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<\/a><\/p>\nHow does it feel to be out on the black horse again?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOoh, it\u2019s always great to get on Valegro. He\u2019s just one in a million. I think to come here and just do the training has been great, and I think I\u2019ve made a few people\u2019s dreams come true, to meet him and be able to touch him and have a picture with him. Not everybody can get to the big competitions to watch us compete, so the fact that we are here means something\u2026 I was here in Jerez when Valegro was eight years old, I did my first international competition here, and to be back with him as a Gold Medallist, the best horse of this time, it is very nice that these people get to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n Olympic Gold for Charlotte and Valegro at home in London in 2012<\/em><\/p>\n He looks really well\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the thing, he\u2019s now been doing this Grand Prix business for six years, and I think a lot of horses lose their enthusiasm and the will to do it, but he just loves it. You really feel that when you ride him. He loves it, and he wants to do it. I always feel that he is trying to please, he never wants to make mistakes, he always wants to do his best.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s very sensitive. He is not a horse that you could be like, right we are going to do this. He\u2019s such a sensitive horse in the way he thinks, and is off your legs, he is always going, and you are always re-assuring him.”<\/p>\n “He gives me so much confidence as a rider as well, and I give him the confidence, and between the two of us, it\u2019s such a fantastic feeling. He\u2019s like driving the fastest car in the whole world, you put your foot on that accelerator and you have that power. You just go \u2013 yes, you touch him, and he comes back, it is such an incredible feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n But you seem so concentrated when you are on the horse\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI \u00a0am concentrated \u00a0because I really feel like I absorb the horse. I can read the horse through my body, as soon as I get on, I know how the ride is going to be, and you have to be sensitive to that. \u00a0I\u2019m quite lucky that I don\u2019t suffer with nerves, I don\u2019t get competition nerves, it\u2019s good that I can be positive, like come along then, off we go, let\u2019s go and enjoy it\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I go in an arena, and I go down that centre line, I always imagine that I am in my arena at home. I don\u2019t imagine it\u2019s any different, just because those five or seven judges are sitting around it. I just try and do my thing, I try and enjoy it every time.<\/p>\n Sometimes dressage is taken far too seriously and at the end of the day, we do it because we love it, we do it because it is our sport. And that can easily be forgotten, then the pressure becomes too much, the expectation becomes too much, and I think as a rider, it affects you.<\/p>\n Sugar break for Valegro, and the team discuss the working session\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n People always say to me, how do you deal with it? I say, I just go in there to enjoy it, and I truly do. I love it. If I didn\u2019t love it, I wouldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking forward to the next big competition? (this interview was before the Rio Games, and as we all know, the fairy tale of Charlotte and Valegro ended as it should\u2026<\/p>\n Individual and Team Gold in London<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI am really really looking forward to it. Going to London was my dream come true, the ultimate dream was to get to London, I didn\u2019t think in a million years that I was going to come away with a Gold Medal, but then I came away with two. This time there\u2019s the expectation that I\u2019ll come home with medals, and I am just going to go there, I\u2019m going to enjoy it, and if it happens, it happens, if it doesn\u2019t, it doesn\u2019t. Valegro and I have nothing to prove, we\u2019ve done everything there is to do, and I feel after Rio, I would like to retire him.<\/p>\n Gold at the Euros in Herning in 2013<\/em><\/p>\n More Gold at the Euros in Aachen in 2015<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n