The 2026 Capital Square Masterclass with Carl Hester at Kingsview Partners Dressage at Devon

Each year, among the most anticipated events of Kingsview Partners Dressage at Devon is the Thursday evening Masterclass, and this year was no different. The legendary Carl Hester traveled from the United Kingdom to the Dixon Oval to offer his lifetime of expertise to a group of eight participating riders for the 2026 Capital Square Masterclass.

Young Horses

First up to ride with Carl Hester was the young horse group, which included Ein Traum, a six-year-old Westfalen gelding owned and ridden by Hannah Irons, and Lamia Eden, a four-year-old Hanoverian mare owned by Alice Tarjan and ridden by Allison Nemeth.

The session began with Carl breaking down what he looks for in a young horse prospect. As long as they have three good, pure gaits and a solid work ethic, he said, they should be able to make up into Grand Prix horses; it’s the various other factors that determine just how good they’ll be competing at the highest levels.

Four-year-old Lamia Eden demonstrated an exceptionally quiet temperament for such a young horse on such a large stage. Carl noted how impressed he was with the young mare’s poise—she clearly met his criteria of possessing a good work ethic. He praised her naturally cadenced trot in particular and predicted that her eventual piaffe will be easy to establish.

With Lamia Eden and Allison, Carl focused on solidifying the basics of what he said a four-year-old dressage horse should be able to demonstrate according to the training scale: good rhythm, nice transitions, an appropriate age frame, and soft, even contact.

They worked through trot-canter-trot transitions, where Carl had Allison focus on looseness in her seat to encourage looseness in Lamia Eden’s back. To finish the work, they focused on the stretching trot. Carl pointed out that the young mare has an exceptionally strong back, but equally important to strength is looseness and gymnastic ability. He asked the audience to take notice of the mare’s lower back muscles behind the saddle, which loosened and bounced as they spent more time in the stretching trot.

Carl then transitioned to working with Ein Traum (“ET”) and Hannah Irons. This pair, who is fresh off a win in the Markel/USEF Six-Year-Old Dressage National Championship at the Festival of Champions last month, demonstrated significant poise beyond the gelding’s six years of age.

ET did, however, spook a few times, which Carl commented favorably upon. “I don’t want a police horse,” he explained. “I want a horse with some electricity.”

While ET demonstrated a good flying lead change, Carl sought to improve upon the straightness of the movement, noting that the gelding was not reliably even in each rein in the contact. He asked Hannah to school through several canter-walk-canter transitions, which, he explained, are the foundation of a proper flying change.

Through these transitions, adjustments to Hannah’s occasional, minorly uneven hand carriage, and work through shoulder in with a very small angle, ET became increasingly even in the connection. Carl and Hannah agreed that he was filling up each rein much more reliably after the series of exercises.

Alternative Breed Horses

Among the most anticipated groups of the masterclass was the alternative breed section, which included Windsor Road Beau, a ten-year-old Clydesdale gelding with rider Kathrin Hain for owner Naomi Levin-Hein, and Celestial Ranger, a seven-year-old Thoroughbred stallion owned by Hagen Sport Horses LLC and Campbell Associates and ridden by Lauren Kimmel.

“Dressage is for everybody,” Carl asserted firmly at the commencement of the class.

Windsor Road Beau (“Beau”) came in with an undeniably strong work ethic and a fervent desire to please. As Carl assessed the Clydesdale, he said that if he were in school with Beau, he would want to be his friend.

Carl started with some overall words of advice for riding draft or heavier horses in dressage: resist the urge to ride them too forward, as it compromises their balance. He explained the concept of “half transitions” to Kathrin as a strong tool in Beau’s development. Starting in the trot, Kathrin would come halfway back to walk without taking any true walk steps, then push back up into the working trot. These transitions, Carl said, naturally shift the horse’s balance back onto their hind legs and clarify for them the concept of carrying more weight behind.

Next, Carl worked with Kathrin on using her seat and her upper body to help Beau through the trot-canter transition. His first several strides of canter often did not show the impulsion Carl sought, but when Kathrin lightened her seat and brought her upper body a few degrees forward at Carl’s instruction, the gelding showed notable improvement.

