Young dressage star Laura Milner is a teenager with a big reputation. She tells STEVE CARROLL how she is dealing with Great Britain expectation.

LAURA is one of the most talented youngsters that I have ever come across in all my years of working with the GB team.”

That is quite a compliment, and it is how former GB Team pony trainer Ian Woodhead described the skills of 15-year-old Huggate horsewoman Laura Milner.

Competing on her 14-year-old black gelding Lyndon Hall, the Pocklington Woldgate College pupil soared the latest heights in a burgeoning career in the sport when she was crowned Junior FEI and Open Advanced Champion at the Under-21s winter dressage championships at Addington in Buckinghamshire earlier this month.

Against competitors who were, in some cases, three years older, Milner won both classes convincingly and scooped a prestigious training grant from 2008 GB Olympic dressage team captain Richard Davison.

It has been a meteoric rise in the rankings for Milner, the daughter of former double British Rally champion Jonny.

With talent, and results, comes expectation and growing expectations can be a burden on young shoulders. But Milner manages to take the fuss in her stride.

“I try not to make it feel like there is pressure on me,” she said. “I have got to live up to the expectation but that is the same for lots of other people. It is really good.”

Dressage is a French term meaning training and was developed by the ancient Greeks to give their troops an advantage in combat. In the 17th and 18th centuries, dressage became fashionable and nobility used to stage grand displays like those still seen at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

Evolving into the competitive sport it is today, it is the fastest growing Olympic equestrian discipline – with more than 2,000 days of competition each year.

“You ride a test in front of a judge,” Milner added.

“You are scored out of ten for movement. There are about 20 movements across the test and you are scored out of ten for each. They all correspond to your final percentage.”

Having only joined the U21s late last year, Milner has made a major impact.

A lot of that is down to dedication.

The level of training, and the precise nature of competition, means spending a lot of time with your horse. No one comes between Milner and Lyndon Hall, whose stable name is Tommy.

“I am just protecting him so much,” she added. “I will go out on a night and I will say to people ‘I don’t know if he is warm enough’. We are very close.

“There is no one else that rides him and trains him. I do the training every day.”

Milner will spend this year taking part in the British Dressage-run Premier League events, starting at the end of April, where her competition includes other young hopefuls, team members and top British riders of all ages.

She will concentrate on dressage, rather than expanding into three-day eventing, and the Olympics are on her agenda – in the future, anyway.

“I think 2012 is too early,” Milner added. “But I would like to think I would be able to have a big achievement like that and become an Olympian. In the short term the aim is to continue to compete around the country with the Premier League and in regional competitions.”

Part of that short term is meeting Davison, a three-time Olympian who has claimed medals at two European Championships and was six times Britain’s number one in the international dressage rider rankings.

Milner said: “He has been to an Olympics and I have got a feeling I will go to his yard and have a few lessons.

“I am really excited. The smile has not gone from my face.”

For more information about Milner, log on to her website www.laura-milner.com