In this extract from H&H dressage editor Oscar Williams’ four-page magazine tribute to the horses who reshaped British dressage and gave us so much more than medals, he looks back at how both horses found their way to Carl Hester’s yard...

Uthopia was never meant to be the star of anyone’s yard. Dutch producer Ivonne Lawrence had gone to see a different horse when she spotted a small black three-year-old with a chewed tail watching her from the corner of a barn. He’d been sat on a handful of times, but the moment she rode him, his power was unmistakable.

“I’ve never felt a horse like it,” Ivonne said. “He had so much suspension it was like a trampoline, and cantering him felt like shooting off to the moon.”

Around the same time, a cobby bay colt, who’d go on to be the greatest dressage

See Full Page