Louise Bell to make advanced dressage debut
Working hunter supremo Louise Bell is poised to make her small tour debut — just 2 years after taking up dressage for an H&H challenge.
Louise has trained with Team GBR rider Michael Eilberg since appearing in the feature.
Her show horses — W Get Smart and Into The Blue — are competing at dressage alongside their day jobs. Both contested the Cuddy working hunter final at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) earlier this month (9-13 October).
Get Smart won the medium restricted title at the dressage winter championships (10-14 April) and is working at prix st georges (PSG) at home. Into The Blue is at medium and will come out at advanced medium shortly.
“I just love learning how to do things properly. Michael and I are working very hard together,” Louise told H&H.
“I intend to keep doing workers alongside the dressage — it’s fun for them. It’s made their jumping better and smoother; they come back so much easier with the collection work.”
Louise plans to take Get Smart to the High Profile show at Vale View next month to do an advanced, with small tour the plan for next year.
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Michael Eilberg said his pupil had an exciting future in the dressage world.
“Louise has a very good mind for the arena, which she’s obviously got through the showing,” he told H&H.
“That first lesson, she was laughing as she could only do 5min of sitting trot before bouncing out of the saddle — so it’s amazed me how quickly she has become strong in her dressage position.
“She is very determined like that.”
This news story was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (24 October, 2013)
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Flora Watkins spent several years working for BBC News before moving into print, first as a staffer at Horse & Hound, before going freelance.