{"id":30543,"date":"2021-05-07T02:42:37","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T16:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=30543"},"modified":"2023-05-24T15:29:59","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T05:29:59","slug":"carl-hester-chats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2021\/05\/carl-hester-chats\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Hester chats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1carlnz\"Rebecca Ashton caught up with a relaxed Carl Hester in New Zealand in 2017, over a glass of wine. Carl\u2019s approach to his training is rock solid: be fair to your horse, allow it to work to its fullest potential and never compromise on harmony.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you find it harder now that you\u2019re \u201cCarl Hester\u201d?
\n<\/em>\u201cPros and cons, aren\u2019t there? Everything worked out for us in Rio, so it was easy press, easy to deal with. I still enjoy chatting to everybody. The downside is there comes a lot of responsibility being in the position we\u2019re in. That being said, what you say gets taken literally; how you ride, how you train, how you teach, how you speak to people, how you behave with people, I mean everything. It does get analysed, which is weird at the end of the day when you\u2019re just a rider doing a sport like any other competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2feitv\"<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other hand, we have a responsibility and we have to use it properly. I\u2019m not saying what we do is perfect by any means, but what we do is quite clear cut and quite easy for people to follow. But you know, 99% of people come and see you because they want to understand what you do, and they like what you do. Dealing with that 1% of negativity, you have to do that no matter who you are, that sometimes pops to the front, and needs a bit of a squashing, but generally, it\u2019s quite easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Hester<\/em><\/p>\n

Carl and Nip Tuck in Rio<\/em><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re going down that Olympic ramp into the arena, is that just another show for you at this stage? What are you thinking?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, bear in mind, we are responsible from the point of view of funding. People\u2019s jobs depend on what we\u2019re doing, with our Lottery Funding, and our talent programs, and all the rest of it. It\u2019s a team of four, but actually that team of four makes a difference to hundreds of people at the bottom, or on talent programs, for all of us. The money goes through the whole sport and it\u2019s success dependent. So the fact that equestrian came home from Rio with three medals meant a lot.”<\/p>\n

\"Silver<\/p>\n

“Two of the medals in dressage, I mean that\u2019s hilarious.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"carlmedal\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Carl and Uthopia, team gold at London 2012<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough riding in Rio was easy, because of the lack of atmosphere, and we were able to spend time with our friends, which was really nice, so we didn\u2019t have the pressure like that, but I do take the whole thing quite seriously; what it means, to go home with medals for the rest of our country. So I always have that in the back of my mind, however relaxing it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"carlpretty\"<\/p>\n

More from Carl below<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole retirement question for Valegro, was not only my decision. It was dependent on Charlotte. I said, \u201cThis is your choice, not mine, because you are the one who has to ride out there all the time. You are the one who has to keep winning, because that\u2019s how she rides. If you don\u2019t want to do it anymore, you have my backing; and if you want to ride him another season, you also have my backing. But let’s talk about what it means, what you have to do, what do you have to prove, and if you don\u2019t decide to compete anymore, you can still ride that horse for the rest of his life.”<\/p>\n

\"valegrohock\"<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not a breaking up, it\u2019s not over at all.\u201d\u00a0– Charlotte and Valegro<\/em><\/p>\n

\"vtrotext2\"<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing Valegro back for Rio, because we hadn\u2019t competed him for a year contributed to the fact that he was on top of the world, fit as a fiddle, this is his favourite time of the year because it\u2019s cold at home, he\u2019s clipped out, there is nothing still like him in the yard, and when Charlotte rides him it\u2019s like, \u201cOhh!\u201d It\u2019s been a huge choice that we\u2019ve made, but I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s the right one. I left it to her in the end to be the one to decide, whether it was go on, or stop, and I think that pressure, it was nothing to do with the horse, because he\u2019s never been better. In Rio, I said I don\u2019t care if you come 5th, 10th or 25th, I don\u2019t care. There is nothing to prove. Please go down into the arena and just ride like you do at home, and enjoy it. You always have done. Don\u2019t make this any different.\u201d And she did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has something. That\u2019s such a gift to just go down to the arena, and she rode around the arena, and it all disappeared and they did a gorgeous performance. I\u2019m glad it finished like that and I totally understand when she came out of the arena and said, \u201cNever again.\u201d I burst into tears, she burst into tears and I have never cried at any of her performances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"carlcrying\"<\/p>\n

Not so actually, Carl has\u00a0forgotten he cried at\u00a0Charlotte and Valegro\u2019s first\u00a0team performance at the\u00a0Europeans in Rotterdam\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

