Laura Collett and Hester – owner-breeder on the mare’s story

Lucy Nelson – owner-breeder of Hester, who’s one in all two home-bred mares entered for the Mars Badminton Horse Trials with Laura Collett – describes the journey to five-star as “extraordinary”.

“I really feel so fortunate to have a horse make it this far,” she tells H&H. “Breeding is a silly factor to do, not for the faint-hearted, after which to remain proudly owning throughout – it appears like the most effective factor I’ve ever performed, however it’s additionally a mammoth ask and I hope my story will encourage different small-time breeders not to surrender.”

Lucy rode as a baby, labored in London and began the charity Tommy’s, now the biggest UK charity researching the causes and prevention of being pregnant problems, miscarriage, stillbirth and untimely delivery.

“When my eldest daughter was about 10, we determined we didn’t need our youngsters to be London kids, so we moved all the way down to Somerset, close to Wincanton, and so they had ponies,” says Lucy.

Lucy purchased Hester’s dam, a gray mare, from hunt groom Jo Brady, paying £4,000 for her, and credit her leaping coach Charlie Micklem for encouraging her to make the acquisition.

“She had hardly even been sat on after I bought her as a three- or four-year-old,” remembers Lucy. ”She all the time wished to please and was only a nice little mare. She didn’t have an enormous floaty trot, however we did some good dressage as much as elementary and hunted with the Blackmore & Sparkford Vale – she was all the time a unbelievable jumper. She would soar five-bar gates if she wished to be in a distinct discipline.”

On the time when Lucy determined to place the mare in foal, she was primarily breeding dressage horses beneath her Forest Lodge Stud banner. She was taking flatwork classes along with her “nice buddy” Isobel Wessels, who’s on the bottom jury for the dressage at Paris 2024, and made a visit to Verden along with her and her husband Justin to have a look at Hanoverian stallions, with a view to selecting one thing which might sire a foal which might be an enchancment on her mare, significantly within the trot.

“I didn’t know something about her damline, although we came upon she was by [the Irish Draught] Blue Henry,” says Lucy, who chosen Heinrich Heine because the stallion she wished to make use of.

The end result was Hester – a Cornish identify, chosen as a result of Charlie Micklem was introduced up in Cornwall and since, Lucy says, “my brother had a beautiful Cornish girlfriend referred to as Hester, her identify needed to start with an H due to her sire and I simply favored it”.

Hester as a three-year-old. Credit score: Lucy Nelson

“From day one, she was extremely daring. I begin all my horses with pure horsemanship – I work with Connie Colfox in Dorset now – and we put up flags and tarpaulins across the enviornment. Hester didn’t pay any consideration to them,” says Lucy.

Hester began her worldwide profession with Tim and Jonelle Worth, with whom she gained the CCI2* (now CCI3*-L) at Camphire in 2018, after which had a spell with Alex Bragg, netting two top-five locations at CCI4*-S, earlier than she moved to her present rider, Laura Collett, in 2021.

“My farrier Tigga Barnes requested if I’d thought-about sending her to Laura. I took her up there for an ‘interview’ and he or she stated she’d maintain her,” says Lucy. “She’s been superb along with her and really intelligent along with her dressage, which is her weakest part.”

Final yr Laura and Hester gained a CCI3*-S at Aston-le-Partitions and have been 14th at Blenheim Horse Trials CCI4*-L. A number of weeks in the past, they scored 28.9 within the dressage at Thoresby, which arrange an ideal pre-Badminton run. The pair jumped a double clear and completed seventh within the Grantham Cup.

“It is going to be essentially the most thrilling factor to go to Badminton,” says Lucy. “I bear in mind nearly crying when my daughters gained the egg and spoon race, however that is one thing else. It’s going to be very tough to observe her going around the cross-country, however very thrilling.”

Hester’s dam had two extra foals earlier than she was put down, however sadly varied well being issues and accidents meant neither have made it in direction of the higher echelons of eventing.

Lucy nonetheless breeds two or three foals a yr and has simply despatched a four-year-old by the favored thoroughbred stallion Heraldik to Laura Collett. She has Hester’s embryo switch foal, by Future Responsible Pleasure (an eight-year-old who has competed to two-star beneath Izzy Taylor), due on the finish of Could and has one other frozen embryo from the identical pairing which she hopes to convey to fruition subsequent yr.

“With the wrestle of getting semen from Europe, I believed let’s assist British stallions, so I selected Future Responsible Pleasure,” she says.

Hester shouldn’t be the one home-bred mare who Laura Collett is using at Badminton this yr. She can be entered on Bling, owned and bred by Yvonne Ferguson.

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H&H journal editor and eventing editor

Pippa is a real eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand expertise of competing as much as British Eventing intermediate and worldwide CCI2*-L stage, and has labored within the business on a high occasion yard. Pippa enjoys nothing greater than immersing herself within the sport on the highest stage, reporting from the five-stars and worldwide championships, together with the Olympics.