Laura Bechtolsheimer

Laura Bechtolsheimer is one of Britain's top exponents of the dressage world. In 2005, aged just 20, she became the youngest British Dressage Champion, won the British Dressage Rider of the Year award in 2008 and represented Britain at the Beijing Olympics. Last year she helped the British team to a silver medal at the European Dressage Championships, and won a bronze in the individual Grand Prix Special, and has since gone on to win other Grand Prix events. She has started 2010 in fine form, finishing second in two Grand Prixs in January, breaking two British records in the process.

1. How did you get into your sport?
Through my parents.  They have always had horses together and I grew up riding, the yard was my playground!

2. Tell us the best thing about your sport?
Unlike other sports, we are relying on another living creature that has a mind and will of its own!  Trying to make this unpredictable element more predictable through training and the relationship that we build with our horses makes it a continual challenge.  We both have to be on form at the right moment in order to compete successfully and this makes it very special when it comes off!

3. Who is your biggest inspiration in your sport?
My father because he trains me and does all the day to day work with me.  My highs are his and so are my lows so I always want to make him proud.

4. Do you admire anybody outside of your own sport?
I grew up idolizing Steffi Graf and now I tend to admire anyone who stays consistently at the top of their game or makes a good comeback.  Someone like Federer is definitely a role model because he is a genius of the court and a gentleman off the court.

5. Who is the best player you’ve played with/against?
In dressage we are often in the same class as the top few in the world so it is hard to say.  Isabell Werth who rides for Germany is always a force to be reckoned with because she has been winning gold medals almost since I was born!

6. Do you have any pre-match rituals or superstitions?
I always have a playlist on my ipod made to suit my frame of mind at that given period of time.

7. Tell us about your training schedule? What does it involve and how does it change, i.e. before matches etc?
I ride about 6 horses in the morning, which involves training them.  In the afternoon I tend to hack them out or take them for a canter for fitness.  I also have a pilates lesson 2x a week  and I go running to keep fit.  I compete abroad about once a month.

8. Who is the funniest player at your club/who’ve played with?
Edward Gal is the world’s no1 at the moment and he is pretty entertaining.  When ever we compete at the same shows he is smiling, (probably because he always wins!) but he always lightens up what can be a tense “backstage area.”

9. What is the most memorable moment in your sporting career to date?
Winning the team silver and individual bronze medals at the European Championships in 2009.

10. What are do you want to achieve next in your sport? What are your goals?
End of September  this year I  hope to ride at the World Games in Kentucky and I hope to achieve another team and individual medal.

11. If you hadn’t of been a dressage rider what would you have been?
A political journalist or maybe Jonny Wilkinson’s physio!

12. What will you do after your sporting career is over?
Coach other riders and I will always have young horses to bring on, I can’t imagine not having horses in my everyday life.

13. What music (if any) do you listen to when training?
We usually have the radio on but I get very irritated by adverts and we can’t get radio 1 at our place!  I am more into old school music and a bit of country roots.

14. What do you do on a day off/in your spare time?
Go and see my uni friends in London, drink too much and dance badly.

15. If you had 24 hours to live, how would you spend it?
I would steal a top event horse and give the Badminton cross country course a crack, (although I do dressage I am a bit of speed junky!)  I would then fly to a ski race and ski a world cup downhill, its got to be a good way to go!

16. What is your favourite film?
Lord of the Rings trilogy, Strider is my hero!

17. Do you get any strange fan mail?
Yes and that is all I want to say about that!

18. What is the funniest thing you’ve read/heard about yourself in the media?
I have heard there are some pretty bitchy forums about top riders on the circuit, written mainly by very low level amateurs but I stay clear as I don’t see the point in getting upset about things you can’t change!  Someone also once referred to my chiseled six-pack in a magazine once, I wondered how they knew?!

19. Tell us a joke about your sport?