And you were standing back during the test, away from everyone\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like standing with people. I don\u2019t want people to hear what I say. I talk all the way through her test, like a mad man. \u201cMore a bit, back a bit, that was good\u2026\u201d You don\u2019t want to be heard as an insane freak! I like being on my own for\u00a0that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think are the biggest mistakes or wastes of time people engage in during their training, in the warm up arena and competition arena?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest mistake is not riding in the warm up how you ride at home. We try to have a warm up program that we take to the competitions. I still don\u2019t believe that the people you see warming up adapt, and I\u2019m probably not talking about the top level, more the lower levels. They don\u2019t work on the relaxation, and they don\u2019t think outside the box either. If your horse has a different personality at the show, you have to think outside the box of ways of treating it. People aren\u2019t adaptable enough. The techniques you use for relaxation, stretching, walk breaks, things like that, a more competitive or nervous rider doesn\u2019t pay enough attention to that. \u201cI\u2019ve got a test to do so I won\u2019t keep stretching him until he\u2019s relaxed, I\u2019ll just get on with it.\u201d That\u2019s pressure. That would be the thing you see the most. And the trouble is, as a trainer, you can\u2019t always get to the ring with all of your students to actually say, \u201cThis isn\u2019t what we do at home. Let\u2019s go back and do what we do at home and build it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"wuvalegrostretch\"\"wuwanadooschool\"<\/p>\n

“You still have to stick to your basics of waiting until you\u00a0get the stretch from the horse, waiting until you get your\u00a0relaxation. That\u2019s where people need a hand sometimes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And the competition arena?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t really see so much at the top levels, and I don\u2019t really go to enough other shows, but from what I can remember in the past, it\u2019s just presentation. Right back to when Dr Bechtolscheimer first said to me, \u201cIf you can\u2019t come down the centreline straight with a square halt and trot off, well that\u2019s no good to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always remembered that and it was about 30 years ago that he said that to me. Presentation, and the start of your test is just so important. And corners. For amateur people, corners. Everything happens from a corner. If you don\u2019t get lessons, if you\u2019re on your own at home, put some cones in the corners and ride around them. Get your horse used to riding around them and not leaning into them, because once you start leaning over, you\u2019re never upright, you never have the hindquarters in the right place to start movements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"niptuckch\"<\/p>\n

And going on from if people are home training on their own, what are the best resources or ideas?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I help people with pirouettes, it\u2019s so easy to collect a horse and have a really good feeling in a pirouette. But when you show someone how big and wide they made the pirouette, they have no idea because the horse gives them a sitting feeling. So again, if you\u2019re on your own, cones on the diagonal, canter to the cone and then turn the front end around the cone and then you really realise how small a pirouette should be for a high mark. A lot of people never get the hang of why they only get a 7 when the horse really sits and turns. It\u2019s all to do with size.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also what people need to do is measure their control of the paces. I still say to riders how many strides does it take you to do a 10 metre circle? You can be pretty sure that 99% don\u2019t know how many trot strides they do around a 10 metre circle. You wouldn\u2019t jump around a course without knowing your distances. And because you know your distances, you ride forward with confidence. If you\u2019re riding a 10 metre circle and you need to not drop impulsion and not drop power, you need to know how many strides your horse takes so you have the confidence to ride it around for that many strides when the horse is at its maximum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"entryvalegro\"<\/p>\n

“Presentation is such a huge part of dressage. The first centre line is so important.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of little tips that can really help people, because when we consider what most people lack, it\u2019s forward riding in balance. They either do forward riding out of balance, and then they take the impulsion away to make it feel better, or because it\u2019s easier to sit to. It\u2019s an awareness of the horse\u2019s body, and how it moves, and at what pace do you balance it best. Because that\u2019s what you\u2019re doing with everybody. Teaching is, generally, if we\u2019re not talking about movements, teaching someone how to balance their horse, so it feels nice to ride, and it\u2019s not a pulling, overbent, running mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"niptuckelegant\"<\/p>\n

