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‘He jumped for joy’: supergroom Alan Davies picks the horse he wishes he could have ridden

Becky Murray Becky Murray

    • Suppose your Christmas stocking contained a ride on the horse of your dreams… We find out which superstars of yesteryear this supergroom would love to try

    Alan Davies has flown around the world taking care of some of Britain’s top dressage horses, working for Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin. It might be difficult to think you could ever top the great Valegro, but there is one horse of eventing royalty Alan would gladly welcome for Christmas.

    “It would have to be my childhood heroine Lucinda Green’s Regal Realm. I remember seeing him in the 10-minute box at Badminton and he was just the most incredible horse. He was a wry little thoroughbred and was quite quirky – Lucinda had to really work around his quirks to get the best out of him. She had to do her dressage in a jumping saddle because he didn’t like a dressage saddle and things like that. But he was an absolute superstar and he jumped for joy for Lucinda,” remembers Alan.

    3 AUG 1984: LUCINDA GREEN OF GREAT BRITAIN ON REGAL REALM DURING THE TEAM JUMPING COMPETITION AT THE 1984 LOS ANGELES OLYMPICS. GREAT BRITAIN WON THE SILVER.

    Regal Realm and Lucinda at the 1984 LA Olympics

    Lucinda met Regal Realm in Fontainebleau, where the former Australian stock horse was a reserve horse for event rider Merv Bennett at the alternate Olympics event in 1980. From here he returned home with Lucinda and just two years later, they were crowned world champions. In 1983, they won Badminton and won double silver at the European Championships, and the following year they were part of the silver medal-winning team at the LA Olympics.

    “I remember at Badminton he tripped on his overreach boots and after that, Lucinda didn’t use overreach boots at the big competitions. I’ve got this thing about overreach boots now – Charlotte likes to use boots on her horses to protect them and I’ll always say, ‘Lucinda used overreach boots on Regal Realm and he tripped!’ and Charlotte will roll her eyes as if to say, ‘Here we go again!’” says Alan Davies with a laugh.

    “Once, I was driving the lorry back from Aachen and Lucinda had been there commentating. There was a problem with her flight, so I ended up giving her a lift and we talked all the way home about Regal Realm and her other Badminton winners – we had the most amazing conversations.”

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    Becky Murray
    Becky Murray

    H&H senior news writer
    Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.
    Becky Murray

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