Turning his attention then to Celestial Ranger and Lauren Kimmel, Carl shifted gears to working with a very different type of horse.

“Thoroughbreds have a brilliant forward energy,” he stated, “which is an advantage in dressage. They are often conformationally more croup high, though, which makes the collection more difficult.”

Lauren recently showed Celestial Ranger (“Teal”) in his first Prix St. Georges test. Carl identified the trot work as the pair’s highlight, praising the power and elasticity they demonstrated. They went to work on improving the canter pirouettes, where Teal can sometimes struggle.

The prerequisite for good pirouettes, Carl explained, are the ability to collect, go forward, and go sideways. He had Lauren and Teal work through transitions between collected canter and medium canter on a large circle, prioritizing the sensitive stallion’s straightness and acceptance of the aids. Through a series of adjustments, including shoulder-in on the circle, the transitions became more reliable, and Teal became more relaxed in the collection.

Among Carl’s parting words to Lauren was the advice to maintain the ability to influence Teal with her legs as non-negotiable.

“With hot horses, you have to keep your legs close to them,” he said. “You have to be able to touch them with your legs.”

Developing FEI Horses

The third group to ride was comprised of developing FEI horses, including Saskatoon OMF, an eight-year-old Hanoverian gelding owned by Cece Stewart and ridden by Chris Hickey and E’Panthera, a six-year-old Oldenburg mare owned and ridden by Christina Morin-Graham.

Carl began the session with these two impressive young horses by evaluating them in all three gaits, then establishing a game plan and what to work on with each pair, honing in upon themes of balance and straightness as priorities.

For Chris and Saskatoon OMF, those themes manifested in the flying changes and the piaffe. Carl explained that the gelding’s huge hind leg, an asset in many areas of the work, can sometimes be so powerful that it propels his balance onto the front end.

“Always come back to the balance,” Carl reminded Chris. He noted that riders should never ask for a flying change from a canter that lacks balance.

Saskatoon OMF also demonstrated a tendency to fall to the right through the changes. Carl instructed Chris to ride through an exercise to remedy this sometimes-lacking straightness, wherein he picked up the left lead canter down the long side, leg yielded a few steps to the left away from the rail, positioned into counter-shoulder in to the right, then asked for the flying change to the right lead. Not only did this exercise produce much straighter flying lead changes, but it also improved the jump and the quality of the canter.

The pair then moved into the piaffe work. Carl praised Saskatoon OMF’s exceptional talent for the gait but noted that he often gets “stuck” and has trouble pushing forward out of it into passage or trot. He advised Chris to school the piaffe on curved lines to give him the option to push the gelding sideways off his leg to get him unstuck and moving forward. Chris would trot toward the corner, establish the piaffe through the corner for several steps while bending to the inside, straighten and go forward through the short side, then repeat in the second corner. The exercise produced a beautiful, adjustable piaffe that Chris could move in and out of much more reliably.

The priorities with E’Panthera and Christina mimicked those for Chris and Saskatoon OMF, but in different areas of the work. The six-year-old mare spent the season competing at second and third levels with Christina and is beginning to work toward fourth level work in their quest for FEI. Carl determined that the pair was ready to work on establishing a more sophisticated half-halt to influence the balance in the trot and develop the gait for the upper levels.

Carl likened the halt-halt aid to gently closing a door with the rein. He had Christina trot E’Panthera down the long side and “open the door,” pushing her gradually forward towards the medium trot. After several strides, he encouraged her to gently close her hand and shorten the stride, harnessing the power from the medium to move the balance back further onto the hind legs.

The theme of straightness reappeared in the canter work. Carl instructed Christina to work through transitions within the counter canter, moving forward toward a medium gait and back into collection several times. He noted that counter canter is always a valuable tool for improving straightness, and the in-gait transitions added a level of elastic development to the exercise.

By the end of the session, both promising young horses showed markedly improved balance and straightness in their work, and their riders left with a new toolbox of exercises to continue their horses’ development.

Grand Prix Horses

The final group to ride with Carl included Fortunato H2O OLD, owned and ridden by Lehua Custer, and Donja KWG, owned by Kenneth Steele and ridden by Denise Steele.