What makes a good coach?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWell it goes back to business sense and business sense is, I was always taught, praise, criticise, praise. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve always done as a coach. I look at it, nice horse, you\u2019re sitting quite well, you could really do something with it. Then you criticise, if you want to call it that, it\u2019s probably the wrong word for correction, but this is wrong and you\u2019ve got to change this, and you\u2019ve got to change that, and so someone can go away with a future for your next lesson, that you made that better. Even if it was small, lets stick with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are other points to it too, an understanding of movement, an understanding of balance. Again, it\u2019s something you learn as you get older. A lot of young people, and I was one of them, you are training someone to compete, basically. You\u2019re just getting the job done. The older you get, the more books you read, the understanding of biomechanics and rider movement, how to help someone to become supple off the horse, that kind of thing. Those sorts of things come as you get older, because you should know that by then. That comes with a, having time, b, having the interest. It wasn\u2019t interesting to me when I was young. Competing was my thing.\u201d\u00a0(article continues\u00a0below)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"youngcarlhester\"<\/p>\n

And a good student?
\n<\/em>\u201cA good student has to have patience. I know it\u2019s a very obvious thing. Patience that they take in what you\u2019re saying, and that they will also ask questions. If they trust you, they\u2019re going to ask you questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know when I watch a lot of people teach, for instance as an example, \u201cDo a half halt\u201d and then they just leave it, they\u2019ll do something else, then you\u2019ll hear it again, \u201cDon\u2019t forget your half halt.\u201d What made me think about it, two years ago, I judged the BHS Instructor of the Year on my own. I had eight finalists and I was hearing them tell everyone to half halt, and at the end of it, when they had all finished, I said to them, \u201cOne person, and you are the finalists, only one of you told the pupil what a half halt was. The rest of you just said, \u2018half halt\u2019. So now let\u2019s go to your pupils who you taught today and ask them what a half halt is.\u201d And of course none of them knew. They knew the word, but they couldn\u2019t tell us what it was, but the instructors also forgot to tell them what it was. So that was a real eye opener for me. These are all things you learn from, you can\u2019t assume. But as much as we must tell them, a good pupil, if they don\u2019t understand, must ask. The whole point of a good lesson, you get something out of it, they get something out of it. It\u2019s not a one-way street.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"carl2\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carl and Rubelit von Unkenruf at the WEG in 1990<\/em><\/p>\n

“When people criticise my riding, or Charlotte\u2019s riding, saying we\u2019re not classical, I\u2019m doing what I was brought up to do. So, I haven\u2019t changed. By the time I started in about 1990, Rembrandt, Corlandus, Gigolo, Bonfire, Goldstern, all these horses and their riders that were winning medals at the time, they were round and on the bit horses. That\u2019s what my first memories of dressage are. So when people say to us, why do think what happened before them was right? My theory on all of that as well, nobody x-rayed horses, nobody scanned horses, nobody measured length of stride or how the horse moves at its optimum when it\u2019s on the bit, so it\u2019s all very well saying the past is better, but you wouldn\u2019t have known as much scientifically in the past as you know now. What I take from the past that I really like, is the lightness, the harmony, there\u2019s a lot of good there. I just don\u2019t go with the ‘everything that\u2019s modern is wrong’ view.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"carlhesterphotoscan\"<\/p>\n

Carl with Donnersong in 1996 after\u00a0he left Dr Bechtolsheimer<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, when I watch old videos, it\u2019s almost that you accepted how the horse moved. They didn\u2019t try to change it. What was missing was suspension. So, we\u2019re going back to that word expression again which can be a dangerous word, I always say that, because you can create it out of tension, the wrong way, but for impulsion and expression which is expected in today\u2019s dressage, you need suspension. Nip Tuck had no suspension, Valegro had no suspension, he was a powerful mover, but he didn\u2019t have suspension. Nip Tuck was a bad mover who has got better. It wasn\u2019t that they couldn\u2019t have trained those horses in the past. It\u2019s almost like it wasn\u2019t part of the training. It\u2019s really interesting studying it more, and like I said, I don\u2019t consider who was wrong, and who was right, you take what you take.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTrish Gardener, she\u2019s been to three Olympics, she\u2019s 82 now, she trained with Robert Hall, one of the greatest of all time classical instructors, and Trish says to me herself, we just didn\u2019t have them on the bit; that\u2019s not how we rode. It\u2019s really comforting hearing that from someone who has been there and done it, not somebody who writes it on an internet page or something. It\u2019s coming from the horse\u2019s mouth. And yet, I\u2019ve learnt an awful lot from Trish, but she\u2019s moved with the times. She said I see exactly what\u2019s needed these days and it\u2019s important to have your impulsion and roundness and throughness, but it was never talked about in her day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Harry Boldt, you know Harry taught me when I was at Dr B\u2019s and already then, he was riding Rembrandt because Nicole had broken her arm and he moved with the times. He just developed as the evolution of it has. It wasn\u2019t abusive. A good rider can make impulsion and expression without being abusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a conversation with a professional Alexander Technique practitioner who\u2019s written many books. I asked her opinion on movement and self carriage, the horse being in front of the vertical and how much or if it\u2019s behind the vertical, how much damage is done. She gave me some books to read which were all underlined and highlighted with the points that she felt had helped her become a teacher. 24 hours later she sent me a message. The message was, don\u2019t let any book compromise your feeling. That\u2019s how important feel is, and feel isn\u2019t talked about enough. Obviously you have to have the right feeling, so you might need help with your feel. Sometimes your feel isn\u2019t what you think it looks like. Somebody else on the ground will be able to help you with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"valegrohock5\"<\/p>\n

