Carlos Torrell

These simple words clearly express the great love the Catalan horseman Carlos Torrell feels for our wonderful animals. Now aged 42, we can safely say that Carlos has spent most of his life in contact with horses. Torrell was only 3 years old, an age where most kids start falling off bicycles, when he first rode a horse. It all started in Barcelona, the city where he was born during the emblematic year that was 1968 (the year of the great French revolutionary strike), where he has lived for most of his life and that he loves almost beyond reason. The culprit responsible for his initiation to the world of Dressage is his father, himself a big fan of horses and the only true great master in his life. Young Carlos’ father would take him to a little horse riding school near home every weekend, and so it was that the little boy gradually came to view this experience as more than just a hobby, eventually becoming the 'cavaliere' we know him as today.

Carlos Torrell has many happy and pleasant memories of a childhood which he spent in Barcelona, the city where he has remained almost uninterruptedly his entire life. Only seldom has he left it for extended periods of time.

Carlos complements his work as a professional horseman with horse-training activities in his Dressage School and teaches numerous clinics, both in Spain and abroad, especially in the United States, a country which he loves and visits whenever he can.

A typical day in the life of Carlos tends to start very early, at 6:30 a.m. By the time most of us get out of bed, he has already been riding the horses he keeps in his stables for quite a while, especially during summer, as one needs to make the most of the cool mornings to avoid tiring out the horses in the midday heat, something Torrell is especially attentive to. He carries on training the horses almost uninterruptedly until 2:30 pm, takes a break to eat lunch and rest, and gets back to work. At 4 pm he starts training his pupils. He often runs behind schedule, since despite knowing what time to start, he never knows exactly when the session is going to finish. In addition to all this, Carlos usually supervises the work of his co-workers, makes sure that the next day’s session is organised, and reads and answers emails and telephone calls he hasn’t been able to respond to during the day.

Carlos Torrell is very clear in terms of the qualities a horse must have to be ideally suited for Classic Dressage: "flexibility, elasticity, a good weight to power ratio, three long, high gaits and, above all, the ability to learn and work well with the horseman. All of this is essential; in addition, it is necessary to build an empathetic relationship with the horse to help us communicate with him".