Carl Hester’s love for horse riding has never faltered as he prepares for a historic seventh Olympic outing at Paris 2024.
Hester will be making history at Paris 2024, becoming only the second ever British athlete after Nick Skeleton to feature at seven Olympic Games.
Having achieved all there is to do across an incredible career, Hester has opened up on the secret behind his longevity - citing student turned equestrian icon Charlotte Dujardin as key in him reaching the mountain top.
“It’s my passion, I've always put my life into this,” he said. “It's something that I love, it's not just a job for me.
“I get up on Christmas day and muck out my horses. That's how involved I am in the sport, because I love doing what I do. That's always kept me motivated to keep doing better.
“I've done seven Olympics, but I did three where I came nowhere. I thought ‘I can't keep doing it like this, I've got to find a way of upping my performances’.
“The best thing that ever happened to me, of course, was Charlotte Dujardin, because she was one of my students. That gave me so much enthusiasm, watching her win gold.”
Both Dujardin and Hester claimed gold in team dressage at London 2012, sparking a winning run that would see both add to their overwhelming medal collections across the next decade.
However, Hester was never destined to fall into horse riding - growing up in Guernsey, he would have to find his own way into the sport, not possessing the leg up that many other riders enjoy.
“From a non-horsey background, I just made my way over to live in England,” he added. “You can actually do it a different way, because a lot of people presume that you just have wealthy parents that support your sport. Not in my case, my parents never were able to fund me, so I had to start at the bottom as a groom.
“When Charlotte came to work for me, it was the same thing. She came as a working rider groom for me, and through her hard work and badgering me the whole time, she got my best horses. There's a lot of inspiration behind it for young people I think.”
Hester is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – this is vital for his pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
Taking to Paris with 14-year-old stallion Fame, Hester can’t express enough love for his partner - emphasising that if this is it for his Olympic career, he wouldn’t want to bid farewell on the back of any other horse.
“He’s amazing,” he said. “If this happens to be my last Games, I am so lucky to go out on a horse like Fame.
“He's just the coolest horse. Every morning I wake up and I think, ‘I have to ride quite a lot of horses, but I can't wait to get on Fame.
“He always makes me smile, every day he does his best. He's got no quirks, no problems. He just fights for me in the ring, which is really important.”
Sportsbeat 2024