Are some people are trying so hard to keep everything under control with strength, that they can\u2019t feel?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cExactly. Move! Movement in stillness. You\u2019re trying to be still and elegant, don\u2019t make yourself stiff and rigid. You\u2019ve got to have movement within the stillness and that should help you stop being\u00a0stiff.\u201d<\/p>\n

What would be the three main points you\u2019d want to pass on?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cStill harmony. Good dressage is harmonious without a doubt. You\u2019ll always be working on straightness, we all do, so don\u2019t forget that. Just because your horse is crooked it will always be unless you ride it straight! Thirdly, I accept, unless it\u2019s clearly wrong, I accept that everybody has an opinion and everybody does it differently. That way, you can actually enjoy the world of competitiveness, without it all being, ‘he said this, and he said that’, or ‘she said this and she said that’. At the end of the day, you\u2019re still doing sport because you enjoy it. I picked to be a competitor, but I didn\u2019t expect by picking to be a competitor, that people would assume then that they could write all about how I ride, and then put it out there on the internet if there\u2019s a bad picture. And they say well, you\u2019re out there competing so you deserve to be picked on. Really? So if I come to your school and take a picture of you riding and I take your worst shot and stick it in a magazine, how would you feel about that? So, if you\u2019re going to enjoy it, you\u2019ve got to look for the good with your fellow competitors, with your trainers.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"carlhester2\"<\/p>\n

What would be your advice for your 20-year-old self?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTo have trained my horses a bit quicker. I believe the ideal world is if we could put youngsters on schoolmasters, and the more experienced riders on the young horses, but not everybody has access to that. I had access to that through Dr B so I learnt very quickly how to ride a Grand Prix. I had a lovely schoolmaster to teach me. I was 27 back then, and it felt quite old to me, now here I am at 50! What I meant was that I had already done an Olympics, a World, and a Europeans back then. I still presumed that people would just give me horses to ride. So the best advice would be to buy a horse and train it. You\u2019ll become a horseman like that rather than always the best or always riding top horses, because I\u2019ve ridden lots of rubbish ones all the way through, once I left Dr B\u2019s. Life was full of average horses for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"hester\"<\/p>\n

Carl and Escapado at Aachen in the 90’s<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you think that\u2019s what\u2019s made you different? There are a lot of dressage riders, even in the UK who don\u2019t have your success…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not different, I just mix up my competitiveness with being open to suggestions about things like how we keep our horses, which everyone knows about anyway, and yes I\u2019ve ridden a lot of average horses, but I still believe that you can still make an average horse decent. It\u2019s funny because when people come to our yard for the open days, I realise what I\u2019m saying is, I believe that all the horses in the yard will make Grand Prix. I believe all of them will get there. I don\u2019t believe all of them will be stars, that\u2019s a different thing, but providing they\u2019re healthy and sound, they will. I think self-belief in your horse is a huge thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"20gullit\"<\/p>\n

Carl with Gullit at the Sydney Games<\/em><\/p>\n

\"charlottecarlrafael\"<\/p>\n

“Charlotte and I have each other there every day.”<\/em><\/p>\n

When you look at the three big factors in England, you\u2019ve got the Bechtolscheimers, you\u2019ve got the Eilbergs and you\u2019ve got me and Charlotte. We\u2019ve been successful for a long time now as a group like that. What\u2019s the common factor? Laura has her father there behind her all the time watching her train, Michael has Ferdi everyday and Charlotte and I have each other there everyday. We\u2019re the ones that are consistent. It\u2019s just a bit too obvious, as it were.<\/p>\n

\"niptuckforward\"<\/p>\n

Obviously you and Charlotte work off each other, but is there anyone else you\u2019ll get training or advice from?<\/em><\/p>\n

