IRISH international dressage rider Alex Baker is aiming high in 2026, and the Aachen World Championships are firmly in her sights. She has begun her big tour campaign with her relatively new ride, the 14-year-old stallion son of Totilas, Top Gear, and they have already broken the 70% barrier at Grand Prix. In January, they won a national Grand Prix at Hartpury and, having fulfilled Horse Sport Ireland’s pathway criteria to compete internationally, they recently scored 69.040% in the Grand Prix Freestyle at Lier CDI3*.
In pursuit of her world championship qualification, Alex intends to next travel to Fontainebleau and Hagen in April, followed by contesting Hickstead, Wellington and Hartpury on British soil, before dressage high performance manager Anne Marie Dunphy selects her Aachen squad on July 8th.
“With training from Carl Hester and Isobel Wessels, we have been working hard to be ready for international level this year,” said Baker. “The goal is World Championship selection.”
Although she has always held an Irish passport, Alex grew up on the Channel Islands and called Jersey home until she was 15. “I come from a non-horsey family, but I was an animal-mad child. If I wasn’t breeding guinea pigs, I was grooming and training dogs. My first horse was a 19-year-old 14.2hh called Henry. He knew his job and would go on the bit when it mattered, which was at shows mostly!
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A young Alex Baker at her first show with Henry
“My parents got me so many different pets to try and throw me off the horse obsession, but it obviously didn’t work. Eventually, they accepted that I wasn’t going to let it go, and then they were so supportive. They learned all the rules, did endless driving and found me the best places to be to improve. They always said to me ‘we are removing the barriers, the rest is up to you’, and I’m so grateful they did.”
When she was 15, Baker and her family moved to the UK mainland and, after completing her A-levels, she went to work for her trainer at the time, Fiona Price-Jones. “She was breeding and training Lusitanos, and I worked for her for nearly a year before the apprenticeship came up at Anna’s.”
This apprenticeship was with Anna Ross, the British international rider who had finished 10th at the 2007 European Championships and was then running Altogether Equestrian in Hampshire. Baker was still working and training with Price-Jones when she went to look at a junior horse for sale with Anna. That horse was Nibeley UJ Lady Lara, whom she bought and with whom she went on to contest her first CDIs, as well as two European Young Rider Championships. Not long after purchasing Lara, Alex saw that Ross had a role advertised. She applied, and they worked together for the next eight years.
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Alex Baker riding Nibeley UJ Lady Lara \ Rui Pedro Godinho
“My role in Altogether Equestrian, and later in Elite Dressage, evolved over time. In 2016, Anna was travelling a lot in an effort to earn a place on the British team, so I travelled with her. That summer, we were away for four months in total, with most of that time being spent in Spain. It was a great experience, and I was delighted I got to see and be part of so many internationals, because I did all the young rider classes with Lara.
“In 2018, I moved down to Devon to start Elite Dressage with Anna, and my role changed from being an apprentice to a young horse rider. I started backing a lot of the young horses, and that became a bit of a specialty for me within the business. That’s also how I met Lorna Wilson, whom I’m working for now, so Anna really set up that connection.”
Baker’s ability with young horses led to much success on the national circuit in England, but her partnership with Newton Tiger brought her further afield. They competed at the 2021 Young Horse World Championships in Verden, finishing fourth in the consolation final. “It was incredible to be among the best in the world,” she said. “Tiger and I had an amazing partnership and it was so exciting to be on such a big stage with her.”
Despite being busy backing young horses, it was also during her time with Elite Dressage that Baker found her senior World Championship ride, Dutchman. “Anna and I found him in Holland as an eight-year-old, through her contact Diederick Wigmans. He was selected for the European Championships in 2021, but we couldn’t compete as he picked up a small injury at the last minute, right before the show.”
The following year, the combination was selected to be part of the Irish team which contested the dressage World Championships at Herning, where they scored 67.531% in the Grand Prix. “I am most proud of the World Championships, riding in that huge football stadium was like nothing else I have experienced. I’ve been working towards doing it again ever since!
“The most fun ride I have ever had was also my last ride with Dutchman in 2022. We competed in the Grand Prix Freestyle at Le Mans CDI with really fun, party music and we broke the magic 70%. It seemed like the perfect result to finish our journey, and I decided to part with him because I felt he didn’t owe me anything else and it was his turn to go and teach another rider the ropes. He found the perfect home with a young rider in Germany, and it gave me such joy to watch their success together.”
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Alex Baker and Dutchman at the World Championships in 2022 \ Tomas Holcbecher
The sale of Dutchman coincided with another big change in Alex’s life, because at the end of 2022 she moved to Denmark to take up a role with Helgstrand Dressage. “I applied for lots of jobs abroad, but Helgstrand’s were the first to offer me an interview. I actually didn’t expect to like it there, but my time in Denmark turned out to be invaluable. I learned so much about myself, both on and off the horse, and I would have stayed longer had I not been offered my current job.
