On a cold winter’s day in 2019, Louise Bell’s eyes glowed bright as she spoke about a home-bred yearling, for whom she had high hopes: “He’s absolutely spectacular – he’s the golden child.” Seven years later, the now eight-year-old dressage horse called Peaky Blinder is living up to the promise he showed back then.
Known at home as Duggy, he has been relatively lightly competed, thanks to a tendency for “self-harm” as a four- and five-year-old that meant a few stints off with injury. However Peaky Blinder has since proved his worth with a win last year in the international young horse division at Wellington Premier League. He’s also racked up three prix st georges (PSG) wins and two at inter I since stepping up to the level in July, with scores nudging 70%.
Could Peaky Blinder be Louise Bell’s Valegro?
“He’s a gift from God,” says Louise Bell, 54, her enthusiasm for the Uthopia son she now owns with her friend Denise Reynolds still totally undiminished. “He’s such a trier – he has ‘Uti’s’ trainability – and he’s such a kind horse.
“But actually, I get real Valegro vibes from him, even though they’re not related. Duggy’s a beautiful, upstanding horse and he has that same sort of presence in the ring. He has such a desire to do the job, he’s really good at almost everything and he’s so easy to train – it’s like he’s been here before.”
Another “Professor”, then, as Valegro was famously nicknamed by Carl Hester. And with his dark colouring and white blaze, dressage horse Peaky Blinder doesn’t even look too dissimilar to the legendary champion.
“Gosh, it would be wonderful if we could emulate even 10% of what Valegro and Uti did,” says Louise, who admitted she found the news of the deaths of the great pair incredibly emotional.
A showing outing for dressage horse Peaky Blinder
That Louise switched roles from working hunter specialist to dressage star thanks to the H&H discipline swap challenge she took up in 2011, has been widely reported. Although she may not have any desire to go back to showing as a career, Louise did cause a stir when she and Peaky Blinder made an impromptu appearance in the show ring back in September.
“I wanted to help encourage him to go a bit more forward, but without the pressure of going on the gallops. I knew it was in there. So I thought I’d take him in the ring with other horses,” she explains.
Despite being out of Louise’s top showing mare Working Girl, Duggy didn’t wow the judges on his show ring debut. Louise doesn’t care: “Peaky Blinder stuck out like a sore thumb as a dressage horse – he almost went too well – but it was the right thing to do. He did his first PSG two weeks later and did brilliantly.”
Louise Bell describes Peaky Blinder, aka Duggy, as “the golden child”.
(Image credit: Joss Ridley Photography)
Next on the cards for Duggy, following a demo at the London International Horse Show, are the regionals at PSG and inter I, and hopefully the winter dressage championships. Louise has her eye on international small tour in the not-too-distant future, though ultimately “he’ll tell me what he wants to do”.
These days, Louise trains mostly with Gareth Hughes – she describes taking her rising dressage star Peaky Blinder to Gareth’s as a bit of a full-circle moment. Gareth was instrumental in her early dressage career with her former working hunter star Into The Blue, who sadly passed away days after his retirement from international competition was announced in Horse & Hound magazine.
And she’s long worked with Carl Hester, who she says is another member of the Duggy fan club, which seems to be growing by the day.
“I send Carl videos of Duggy all the time, it probably drives him mad,” she laughs.
She’s great mates with Alan Davies too, Carl’s former top groom – it was Alan who bought Louise the Uthopia semen that resulted in her current dressage horse Peaky Blinder, as a birthday present.
Louise Bell rates ‘quality over quantity’
Louise may not have a huge string of horses, but she says it’s about “quality over quantity” for her: “I don’t need many, and I don’t have the time anyway. And I’ve got to think about later life, at least sometimes.”
That said, when breeder Claire Hester recently told her about a little filly by Uthopia, out of an Integro mare, it wasn’t long before said filly was ensconced in Louise’s Oxfordshire yard.
“So now I have this beautiful yearling with a heart-shaped star on her forehead,” says Louise, her excitement palpable. “Her name’s Unity and I call her Toots – she’s going to be my swansong horse.”
I wonder where they’ll be six years from now.
Read this exclusive interview in full in Horse & Hound magazine (29 January 2026 edition), and to stay up to date with more insight from top riders across the disciplines, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website
