‘I said I’d try my best!’: top British performance wins class – and a new sofa

Lewis Robertson-Carrier and his long-term dancing partner Diego V won the CDI3* Lier freestyle in Belgium on Saturday (28 February) – bagging a new sofa for their efforts.

The pair scored 76.08% on their first international outing since the Wellington CDI in October. The previous day they finished 13th in the grand prix, on 68.15%.

“We had a decent year last year, but it wasn’t the best. Diego’s 18 and been doing it a long time now, and in the grand prix he just felt like he was five years old again. He was on fire and felt fantastic,” Lewis told H&H.

“He was so excited, I wasn’t really expecting it. We had a few big mistakes, but I was happy because he was happy. I was super pleased with how he felt and we still came away with a decent score, only about 2% off the leaders.”

Lewis said Diego felt even better the following day in the freestyle.

“We weren’t on until about 10.30pm, but we’ve done London International twice and I think he really enjoys a late-night performance,” he said.

“Straight from the word go we had energy, but it was controlled and everything just came off. It was definitely one of the best freestyles we’ve done. His piaffe and his piaffe pirouette at the end were fantastic. His extended canters were really uphill and energetic, and his twos and ones were brilliant, they came off really well.

“Equidance did my freestyle; they’re the most lovely enthusiastic people who really support me and I couldn’t do freestyles without them.”

Lewis said it was nice to have Diego back out at a bigger show.

“We did Aachen late last summer and that was probably the last big one,” he said.

“He definitely enjoys the excitement of the bigger shows, and Lier is lovely. I did the Nations Cup there last year and they do an amazing job.”

Lewis won a special prize in the class; a new sofa, thanks to the class sponsor, furniture company Henders and Hazel.

“When we arrived there were three sofas in the corner of the indoor and my wife Liv took me over to have a look. Liv sat in them and said ‘Oh I really want you to win me one’ – and I said ‘I’ll try my best’,” said Lewis.

“Liv was very quick to choose the one she wanted. Luckily it was a smaller sofa chair, as we had travelled in my 4.25T lorry and so we wouldn’t have been able to fit a massive four-seater, even still it was still a little bit of a struggle to get it in! It’s really smart – and very rare to go to a show and win something like that. It was really nice of the show and the class sponsor to let the riders come away with something so special.”

Lewis Robertson-Carrier on his 2026 plans

Looking ahead, Lewis said he will be putting his name down “for all the big things” – but that this year “is an open book”.

“It’s been a good start to the year, but we’ll see what the selectors are looking for. Diego still feels absolutely fantastic and in his prime. He’s done a lot; Aachen and Nations Cups, he’s been national champion, he’s kind of done it all apart from being on a senior team at a championships,” said Lewis.

“It’s tough to break through when there’s so many good combinations in the UK, but I’ll take any opportunity I can and if I can get on another Nations Cup team with him, that would be amazing.

“We know each other so well and competing with him is such a nice feeling; when he’s on form he is world class. To take me from young riders through to senior teams, there are very few horses that have done that. I’ve got two incredible grand prix horses coming through, but every now and then like at the weekend Diego still just shows me what an amazing horse he is. He’s the best.”

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