Carl Hester and Nicki Chapman BBC breakfast interview

it's the oldest running academy in the world and is a significant part of Austria's cultural heritage it's the spanish riding school in vienna cherishing classical horsemanship for more than 400 years the Lipizzaner stallions originated from the 16th century when they were thought to be especially noble now their performances delight horse lovers from all over the world and they're coming to the UK as part of a World Tour nikkichapman will host their Wembley show and she's here along with an Olympic hopeful carl Hester who is going to be performing good morning good morning before we have a chat to you let's just see what those horses can do and shall download over there behind us News hosting the UK turn Cal Hester will open the show here now welcome to the program very much so tell us a little bit about how the show works Carl well basically Lee Pearson who's our Paralympic hopefully myself going to do a short display at the beginning and it's a little bit to try and explain perhaps how some of these riders get resources to do these wonderful things because the Spanish Riding School is very visual but there's no explanations in it it's just a beautiful performance to watch so along with Nikki we thought we might do twenty minutes a little bit of music and and some short demonstrations on how these horses connect with their right that's really being modest yes the top of his field as in new year so we're very lucky they actually gonna be opening the show and it's great so the audience will see actually a demonstration of how these wonderful moves are achieved and then the Spanish Riding School of Vienna we're coming on and do they're performing these are they the best trained horses in the world I would say it takes 12 years the riders spend 12 years with the horses before they get to this standard yeah but as you say you've got decades and decades or centuries worth of tradition and expertise so with these horses and it's amazing the things that they can do do you have the same horse thing Carl or are they all trained to a similar standard and any ride I can get on anyway well they should be so website that anybody can get on I mean these horses ooh so they can be up to 24 years old I mean in competitive or 24 years old some of the sources of being in competitive dressage they tend to retire around sort of in their in their teens but these horses are so well trained that obviously you have to understand about talent as a rising can you imagine sitting on what you're looking out there that's amazing isn't it now absolutely beautiful villages is it a show for the horse specialists if you like I think it's a it's a show certainly if you love horses you're going to enjoy it but I think it's also show for families I don't think you need to ride a horse to enjoy spectacle like that I mean it is amazing I went when I was six with my sister my family took it and we remember it so well so when it's lasted because it's beautiful it's not watching what these people can do with these horses man and horse working together and it's great cuz we're gonna have a master class beforehand and then we're going to see this spectacle I mean I think the last time that they came over was in 2006 and Kyle when did you start riding can you remember your first experience of getting on stock in the Channel Islands so we don't have any cars there so it obviously was something that we were brought up with them and well I automatically got on the donkey or horse to go to the shops alike and all my friends or that's how we used to get around and but I never rode in a saddle till I came to England when I was 15 am i writing you competed in three Olympics already I have yes London 2012 then will be your your fourth and yeah feeling any pressure oh we are feeling a lot of pressure because then British dressage has come a long way and you know we want a gold medal over European champions last month so that's an enormous pressure for London next year and we're all out for it and you've got the momentum going in the right direction at least know you have and also we have an advantage to the horses don't have to travel very far two and a half hours we're gonna bring you down at Greenwich isn't it have you been down there and checked it out yeah we went for the test event and it was amazing because the arena sits in the park but behind the part you can actually see through to the city and the Thames and there was a line I happened to be going at the Thames as some people were doing there dresser to go back to the Lipizzaner so when we say there on a world tour horses then when I mean to get from Austria to London presumably can go by row but when you're going I think in America across the ocean yeah they actually travel in three separate batches in case anything should ever happen to the horses because they work they all go back to send from six stallions and you can imagine you know if anything should happen to them so they're really protected they don't take out the whole school summer left in Vienna and you have a certain amount of horses I think 12 will be going around they fly they just put them on in in VIP these horses get better treatment than you they do they deserve it I mean they travel in crates on the planes and they always have a bet with them and they have their own grooms with them and they travel amazingly I mean we took our horses to Sydney in Australia and they came off the plane the other end better than that never the people did is it possible to know whether the horses enjoy performing I mean you you will have an emotional bond at horses because you grew up with them yeah I mean you know you make a spout of with a horse obviously to do what the Spanish rider school is doing and that's very much about pleasure of enjoyment I mean the horses have to enjoy what they're doing to perform you can see by the expression on their faces and you know when the horse has it is pretty you know they're very concentrated and they're doing what they're doing you don't see bad-tempered horses doing this job they're show-offs aren't they yeah I mean when you see a horse perform you can see that actually enjoying it but all their disciplines from the dress are stand back from in the battlefield when horses were in battlefield the extended trot and think I'm a that all comes from when they were fighting yeah you're not enjoying that bit you you taught Nicky a bit of showjumping haven't you should we tell him what happened yet God it was actually dressage I was very excited to have a private lesson with called amazing horse beautiful horse a real Grand Prix animal wasn't so excited when I came up unfortunately yeah what were you doing I was doing dressage we should think I'd be able to stay laughing cantering how do you go as fast as I saw Nicky go that it meant to be collected a beautiful and we're galloped it galloped and I fell off but what it did demonstrate is how amazingly sort of how powerful they are when you watch a whole string dressage you know whether it's the Spanish rider is called with its carbon it looks so much in control wasn't quite the same for me ya know I cannot say I actually went as a kiddos to ride horses and I did fall off horse once when I was at a dead stop it came to a dead halt and and I wasn't getting good dead ends at the time when over the front Thursday the 24th of November 24th thank you well done off back announcer yes saurus there it is thank you very much Rosie school vienna at wembley arena from that date for four nights only as part of their world good and good luck for 2012 come back and see us before you before you do it yeah thanks I love you in your movie and I'm sorry you

Channel: EquestrianAnswers

Views: 27,057

Rating: 4.8490567 out of 5

Keywords: Carl Hester, Spanish Riding School, Dressage, Team GBR

Id: yxq52JwVi50

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 15 2011