Fortunato H2O OLD (“Tuna”), a ten-year-old Oldenburg stallion, is set to make his Grand Prix debut with Lehua this year. The impressive pair demonstrated considerable strength and grace as Carl observed their warmup.

Though Tuna is a seasoned show horse and a consummate professional, he is a stallion, and in his session, he found it a bit difficult to fully focus on the work under the lights in the Dixon Oval while sharing the ring with a mare. Carl and Lehua both maintained a keen sense of humor as Carl formulated a plan to best serve the pair.

When a stallion needs a bit of help with their focus, Carl explained, it’s best to prioritize relaxation and keep their mind occupied with work that is not excessively physically taxing. To push them into difficult or strenuous work would only further amp them up and exacerbate the situation.

Instead, he instructed Lehua to work on a 20-meter circle. They alternated between schooling walk-canter-walk transitions, walk pirouettes, and walk half-passes. As Tuna’s mind locked back in with his rider, Carl had them progress into schooling the Grand Prix movements. Throughout the remainder of the session, he kept the relaxation as top priority. If ever Tuna’s focus started to drift, he had Lehua come back to simpler exercises to regain the harmony. He stressed the importance especially of ending in a relaxed mental state, which, together, they found between Tuna and Lehua.

The mare in the ring was Donja KWG with Denise Steele. An active Grand Prix pair, Donja and Denise demonstrated their prowess at the top level of the sport.

Carl identified that Donja appeared heavy in the contact, which compromised her uphill balance and self-carriage. Denise concurred and told Carl that the arthritis in her hands makes it difficult to assist the mare in finding that requisite level of balance. In an adjustment that Denise later described as a “total gamechanger,” Carl had her flip the reins in her hand into a driving rein position. That way, he explained, she could better influence her horse in the contact without pulling or holding.

The seemingly simple switch made a noticeable difference: the audience could clearly see Donja’s balance shift further onto the hind end, the connection become lighter and steadier, and the picture of overall harmony improve. It was an inspiring change to witness that undoubtedly gave observers an idea to try at home.

To finish their time together, Carl and Denise worked through the tempi changes, which Denise identified as a movement they sometimes struggle with:

“She thinks she’s late for her flight,” she said, “and we need to slow down!”

Carl agreed. He explained that counting mistakes in the tempi changes often occur when the horse speeds up and the rider does not catch up in time. You can’t time the aids correctly to “pick them up” and “put them down” through the changes, he said, if you’re on two different timelines and are not in sync.

As he’d stated to a few other riders throughout the evening, Carl said that riders should always prioritize the quality of the gait before executing a movement. When schooling the Grand Prix, he explained, if the quality of the canter is not sufficient, riders should not ask for the prescribed 15 one-time tempis just for its own sake. They should instead school only the amount they can achieve in a balanced, uphill, straight, relaxed canter.

To help Denise and Donja with this issue, Carl had them canter down the long side and ride three three-time tempis, then immediately ride a 10-meter circle while giving the reins. The addition of the circle notably increased Donja’s relaxation and self-carriage when she became a bit hurried after a few changes. By the end of the lesson, they performed multiple quiet, balanced one-time tempis, show marked improvement from the beginning of the ride.

An Evening of Education and Inspiration

From future FEI superstars to non-traditional breeds to those winning at the top of the sport, the Capital Square Masterclass showcased a wide variety of horses and riders on their dressage journeys. Carl brought his trademark warmth and wit, combined with his unparalleled wisdom and experiences, to make a tangible difference for each participant. The audience left with ample inspiration and ideas to bring home and apply to their own riding journeys.

A Special Thank You to Capital Square

A huge thank you to Capital Square for making one of the most anticipated events of the week possible, the 2026 Capital Square Masterclass with Carl Hester.

It was an unforgettable evening in the Dixon Oval, giving riders, trainers and spectators the chance to hear directly from one of the most accomplished and influential figures in dressage. We are incredibly grateful to Capital Square for their generous support of Kingsview Partners Dressage at Devon and for making this level of access to Carl Hester’s knowledge and experience possible for our community.

Capital Square is a nationally recognized real estate investment, development and property management company specializing in tax advantaged real estate investments and high quality housing communities across the country, with a focus on creating lasting value for investors and the places in which they invest.

We were proud to have Capital Square with us for such a significant night at Devon.