“Charlotte and I have a system now which we\u2019re obviously comfortable with, it works. We\u2019re such different characters. We ride with each other, but you know, we don\u2019t help each other everyday because I like to ride quieter at home between shows, Charlotte rides to win a gold medal everyday. I have to say, \u201cYou have to back off, slow down, give that one a break\u201d and she needs to say to me, \u201cGet some impulsion in that, get that thing moving a bit more\u201d And I\u2019ll say, \u201cNo, I\u2019m saving it for the show!\u201d then she\u2019ll come back with, \u201cNo. You need to start now!\u201d Because we are yin and yang, it works quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"valegroindoor\"Ever met your match in a horse?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about that so much as I\u2019ve had horses whose limitations meant that I felt I shouldn\u2019t push them all the way there. You learn as you go, don\u2019t make them do it, you want them to last. Sometimes you have to accept he has a little piaffe and a little passage and that\u2019s how he\u2019s going to be, so let him go back to his owner or to someone who just wants to ride at a National level, things like that. That\u2019s what I mean about we expect them all to make Grand Prix, but to what level? That\u2019s the wonderful thing about having Valegro in the yard, we have the gold medal bench mark. So you look and see which ones are showing the potential to be like that, which ones will never be like that. So it\u2019s just been really good to have him. It\u2019s also helped me as an older rider, and it\u2019s why you can\u2019t have any jealousy, at the end of the day, when Charlotte does that superb test, and Nip Tuck does the best test he can possibly do, it\u2019s different, but it\u2019s still both horses trying their guts out, and me coming out saying there\u2019s nothing more I could do, and her coming out saying the same thing. There\u2019s no point me going, \u201cWell why didn\u2019t I get a gold?\u201d It\u2019s different. They\u2019re not the same horses and they don\u2019t have the same mechanics. That\u2019s a good way to be because you don\u2019t get frustrated. You\u2019re satisfied with your performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"nippiaffe\"<\/p>\n

Nip Tuck – “You learn as you go, don’t make them do it, you want them to last.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNip Tuck has been the perfect training tool for me at my age, because you think you\u2019ve been doing it that many years that that\u2019s the mould, and I\u2019ve had some amazing horses in my past, but that ultimate feel that I\u2019ve been looking for of what would feel like the perfect test or what would be the perfect self carriage, I get more out of Nip Tuck although he\u2019s the worst of the lot, let\u2019s say, in the nicest possible way. But I\u2019ve learnt to find the right feel with him. That\u2019s what\u2019s been so rewarding about riding him. I can get him in a better self carriage despite the fact that he doesn\u2019t have the hind legs of any horse I\u2019ve ridden before. That\u2019s what makes it exciting, that he changes every year. That\u2019s telling you something; that the trust gets better every year, strength gets better every year and then the harmony gets better. I\u2019m able to let go, and I\u2019m able to let him do it himself and hopefully his spooking will get less! That\u2019s next year\u2019s goal, stop bloody spooking! That\u2019s why I\u2019m doing the World Cup. Every indoor arena is a nightmare for us, so he\u2019s just going to have to get used to it. No more pats, you\u2019re a big boy, get on with it!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"nipext\"<\/p>\n

“I get more out of Nip Tuck but he’s as worst\u00a0of the lot, in the nicest possible way.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"carlhesteruthopiaend\"<\/p>\n

Uthopia – “I’ve had some amazing horses in my past.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCharlotte is the benchmark now for people in England. She was Novice Champion, Elementary, Medium, Advanced Medium, Prix St George Champion, all on different horses. That\u2019s the gift of balance again. That\u2019s what she does. She can balance a horse, they move expressively and she\u2019s accurate, the showing side comes out there. There are not many people who can ride a test like she does. That\u2019s what she has.\u201d – THM<\/p>\n

\"5vcanterbalance\"\"vtrotext2\"\"wuvalegrostretch\" \"valegroext2\" \"valegrodujardin2\" \"valegrocharlottedujardin\" \"valegrochange2\" \"valegrochange\" \"page3valegroend\" \"feelvalegro\" \"dvalegrohp2\" \"casual\" \"5vcanterbalance\"\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Ashton talks to Carl Hester about the responsibility of a top athlete at the Olympics, training, his horses, Valegro and more… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[953,468,1243],"class_list":["post-30543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","tag-carl-hester","tag-charlotte-dujardin","tag-dressage"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30543"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68598,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30543\/revisions\/68598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}