Written - August 1st 2016

When founder, Abby Newell received a call from The New Yorker some months ago expressing their interest in running a piece on the story of Charlotte Dujardin's meteoric rise to become one of the most famous riders in the world, we nearly and truly fell off our chair.

On a personal level and having lived in New York, Abby knows all too well how respected this weekly magazine is. It offers a signature mix of reporting and commentary on politics, international affairs, popular culture and the arts, science and technology, and business, along with fiction, poetry, humour, and cartoons.

***And the even bigger significance....it has over a million subscribers, a print / digital audience of 4.5 million and wait for it, an online audience of 17.1 million visitors per MONTH***

And there we were, over Skype, having a conversation about telling the story of someone we have worked with now for three years, someone, who alongside Carl has put British Dressage on the map and who we humbly call our friend.

The piece involved them 'shadowing' Charlotte and the team for over a month, at home training with Carl, at shows, in the lorry, at major competitions to learn about her world, what drives her and learn about the journey that has seen her smash world records, become the European, Olympic and World Champion in the sport and create a legacy for riders all over the world to keep aspiring to reach all that they dream of for themselves.

This is the story the prestigious publication The New Yorker wants to tell and we couldn't feel more proud that alongside recent features in publications such as August's Harpers Bazaar, that the sport of Dressage, Charlotte and ultimately all who partake in it, continue to get the recognition it so deserves.

Carl Hester was an absolute scholar and a gentleman throughout and we thank him for helping make all this work. It always takes a village. Piaffe would also like to thank Claudine Bichard, Ian Cast, Alan Davies, Richard Waygood, Jane Dujardin, Judy Harvey, Emma Jane Blundell, Hasse Hoffmann and many others for their support and contributions in getting this long piece done and for the patience and juggling of schedules to make it work. Ian, thank you as well for all the help last week with the final pieces.

Thank you also to the teams at Bolesworth, Hartpury Festival of Dressage and Mount St John for their warm welcome at the shows / Open Day to the publication. Also to Lindsay Nicholson for giving some much needed words of support and encouragement on the last day at Hartpury as we completed the last day of interviews and shoots.

We were slightly nervous ahead of today's publication of the piece, as ultimately we have no say over what is written. We can only hope that people see what we see, that people come to know what we know....someone who had a dream and fought for it. We think they have captured that here in a beautifully written, celebratory way.

So here it is, the most intimate piece to date to the biggest audience they have ever interviewed for....

THE DUO THAT DOMINATES DRESSAGE - THE NEW YORKER - AUGUST 2016