‘He gives me Valegro vibes’: meet Louise Bell’s exciting rising star Peaky Blinder
Louise Bell - Horse & Hound Dressage Feature On a cold winter’s day in 2019, Louise Bell’s eyes glowed bright as she spoke about a home-bred yearling, for whom she had high hopes: “He’s absolutely spectacular – he’s the golden child.” Seven years later, the now eight-year-old dressage horse called Peaky Blinder is living up to the promise he showed back then.
Known at home as Duggy, he has been relatively lightly competed, thanks to a tendency for “self-harm” as a four- and five-year-old that meant a few stints off with injury. However Peaky Blinder has since proved his worth with a win last year in the international young horse division at Wellington Premier League. He’s also racked up three prix st georges (PSG) wins and two at inter I since stepping up to the level in July, with scores nudging 70%.
Could Peaky Blinder be Louise Bell’s Valegro?
“He’s a gift from God,” says Louise Bell , 54, her enthusiasm for the Uthopia son she now owns with her friend Denise Reynolds still totally undiminished. “He’s such a trier – he has ‘Uti’s’ trainability – and he’s such a kind horse.
{"content":"<p>“But actually, I get real <a href="/tag/valegro">Valegro</a> vibes from him, even though they’re not related. Duggy’s a beautiful, upstanding horse and he has that same sort of presence in the ring. He has such a desire to do the job, he’s really good at almost everything and he’s so easy to train – it’s like he’s been here before.”</p>
<p>Another “Professor”, then, as Valegro was famously nicknamed by <a href="/tag/carl-hester">Carl Hester</a>. And with his dark colouring and white blaze, dressage horse Peaky Blinder doesn’t even look too dissimilar to the legendary champion.</p>
<p>“Gosh, it would be wonderful if we could emulate even 10% of what Valegro and Uti did,” says Louise, who admitted she found the news of <a href="https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/dressage/heartbroken-farewell-valegro-uthopia-911697">the deaths of the great pair</a> incredibly emotional.</p>
<h2>A showing outing for dressage horse Peaky Blinder</h2>
<p>That Louise switched roles from <a href="https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/showing/working-hunter-311829">working hunter</a> specialist to dressage star thanks to the <a href="https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/features/louise-bell-rider-facts-677298"><em>H&amp;H</em> discipline swap challenge she took up in 2011</a>, has been widely reported. Although she may not have any desire to go back to showing as a career, Louise did cause a stir when she and Peaky Blinder made an impromptu appearance in the show ring back in September.</p>
<p>“I wanted to help encourage him to go a bit more forward, but without the pressure of going on the gallops. I knew it was in there. So I thought I’d take him in the ring with other horses,” she explains.</p>
<p>Despite being out of Louise’s top showing mare Working Girl, Duggy didn’t wow the judges on his show ring debut. Louise doesn’t care: “Peaky Blinder stuck out like a sore thumb as a dressage horse – he almost went too well – but it was the right thing to do. He did his first PSG two weeks later and did brilliantly.”</p>
<div id="attachment_915636" style="width: 2010px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-915636" class="size-full wp-image-915636" src="https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182.jpg" alt="Louise Bell rides her dressage horse Peaky Blinder in trot at home during a magazine photo shoot. " width="2000" height="1220" srcset="https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182.jpg 2000w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-300x183.jpg 300w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-630x384.jpg 630w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-135x82.jpg 135w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-1536x937.jpg 1536w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-320x195.jpg 320w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-620x378.jpg 620w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-920x561.jpg 920w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-1220x744.jpg 1220w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-1620x988.jpg 1620w, https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/02/LouiseBellPeakyPlinderhorse_hound_182-1920x1171.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" /><p id="caption-attachment-915636" class="wp-caption-text">Louise Bell describes Peaky Blinder, aka Duggy, as “the golden child”. Credit: Joss Ridley Photography</p></div>
<p>Next on the cards for Duggy, following a demo at the <a href="/london-horse-show">London International Horse Show</a>, are the regionals at PSG and inter I, and hopefully the <a href="/tag/british-winter-dressage-championships">winter dressage championships</a>. Louise has her eye on international small tour in the not-too-distant future, though ultimately “he’ll tell me what he wants to do”.</p>
<p>These days, Louise trains mostly with <a href="/tag/gareth-hughes">Gareth Hughes</a> – she describes taking her rising dressage star Peaky Blinder to Gareth’s as a bit of a full-circle moment. Gareth was instrumental in her early dressage career with her former working hunter star <a href="https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/dressage/farewell-into-the-blue-915598">Into The Blue, who sadly passed away</a> days after his retirement from international competition was announced in <em>Horse &amp; Hound</em> magazine.</p>
<p>And she’s long worked with <a href="/tag/carl-hester">Carl Hester</a>, who she says is another member of the Duggy fan club, which seems to be growing by the day.</p>
<p>“I send Carl videos of Duggy all the time, it probably drives him mad,” she laughs.</p>
<p>She’s great mates with <a href="/tag/alan-davies">Alan Davies</a> too, Carl’s former top groom – it was Alan who bought Louise the Uthopia semen that resulted in her current dressage horse Peaky Blinder, as a birthday present.</p>
<h2>Louise Bell rates ‘quality over quantity’</h2>
<p>Louise may not have a huge string of horses, but she says it’s about “quality over quantity” for her: “I don’t need many, and I don’t have the time anyway. And I’ve got to think about later life, at least sometimes.”</p>
<p>That said, when breeder Claire Hester recently told her about a little filly by Uthopia, out of an Integro mare, it wasn’t long before said filly was ensconced in Louise’s Oxfordshire yard.</p>
<p>“So now I have this beautiful yearling with a heart-shaped star on her forehead,” says Louise, her excitement palpable. “Her name’s Unity and I call her Toots – she’s going to be my swansong horse.”</p>
<p>I wonder where they’ll be six years from now.</p>
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Read this exclusive interview in full in Horse & Hound magazine (29 January 2026 edition), and to stay up to date with more insight from top riders across the disciplines, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website
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LOUISE BELL - INTO THE BLUE
Louise Bell and Into The Blue competing in the CDI at Royal Windsor Horse Show 2019.
Credit: Peter Nixon
Credit: Future
