Free You Only Live Once by Katie Price Page B

horse and yet again someone else was riding it! I really would have to find a dressage instructor. Dressage is not something you can teach yourself. So while we were busy promoting Pushed to the Limit , I asked Diana to help find me one in my area.
    Diana did her research and found Andrew Gould. He is one of the leading dressage riders in the country as well as being a dressage instructor and trainer. He also happens to be young and good-looking, and when Diana showed me the information on him and I saw pictures of him, we both said, ‘Oh, Pete’s not going to like this.’ At that time Pete seemed quite down. He had put on weight and wasn’t working out. I think it was also tied up with how frustrated he felt about not having an album deal and that while I was busy working on so many different projects; all he really had was the reality show. It didn’t matter to me that he had put on weight. I loved him however he looked, and always thought he looked good. The fact remains, I didn’t choose Andrew as my instructor because of his looks – I couldn’t have cared less what he looked like. He could have looked like Shrek for all the difference it made to me. I just wanted to learn dressage!
    Diana had given me the telephone number of his stables and I called up and spoke to Andrew’s wife Polly about the possibility of learning dressage with Andrew and keeping my horse at their stables. As we chatted we got on really well. I thought, ‘Excellent. Maybe we could be friends with this couple. It would be so good to know another young couple with children, especially one that shares my love of riding.’
    When I first went to Priory Dressage – Polly and Andrew’s training livery stables – it was a Saturday sometime in March 2008 and the place was buzzing with riders and horses. I watched at the outdoor school and was blown away by seeing all the absolutely stunning horses and fantastic riders. I thought, ‘I would love to be able to ride like that. But, bloody hell, there’s no way I’m riding in public yet because I can’t even get my horse to trot!’ Andrew and Polly seemed like such a nice couple, both down-to-earth, both really friendly. I moved Jordan’s Glamour Girl to their stables so that Andrew could train her up and I started having lessons.
    At first I was nervous. I am a very good rider but dressage is such a specialised sport that getting on a finely trained dressage horse made me feel like a novice. But it didn’t take long for me pick it up. Very soon I was connecting with my horse and learning how to get her to make the dressage moves. I got a real buzz from learning and started having lessons every day first thing in the morning, before any of my work commitments.
    I decided I wanted to enter some dressage shows and compete. I always need a goal to work towards. Taking up dressage gave me such a good feeling, and I loved being around the horses and the stables. People who love riding will totally understand where I’m coming from – though I guess it’s like any hobby which you enjoy. For me, going to the stables was about switching off; it was somewhere I wasn’t going to be filmed or photographed. It was my escape and riding made me feel so happy. At last I was starting to feel that I did have some space away from work.
    At first Pete seemed fine about me riding so much. After all, he was spending practically every day in the studio working on his music – something which I fully supported, as I knew how important his music was to him and how much he longed to bring out another album. And he knew how much I had always loved horses and riding. When he first met me, for instance, I’d just bought a house in a small village in the Sussex countryside and had stables built there for my horses. When we later moved to Ockley, in Surrey, the main reason I bought that house was because it had stables, school and a field for my horses. But then Pete met Andrew and everything changed. He had met