Karen Bassett is without a doubt the world's best and most successful female driver. She was born in Great Britain in 1963 and started her driving career at the age of 15 - but with a four in hand team already! Her first team consisted of four Shetland ponies, and only 5 years later, the talented young woman changed her team once more, for four British Spotted ponies, Britain's oldest pony breed. Her spotted pony team made her known all over Europe. In the time between 1980 and 1990, she won the British National Championships 6 times! In fact, Karen and her ponies won everything there is to win in pony competition. In 1990, the big change was made, and encouraged by friends, but especially by the family of Walter Lorch from Muchamp Stud in Fulmer close to Windsor, Karen started her Trakehner career. Like so many of us, she couldn't let go afterwards...

Worldwide, this is the only pure Trakehner in hand team. Karen and her bays were the first team winning the international top event in Saumur/France in 1995 with a female driver at the reins. Karen's color is red. She, her grooms, and her horses are known all over for the bright red color code during the cross country tests - a speciality of the British driver. That, and her appearance, soon gave her the nickname of "Lady in Red".

More history was written in 1995, when Karen was the first woman ever to win the National Driving Championships in Great Britain, which has one of the most profound and long backgrounds in driving. To this day, Karen and her Trakehners represnted Great Britain at 6 world championships, and won the team bronze medal at the world championships in Warenem/Belgium, in 1996. In 1997, she was the first woman to drive into the world top 5, being listed for the "FEI Top Driver Award" that year. After 1995 and 1996, Karen and her Trakehners won the British National Championships again in 1998 and represented the country at the World Equestrian Games in Rome/Italy.

The list of her top placings is very long and includes prestigious shows like the Royal Windsor Horse Show/GB, Riesenbeck/Germany, the World Equestrian games in Jerez/Spain, and the World Championships in Kecskemet/Hungary, where she placed 13th in a field of 52 startes in 2004. In 2004, Karen and her Trakehners won the 4th National Championship trophy in England. And more was to come...

In 2005, she won the reserve champion title in England, and in 2006, had maybe her best season ever: of 4 British qualification eventrs for the World Equstrian Games in Aachen/Germany, she won the first 3, resulting in the British Equestrian Federation canceling her 4th show....what else was there to prove? Karen's sister, Pipa, is an avid driver herself, and drives a team of Lipizans....something that needs to change! Karen and her horses live close to Nottingham, and everything in her life is truly "selfmade". She devots her entire time for the care, training and maintanance of her 5 horses, and even drives the truck with her horses and all equipment all over Europe herself. Driving is an expensive sport, probably the most costly of all equstrian sports, and so as much as possible is done by Karen herself.

Her Trakehners are now heading to Aachen once more. We will report on her progress, and we hope to have more exciting action photos from this outstanding team of horses and the world's best female driver.