The Horse Podcast

The Horse Podcast

Rebecca Ashton here. As an equestrian journalist, I get to interview people who are top of their game and have so many ideas and information to pass on. This often transcribes into quite long interviews, sometimes a few thousand words. While the interviews I do will still be transcribed and offered to you in written format (with great photos of course!), this is for those of you who want something interesting to listen to while you’re getting the dinner ready or driving in your car or mucking out the stables so you don’t miss out.

  1. 23 AUG

    Dinja van Liere: From Young Horses to Grand Prix

    DInja is a Dutch dressage amazon who has already had great successes from young horse classes to championship Grand Prix. Her greatest success at the top sport was an individual bronze in both the Special and Freestyle at the World Championships in Herning in 2022 on the stallion Hermès and she followed it up with a fourth place at the Paris Olympics in 2024. This year she already won the World Breeding Championships for Young Dressage Horses with the six year old stallion Red Viper and she has also been named with Hermès on the Dutch team for the Europeans. In our chat with discuss how her journey began. Her grandfather’s influence and commitment. What it takes to ride these amazing horses. The influence of the stallion Capri Sonne Jr and why she decided to ride stallions early on. We talk about what a day is like for Dinja, why fitness work is important to her, her management of the horses, running a stable on her own and what it takes as well as what she learnt from one of her big mentors Leunus van Lieren. Dinja discusses her plans for Hermès and insights into his quirky character and why he’s a championship horse. We chat about her Paris Olympic experience and her individual bronzes at the World Championships in Herning and we meet some of her young up and coming horses such as Mauro Turfhorst and Red Viper. It’s also interesting to hear how her training and priorities in the arena have changed over the years and how she prepares for a test. And why does Dinja have a western trainer?

    52 min
  2. 07/10/2024

    Christoph Hess: The Rider's Responsibility

    Christoph Hess is a modern day master. He studied to be a teacher at university and was a rider of competitions and at auction yards before becoming an international judge for 30 years in dressage and eventing, judging everything from young horse to Grand Prix. He worked at the German Equestrian Federation for almost 40 years being the head of training for 30 of those years and headed the Federal Performance Centre at Warendorf for over 20 years. He is currently the training ambassador for the German Equestrian Federation and coaches many eventers in dressage on their journey to the Olympics. In 2019 he was awarded the gold German Equestrian Cross for his services to the sport. He won the “Silver Horse” at CHIO Aachen this year for his social media content. Christoph is so passionate and generous with his knowledge, and one of the most inclusive and positive people I’ve ever met. He will help anyone who has an interest. In this interview, we discuss his foray into social media and how it can be used in a positive way. We talk about his philosophy of riding, how riding is different from all other sports and our responsibility as riders. We look at the scale of training, the ability to teach technique and feeling, his view of the sport at the Paris Olympics, the state of the sport at the moment and how we move forward with positivity, using old knowledge in a modern way and what should 95% of your money be spent on. And what was the key to France’s Olympic silver in Versailles?

    52 min

About

Rebecca Ashton here. As an equestrian journalist, I get to interview people who are top of their game and have so many ideas and information to pass on. This often transcribes into quite long interviews, sometimes a few thousand words. While the interviews I do will still be transcribed and offered to you in written format (with great photos of course!), this is for those of you who want something interesting to listen to while you’re getting the dinner ready or driving in your car or mucking out the stables so you don’t miss out.

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