JUST as spring was threatening to break the frost-lock of winter, I was at Stephen Clarke's Cotton Equestrian Centre in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, to watch a training session.
Stephen is a renowned five-star international judge who will be familiar to most in dressage circles, but the trainer he'd invited me to watch and talk to is perhaps less well known – a Swedish rider and trainer specialising in classical groundwork called Charlotte Wittbom.
Charlotte has been helping Stephen and his clients with their horses using groundwork to improve their way of going. In turn, Stephen has been helping Charlotte translate her classical experience to competitive success in the arena.
“I always knew I wanted to work with horses,” explains Charlotte, who speaks with a quiet self-assuredness. “But I always struggled with competition nerves, so I was a little lost in what path to follow.
“That's why when I was 19 years old, I decided that if I wasn't going to be a competition rider, I would travel and I somehow ended up at the stables of Maestro Luis Valença in Portugal.”
