Dressage Rider Natalie Lankester On Life Lessons, Competition Mindset and Bonding With Her Horses
Representing the UAE in next year’s Asian Games, we sit down with the rider to discuss her personal journey, rituals and all things horses…
If not by magic, then we’re convinced that Natalie Lankester is a horse-whisperer. The equestrienne, both internationally acclaimed and award-winning, has redefined what it means to Dressage, working to perfecting the sport and art that comes with it. Winning her first international competition last month and, more recently, cleaning up at the CDI3 Grand Prix de Deauville in France this past weekend the UAE-based rider is by no means looking to get off of her horse anytime soon; instead, she’s eagerly waking up at the crack of dawn and working to follow her dreams at all costs. Representing the UAE in next year’s Asian Games, Bazaar Arabia sits down with Natalie to talk about her journey, family life, and all things horses…
HBA: How did your interest in equestrian sports begin?
NL: It all stemmed from my grandmother. She was a dressage rider and had horses at home, so I just grew up around them. She started her first dressage competition quite late in life and she didn’t spread her wings further than the UK. She was just based there and she did well. I started when I was young; we grew up with horses at home. Then, I went to boarding school at the age of seven so, riding took a bit of a backseat – luckily enough, I was allowed to take a pony with me to boarding school when I was 13.
HBA: You quit dressage because you were focusing on your education. How old were you when you took up the sport again?
NL: When I was about 15-years-old I did my A-Levels, so I had to knuckle down and trade [dressage] for schoolwork. Then, I took a bit of a back step and went into work where I had a completely irrelevant job – I worked as a financial mortgage advisor for two years in the UK and then moved to Dubai in 2010. I was 21 and worked at a lighting design company for a couple of years. It was during that time that I thought to myself, “I need to get back into the horsey scene!” I then saw an advertisement for a horse, so I went to try him – and that was it! I was back in thinking, “No, this is what I have to do.”
It was nice to be back in the scene – but it’s obviously very, very different in the UAE than in the UK, because you don’t have your horses at home. You get into a different daily routine, where you have to go to a stable to ride your horses rather than just having them in your backyard. I had started an online pet shop at the time and I was running that, doing home deliveries, and then riding my horse, and mixing the two together.
We have to start at five o’clock [in the morning] with the horses, especially now that I’ve got four of them because, obviously, it gets crazy hot here – and, also, because I need to get the kids to up and ready for the day!
HBA: The Asian Games are taking place in Hangzhou, China next year and you will be representing the UAE. What goes into training for this type of a competition?
NL: It was supposed to be this year in September but they’ve just delayed it for a year, which I’m taking as a positive so that I can be more ready and have more experience under my belt.
We do intensify the training purely for fitness. We’re constantly trying to move up through the progression of dressage training. So we’re always going on an up trajectory by learning new movements, gaining more strength for the horses and stamina and fitness.
Obviously, riding out here in Dubai we’ve got the effects of the heat and the humidity on the horses so we have to go a little bit slower on the training with them. I especially pay close attention to my big horse, the one taking to the Asian games, as he struggles with the heat here. In Europe [Natalie is based in Geneva for the summer and currently doing the European show circuit], where the weather’s a bit cooler, we’ve got a little bit more freedom on our training time. In the UAE, I really need to be finished before 8:00 AM as it gets too hot; in Europe, on the other hand, I have the luxury of starting to ride at 10:00 AM which is lovely and I’ve got all day. So, we can take our time a bit more there. And We do have a bit of an advantage with the games being in China as it’s hot and humid there. So, we are already going to be acclimatized to it, whereas the other competitors who are based over in Europe won’t have that advantage. Even though we struggle every day with the heat and the humidity, it will get us somewhere good.
In terms of preparation for the horses, it’s just a constant progression. I don’t think there’s an end to dressage training. You just keep going and learning the new movements that come with the higher levels in dressage. It’s a combination of strength training and endurance training to their stamina and their fitness and then also the technical parts.
