WE struck off by discussing the differences in how they each got started in dressage…
REBECCA: I started out at our local riding school when I was 10 years old in Belgium – where I lived at the time. We moved to the UK when I was 13 and that's when I got my own pony and got involved doing all the usual Pony Club things.
I didn't really have a horse that could jump, so I had to do all of the tack and turnout competitions at the local gymkhanas. But I'd always enjoyed schooling the horses and I entered a talent spotting competition that they used to have years ago at Talland School of Equestrian. I ended up winning that – totally out of the blue – and that switched me onto dressage.
I spent a year as a working pupil with the late Sarah Whitmore, who had a lot of other young riders based with her – and that was it for me. But back then I didn't realise it could be a career.
I also always had a pull to dressage but goodness knows where it came from. I magazine, so I followed it as much as I could, then I started watching VHS training tapes from Europe.
