Canada’s Shannon Dueck circles back with dressage Olympian Carl Hester

When Canadian international dressage rider, Shannon Dueck, arrived in the rural village of Newent in England last winter, she was returning full circle to train with British Olympic team member Carl Hester.

Thirteen years prior, Shannon had flown across the pond with a Grand Prix horse that she had made herself, Ayscha. This year she’s back with the mare’s daughter, Angelika MW, and she is grateful for the opportunity.

“Angel is at the exact same level of development that Ayscha was when I came here the first time. So It is very cool to be back here again with a horse that I’ve had since she was just a black dot on an ultrasound scan,” said Shannon. “I feel super lucky to be able to do this with him [Carl] because he is in huge demand. I’m so lucky to learn from the very best.”

Carl, who was the youngest ever British rider when he competed at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, is set to be the oldest British rider – at 57 – at the Paris Games this year, which will make him a seven-time Olympian. Shannon had originally hoped her training with Carl in England, which began in February this year, to be a prelude to a Paris Olympic appearance of her own.

“I was going to try to qualify for the Olympics if it was going to be easy for Angel,” said Shannon, who has represented Canada at the Pan Am Games, at World Championships and the World Cup. “But she’s too green this year. It was not the right time. My goal is now to get an International under my belt before I come home at the end of October.”

There are some elements of the environment at Carl’s yard, – where his British teammate Charlotte DuJardin is also based – that have really suited Angel’s character, which tends to be on the hot side. “I really thought if I’m going to make her into a confident Grand Prix horse I needed Carl’s training expertise to give her courage,” Shannon said. “I trust him completely to bring on horses that are hot.”

Angel, who is by Ingrid Klimke’s Franziskus FRH, is owned in a partnership of Shannon, Elizabeth Ferber and Kathy Putnam. The mare was started under saddle using pool noodles, tarps and all manner of scary items to help her to overcome her hotness and spookiness. At Carl’s yard, these elements come naturally in the form of guinea fowl, cows, sheep, lorries and more.

“Angel didn’t know what to do with the peacocks and the guinea fowl,” Shannon said. “And there’s always something going on at the yard. I posted a reel that now has her cantering through a flock of guinea fowl in the dressage arena. She just canters through them and they scatter under her feet.” There is a subsequent video of a low flying cargo prop plane from a nearby air base passing overhead as Angel and Shannon work on their piaffe and passage with Carl’s help.

The routine that Carl sticks to is very horse friendly, when it comes to the training of several of the world’s leading dressage horses – not least Uthopia, with whom he won team gold at the London Olympics, Valegro who partnered Charlotte to the same team and also individual gold, Fame who he takes to Paris this summer and Imhotep, who will be Charlotte’s ride.

“The horses work on Monday and Tuesday in the arena,” said Shannon. “They all hack on Wednesdays on the roads with the lorries and the cows and the sheep. Then they work on Thursdays and Fridays. They hack on Saturdays and then on Sundays they might get turned out all day – some of the top horses get turned out all night in big fields. That’s what they do. If they’ve grown up doing it, they don’t hurt themselves.”

Shannon sticks to hacking along the driveway and in the fields rather than the roads since Angel “did not grow up with lorries”. When she first started training the mare, she spent the first year with just walk, trot and canter – working on strength and a good connection. “I had no real goals for her at first,” she said. “I just wanted to develop this horse. But she’s a real athlete. She doesn’t have huge gaits but she knows where her legs are, where her balance is all the time and her gaits get better with elastic training exercises.”

The pair, who made their competition debut at the Global Dressage Festival in 2020 and were part of the Nations Cup team at Global in 2023, will continue their journey at Global in Wellington next winter.

When Angel turned eight, Shannon put a little more pressure on the training and the pair were named as alternates for the Canadian team at the Pan Am Games. They debuted in their first Intermediaire II in Ocala at the World Equestrian Center last November, with almost a 72 score.

At Carl’s this year their focus switched to Grand Prix and they competed for the first time at this level in England in May. “She’s getting more special as she gets older and gets stronger,” said Shannon. “And under Carl’s guidance, we were able to successfully move up to Grand Prix level. Now we need to further develop her confidence and strength. When you move a horse up to Grand Prix, it’s like going back to Kindergarten and it takes several years to really confirm a Grand Prix horse.”

Just being at Carl’s yard means that it is not just Angelika who is constantly improving. “After just one day of watching Carl and Charlotte train Grand Prix horse after Grand Prix horse, I know I rode better,” Shannon said.

Carl’s training consists of basics, basics, basics and then a movement. “You have to have the horse going as correctly as possible in self carriage and then you carry it through a moment. And then you find out what you couldn’t carry through a movement and you work on that,” said Shannon.

“The emphasis in Carl’s own training and his coaching is on self-carriage and lightness. When you watch Carl and Charlotte ride you can really see these things. His training and his showing have really made a difference in the quality of riding in the UK. You can see his influence in the lovely riders coming up in the sport. It’s quite remarkable.”

In addition the horses are rewarded continually for their work. “You have to pat your horse and tell your horse they’re wonderful. They get to be told that they’re good and because of this positive way of training, these horses love to work.”

With the Olympics off the table, Shannon has set new goals for herself and Angel. “My next big goal is to raise the money to come back here next year,” she said. “And then we’ll be ready to set our sights on the World Championship in Aachen in 2026. You have to set a goal and figure out the path to get there. This year we have met our goal of being able to bring this horse to Grand Prix at the relatively young age of nine with confidence, because of the amazing training opportunity I have had this year with Carl.”

 

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