Alan Davies the supergroom picks a horse he wishes he could have ridden

Alan Davies Valegro — Alan Davies with Valegro.

(Image credit: Jon Stroud Media)

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.

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.

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

“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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Regal Realm: from Australian stock horse to Badminton winner and world champion

‘I taught Kate Middleton to ride’: 9 things you may not know about supergroom Alan Davies

Alan Davies on hacking Valegro and Uthopia – and why he doesn’t like Carl and Charlotte riding them

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