It’s a constant learning curve for me too when learning how to ride the new movements. I’m working with an amazing trainer in Geneva, Morgan Barbançon, and she rides for France’s Olympic team. She’s had a tonne of experience… I am just like a sponge soaking in all the information I can from her. Luckily I’m able to travel with her… so it’s nice having the emotional support from her when I go to these competitions where I need to just focus on what I’m doing. I just stay focused on her and on my horse, and we just do what we know what we’re doing.
When we go to a competition, it all seems to go to go out the window! You get taken in and you start looking at the competitors and getting nervous, thinking “I’m not good enough to be here.” Then you tell yourself, “No, we are! Focus back on ourselves. We’ve got this. We’ve practiced it so many times.” So it’s really nice having her there. It keeps me really calm.
HBA: Do you have any sort of ritual you follow in the days or hours up to competing?
NL: Well, I prepare all my horses myself. That’s my downtime. I like to get there a few hours before the competition starts and I plait the horses [mane.] like to have that time to connect with the horse… a moment in the stable where they’re calm, I’m calm and we both know what’s about to happen. Other than that I like to just keep my head in the game and I don’t like to get too distracted. I just try to stay focused, because I’m on my own journey.
HBA: Do you have your sights set on the next summer Olympics?
NL: Absolutely. It’s my life dream for sure. I would love to go. I hope with all my hard work and dedication we can get there. We’ve got the 2024 Olympics in Paris – which I think is a little bit soon for me – but I’ll keep it as a goal there! If not, then it’s going to be in 2028 in L.A. which will be incredible.
HBA: You met your husband, Sheikh Rashid bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, here in the UAE in 2015…
NL: We actually met through horses! He’s a show jumper and he went to the Asian Games when it was in China and he got a silver medal. So, I need to go do something good and beat that! It’s really nice that we’ve got a shared passion, but it’s also nice that we’re in different disciplines. While he’s in show jumping and I’m in dressage, even though we have the mixed passion of the horses between us, we are in different disciplines so we’re not treading on each other’s toes too much, which is nice.
Natalie Lankester with her husband, Sheikh Rashid bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, and their daughters, Sheikha Alia and Sheikha Hessa.
HBA: The two of you and your families went through a tough time when he was diagnosed with leukemia. How did dressage help you get through what must have been an incredibly difficult point in your life?
NL: It was an overnight diagnosis. He was diagnosed in November 2019 and we were just going into our competition season, so it was right at the start where we were all in full fitness. We were ready to absolutely dominate the season here, him in the jumping and me in the dressage… It was instant to the point where within 10 hours of his diagnosis, we were on a plane to London. We had to leave our horses behind and we had a completely new thing to overcome, meaning that they had to take a back seat at that time.
We were in London for three months for the initial frontline treatments and then came back to Dubai in February with a completely new life. Our focus was purely on Rashid. Everything was just revolving around his treatments, hospital times, appointments, and doctors.
When I landed, I was just thinking, I need to get myself back. I was completely run-ragged and as thin as a piece of paper. I had nothing left to me, other than keeping him alive and getting him through it as a family. I just thought, I need to find a way for me to get myself back on track, because I knew if I’d have carried on the way I was going I wasn’t going be any good for Rashid and I wasn’t going to be any good as a mother.
He was having daily chemotherapy, so that’s when I got back into my routine of waking up early. I’d go and ride the horses in the morning, come back, and then my battle would commence: I’d get him up and take him to chemo, then come back and look after the kids. It gave me that structure and returned the control back of my emotions and my body.
It was my, my peace and serenity going to the horses. They’re incredible animals to work with and they can feel everything we’re feeling. On days when I’d go, where my world was spinning and falling apart, they would calm me. I’m grateful for them.
HBA: What’s the biggest life lesson that dressage has taught you?
NL: Patience. Trusting the process. Not forcing anything. I think it runs through all areas of life. If you can train a dressage horse to a high level, you can apply it to a lot of things in your life. Overcoming daily obstacles with the progression through the training… it’s the same as if we go to the gym. Everything feels difficult when you first start, but what was once your entire workout becomes your warm-up, you just keep stepping up and leveling up. I think that’s the way I also view my life. Just as a natural progression.
Follow Natalie on Instagram/@natalie_lankester_dressage
Lead image by @eurodressage