“Helgstrand’s had a university feel to it. There were lots of other riders there, the same age as me, with the same interests and goals. There is nowhere like it for dressage, at least not in Ireland and the UK. The scale of the operation and the number of people and horses is incredible, and it’s so well organised with so many systems in place. I would highly recommend to anyone who’s thinking about it to take the leap and work abroad.”
During her time in Denmark, Alex worked her way back into the international arena, this time with Caroline Breck’s then 11-year-old mare, Elverhojs Polka Royal. Together, they contested two CDIs at small tour level, never finishing outside of the top 10. “She is a very sweet mare and we got on really well. We actually made our big tour debut together at national Inter II level (scoring 66.9%) before I left, but the owner wanted to keep her close to home. I was sad to leave her behind.”
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Lorna Wilson and Alex Baker with Top Gear \Tanja Davis
Alex was persuaded to return to the UK when her old Devon connection, Lorna Wilson, proprietor of both Newton Stud and Elite Stallions, offered her the position of head rider. “My role is to run the riding horse side of Newton Stud, as well as to campaign Elite Stallions’ Top Gear, and I aim to train and produce the youngsters until we can find them perfect homes.
“Our goal is to have 10-15 horses in work, but at the moment we’re a little bit over capacity as there are lots of young horses coming through. We’re a small team on the riding side, I work with young horse rider Leah Cornish and stallion guru Zoe Bragg, but the whole Newton Stud/Elite Stallions outfit is very close and we’re always helping each other.
“We have a really exciting 2026 planned, because aside from my own competitive goals, Newton Stud is planning an auction in April where around 20 quality horses will be available directly from the breeder. At the moment, we have too many horses for our small team to produce to the standard we are aiming for, so watch this space for some well-bred, talented horses.”
Alex also has an exciting string of horses earmarked for herself, led by the aforementioned Top Gear. “He is a really enthusiastic horse,” she says. “He loves working and showing off. We did our first Grand Prix in November and we are slowly gaining confidence and experience together. He will be breeding this year too, but taking breaks while he’s competing.”
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Alex Baker and Top Gear in action
Sezuan’s Donnerhall is another on Alex’s list who will be combining stud duties with a competition career later this year, and she has her own Zelladine Nobel, a nine-year-old mare by Blu Hors Zack. Prior to leaving Denmark, Alex competed her three times at national MB level, which is the equivalent of advanced medium. She won on each occasion with scores of 70+%. “I bought her from a Helgstrand auction as a six-year-old. She’d had a foal when she was three, so she’s a bit behind riding-wise, but I loved her big walk and her amazing hind leg. I’m taking my time with her, but she’s nearly ready for Prix St Georges and showing all the talent for Grand Prix work.”
As well as Zelladine, Baker mentions a seven-year-old mare by Escamillo as “something special” and a five-year-old by Bon Coeur whom she loves riding. “Everything seems easy for him and he has three super paces. I’m really excited to see what the next year brings for them all.”
Did you know?
Lorna Wilson and her Devon-based business Elite Stallions will be familiar to a lot of our readers, as they are main agents authorised to serve Irish customers for a number of stallion stations in Europe. While the core of the business’s operations is UK-based, it explicitly services Ireland as part of it’s network, offering next day chilled semen deliveries from over 500 stallions. It also stores frozen semen in Ireland, at SES Equine and Waterside Equine in the south and at Carrickview Stud in the North, which allows last minute situations like missed cycles or veterinary complications to be resolved without delay.
Elite Stallions have formed a partnership with Genetech UK, and they will be running ovum pick-up clinics (OPUs) across Ireland this year. This will bring advanced ICSI services closer to home, and could enable Irish breeders to unlock genetics that might otherwise be lost.
Did you know?
Alex was working in Helgstrand’s when the controversial documentary ‘Operation X: Secrets of the Horse Billionaire’ was aired on Danish television. It contained footage taken covertly by a groom before Alex joined the team, and it led to sanctions being imposed on Andreas Helgstrand himself, as well as on some of his employees.
Alex says: “I wasn’t at Helgstrand’s when it was filmed, but I was there when it was released. It was a tough time, but it was interesting to see how they dealt with it. He put a lot of extra checks on the horses and their outlines in training, and we were always open to any visitors who wanted to see behind the scenes for themselves.
“In Denmark, my daily routine there was pretty much riding! I had a list of about 12 horses and a great groom, we worked really well together. I would get my first horse ready when I came in at 7am, and after that she would tack up and wash off for me. Together, we would get all our horses out twice a day. They either went in the field or on the walker, as well as being ridden. Most of the time there was a trainer in the arena watching us ride and helping us. It’s been a big adjustment from sharing an arena with seven other horses to riding on my own with only sheep as my eyes on the ground.”