favourite and is just ahead of Carl

Charlotte only did her first Grand Prix test with Valegro in January 2011, only 18 months ago, and now she is second favourite for an Olympic individual gold and favourite for team gold.
Charlotte and Valegro scored a world record score (88.022%) in the Grand Prix Special test at Hagan’s CDI4* beating Edward Gal and Totilas’ previous world record of 86.46%
Charlotte has been working with Carl Hester since 2007 and still rides and trains with Carl
Carl is part owner of Charlotte’s Olympic horse, Valegro

However, we must remember that Adelinde Cornelissen is the favourite so individual gold for one of our team is not a certainty
Laura is also the fourth favourite and only a fraction behind Charlotte and Carl
Great Britain has 3 of the top four favourites which given the dressage competition format would explain why Great Britain is favourite for the team gold

My conclusion from this analysis of the betting is that in the team competition Great Britain are clear favourites but the individual competition is much closer and the favourite is not British but since three of the top four favourites are British there is a reasonable chance that the individual gold will go to a British rider.

Lets hope that with home support the British team can get both golds. And this is only the betting …. and sometimes outsiders do win so nothing can be taken for granted. It is going to be nerve wracking … it is going to be very exciting. I am looking forward to it.

Enter Horse Clips’ competition to predict the result of the Individual Dressage Freestyle to music competition.

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2013 the year so far for Olympic team horses and riders

Valegro – Olympics Individual & Team Gold

Uthopia – Olympics Team Gold

Mistral Højris – Olympics Team Gold and individual bronze

Sir Mark Todd – should it also be Sir Carl Hester?

Olympic Saddlecloths auctioned for Charity

Gold medal winning Olympic horses, Valegro and Uthopia, to be sold

Olympic Betting – whats the odds of winning dressage gold? Whats the odds of Charlotte beating Carl?

Dressage – Team

Dressage – Individual