Daniel Bachmann Andersen

The Danish dressage star tells Polly Bryan about his early obsession with dressage, his passion for training and how his family help him keep perspective

- Polly Bryan

DANIEL BACHMANN ANDERSEN is one of those people who, after an hour in his company, makes you feel both inspired and somewhat mediocre in comparison. The 29-year-old has achieved more in his life than many people twice his age – top-10 placings at the European Championships in 2019 and the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in 2018, individual fourth at last year’s World Cup Final – and has two hugely exciting prospects for the Tokyo Olympics later this year. As head rider at the eminent Blue Hors Stud near Billund in central Denmark, Daniel is living the dream he has been single-mindedly focused on achieving since the age of 10.

“I started out like everyone else, at a riding school. My mum rode once a week – it was meant to be her time to herself – and from the age of about six I was begging to come with her,” Daniel explains. “Then we were lent an ex-riding school pony belonging to a friend, and when I turned 10 my parents bought him for me. I remember finding a big bow and the ownership papers hanging on the stable door.”

It was the same year, 2000, that Daniel’s dressage aspirations began to take hold, inspired by watching the Sydney Olympics where Morten Thomsen, a dressage rider based in the same village, helped the Danish team finish fourth.