Inside My Stable: Carl Hester

hi I'm Carl Hester and I'm going to take you on a tour of my stables here in Gloucestershire anybody that's been here will know that I'm fairly obsessed with with my Birds sometimes when I'm teaching in the outdoor school they'll be riding with five peacocks 23 guinea fowl 12 hens and then there's a Umbrella Cockatoo shrieking in the background so that is a lot of birds and not everyone finds it as funny as I do I'm not going to dwell any longer are my birds I'm gonna put it back on our eggs I'm G to be a father maybe in the next week or two so just gonna put it back here we are in in my yard and it has 18 stables now of course the reality is you build eighteen stables because you have eighteen horses I have 18 cycles and we have 24 horses which I think it's quite normal friendly rider they overindulge or horses that we bred so we have a few horses mostly the young ones a neighboring yards I very much wanted a yard when it was built that went with the house because the house has so much history in fact the front of the yard here is actually built from an old hospital that was knocked down in Gloucestershire and we went and bought the bricks reclaimed bricks so that we could actually build the front of the yard to match the house so it was also designed that the horses have bars between each table so they actually can touch each other because I'm very much a believer that they like interaction so this yard is full of Champions literally I mean it's full of medalists and current national champions and past national champions we have 30 acres of land so I have a great routine here the young horses all live out in the field they come in in the morning at 7 o'clock so they can then be ridden later on in the morning our older horses get ridden early and then they go out for the day course keeping horses out doesn't suit everybody depends where you live you know we're very lucky here with climate grass the land that we have here that the horses can enjoy that I mean basically we only have like January February March every year which is difficult for turnout because that is a floodplain because the river that runs past my house can flood very easy in the winter so it does flood the land which means it's very lush in the summer but of course very wet and then for that January February March period so that can be a little bit of a difficult time for the horses because they're used to such a freedom in their lifestyle [Music] here we are in the indoor arena and as you can see it's not so indoor because I kept one side of it open I think that is a beautiful way to be able to ride actually and have an open indoor school I know a lot of indoor schools feel very enclosed and dark so when I when I built this my first instruction was I do not want a side I want one side left open so that it's good for air it's great I can I'm looking straight out into the pool as well so it just means that Charlotte and I can really regulate in content let me ride as well because I'm gonna she's riding outside and I'm inside generally we try not to argue that much and we ride together but if ever we if ever we feel the need to separate I come in so you can go out and we still can watch each other behind you the wash box is now I designed this here so that basically the yard would be kept base it as a safe haven for horses almost associate their bedroom nobody else goes over there nothing else happens over there they eat and they sleep there every time they attack table or every time they're gonna be ridden over time gonna be washed off it's all done over here in the indoor school so that they know that this is the workplace but when they go over there you know people stay out their way and they can really chill out [Music] so behind me you can see the outdoor arena now we have to have an outdoor arena everyone wants an agile arena but the whole point of this is obviously this is a 60 meter by 20 so this is a you know this is Olympic sized arena indoors I've had to you know wider because it was better for the young horses and it's more of a farm building rather than indoor school this is obviously to size so that Charlotte and I can rehearse our test practice our tests and do our do our rehearsals for any championship in here [Music] very often the male peacock who we call captain peacock he sits on top of that mirror when I'm riding and makes a mess all over it actually half the time so we have to get that cleaned out so I can see what's going on in the mirrors when I'm coming towards them I love this this is like just for me it makes for you know cozy setting if animals are happy here I think people probably happy here [Music] here we are in part of the land you can see the tributaries here of water that go down to the main river that runs past the house because there is so wet you can see how lush the fields are behind me and in fact yeah over there at two of our mares that's horse in San Floriana she's the champion six year old she's hoping to be one of our next Superstars and there and the bright Bay next to her is River eyes Anissa who's Charlotte's up-and-coming small to horse she's just been winning her first recent gorge so two fabulous prospects I know it's a little bit of sometimes you know people think you know do we really turn our horses out and do turn that together yes they're right there behind me we do do that I think it's great for welfare you know at the end of the day resources work very hard for us they travel the world they win medals for us and keep everybody happy not just our spectators and you know the general public that want to come and see them and it's our job to try and give them as nice a life as possible and you know I love that I come from a venting background it's totally normal for me to turn horses our Charlotte's term of sharing and jumping background it's totally normal for her you know we're not just nervous dressage people that don't do anything else with our horses so you know I love it there's a load of pellets to the right here where you know Grand Prix chose to just go out in the day I don't think it suits them to live out because you know they need more energy if they're out all night they tend to be a little bit flat but for the hotter horses this works an absolute treat to have them out overnight they're coming in the morning children being it forward to being ridden and they're easy to write [Music] well I hope you've enjoyed their having a small look around my property we love having people come here and see it we've Sharla and I obviously very proud of it I know she thinks I'm going to leave it all to her one day okay a good job I'm able to share it to you while it's still mine before before I pass it on to her but I hope you've enjoyed it and we look forward seeing [Music]

Channel: NOËLLE FLOYD

Views: 410,276

Rating: 4.9663634 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 4Gi2-YMAQas

Length: 7min 4sec (424 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 01 2018