Henry cannot remember actually learning to ride. "I am told that I first rode at around six months old in a basket saddle, although I don't know if you can call it riding. But I was on a pony," he says. The mount in question was a New Forest pony called Sandyman, who later took a fearless, three-year-old Henry hunting with the Warwickshire hunt. A year later, Henry had joined The Pony Club, where he took up tetrathlon, which involves shooting, swimming, riding and running.

However, at this stage, riding was not a passion for Henry. So did he feel pressurised into it, coming from a horse-mad family? "Not really - it was part of life," he explains. "When I was little, I didn't really care - I was put into my jodhs, taken to competitions and that was that. Riding was just something I did for a laugh; it wasn't something I loved."

The defining moment came eight years later when Maggie Boswell asked Henry to school a horse for her to sell on. "It was the first time I had done any flatwork -I had always thought it was boring," he admits. "All I usually did was go fast and jump. But I really got into it, and when we sold that pony, we got two more in to bring on - it just progressed from there."

Fate lent a hand in Henry's career when a late entrant called one day for a dressage competition at Radway. "A lady called Amanda Morrison called, and Mum asked her about a pony she had for sale, Greenlaw Hot Chocolate, or Mylo. We'd assumed he would be too expensive, as he was an FEI schoolmaster, but Amanda explained that Mylo had failed the vet, due to cataracts," says Henry.

"She offered us a six-month lease, which we took and the eye problem didn't affect us. We had Mylo for a winter and were going to give him back and buy a horse, but he was going really well. We decided to keep him for the summer and enter some FEI classes - he got on to the Pony Club team in 2001 and took me to the pony championship squad. Mylo is still going strong, doing dressage at this level."

By now Henry had caught the dressage bug. "My perception was that with show jumping, you were either clear or not, but with dressage there seemed more to it," he explains. "I found dressage very satisfying. A little bit of success gives you such a good feeling. When you have worked hard and get good marks, you get such a buzz. It's like a drug - you come out after a good test and it feels amazing."

Henry makes no apologies for being competitive and ambitious. He has just started his first season in the Young Riders category after a long run on the pony and junior dressage teams. His successes include team bronze in Germany at the 2002 Pony European Dressage Championships and victory at several FEI pony team and individual tests at national selection trials in 2002. He went on to represent Britain at the 2003 Junior European Dressage Championships in France before being crowned overall junior champion at the British Young Riders' Dressage Scheme 'Go For Gold' contest in the same year.

Henry's performance at the invitation-only competition for under-21s impressed selectors, who picked him for the 2004 Junior European Dressage Championships in Denmark and earmarked him for future stardom by selecting him for the World Class Start Programme (WCSP), a Sport England-funded initiative that nurtures riders with the talent for international success.

However, there is a difference between leading the pack in the junior rankings and making your mark in the dizzy heights of Young Riders. With the WCSP investing time and money, and family and friends their support, does Henry feel under pressure to perform?

"The pressure is definitely there," he acknowledges. "A few of us, such as myself and HORSE magazine diarist Anne-Marie Perry, have been earmarked for great things on the World Class gold-level programme. In 2005, the World Class people selected riders for the next four years, so they're investing a lot of money into each person. You are in the spotlight and are expected to do well and keep moving up the ranks to maintain gold-level funding; but then, I expect to achieve this."

All this pressure at a young age could cause some people to crack, but Henry appears to have the mental strength to cope with it. "Sometimes I question my ability and wonder if I have just been lucky," he admits. "I don't want to let anyone down after so much effort has been put into my future. But that is human nature, and I believe what separates top riders from average riders is the ability to cope with pressure, from outside and from yourself."

So how does Henry deal with the stress of big competitions? "I have been pretty good until this year - I never used to flap, even at championships," he says. "I guess I never cared as much as I do now that I really love my work. I had a wobble just before this July's FEI European Dressage Championship for Young Riders, though - everything was going wrong. I felt I had forgotten how to ride - my trainer was on holiday and I got in a flap."

Henry went to Switzerland for a week of training before the Europeans, and credits his World Class mentor Caroline Griffith for bucking up his ideas. "Caroline told me to get on with it," recalls Henry. "She said, 'You have done it all year - just have confidence in yourself." Henry and his Young Riders team­mates Laura Bechtolsheimer, Maria Eilberg and Holly Burrough then came home with a team bronze medal. "I was really pleased," Henry says. "I knew I needed a certain score to be in with a chance of getting team bronze - we all did what we needed to do."

Henry admits that he has taken to getting dressed in a certain order before big events in an effort to bring himself luck. "I find myself doing it and I hate it - I am trying to stop it," he insists. "The sports psychologist from the World Class programme says it's rubbish, and that it makes no difference to a competitve

outcome. She recommends focusing on bite-sized goals and 'ticking each box' as you go - which helps to deal with pressure."

Another good-luck charm is the ominously named yard cat, Lucky - "the first cat we had that didn't die, hence her name". If Lucky trots up the ramp when Henry is getting the horses ready, he takes it as a good omen.

However, luck isn't enough at top level, with each percentage counting, and Henry adds that every detail helps. "Anything that makes your job easier is worthwhile; for example, a well-shod horse is more comfortable and more willing to work for you," he says.

Henry is meticulous about getting things right in his training, and is open-minded enough to try new things that might help him achieve his goals. "I am going to take up Pilates, and I also see Gloria Leverett, a chiropractor and reiki practitioner," he explains. "The World Class people assess your strengths and weaknesses and help you improve that area with the right practitioner.

"My physical weak spot is my core strength, which I need to improve to develop my riding. A physical strong point is my upper legs, but perhaps I compensate with them to make up for my lack of core strength. It is a case of building up your strength to make you a better rider; I am more than willing to try out physical therapies to help me achieve this. The fine-tuning is important."

Luck and physical therapies are all well and good, but it also takes grit, dedication and sheer hard work to reach the top. Does Henry ever feel fazed by his chosen career? "Sometimes the challenge does over-face you," he concedes. "For example, look at Grand Prix dressage,

with all those transitions - you wonder 'How will I manage that?' When you go abroad, the standard of riding is so good. I saw the top young German riders scoring over 75 per cent at the Europeans; it was amazing. It didn't even register that I was in the same class as them. That was a little overwhelming.

"Watching other riders is inspiring," Henry adds. "There are people in Germany at small-tour level [riding Prix St Georges and Intermediare II who could beat our senior riders at big-tour level [riding Grand Prix]. They're riding Grand Prix horses at small-tour level, whereas our seniors are on small-tour horses working up to Grand Prix level."

German riders are clearly at the top of their game - but what sets them aside from other nations? "The Germans get a lot more help from the government," says Henry. "Horse sport has been taken seriously for a lot longer than in Britain, and classical training is in their heritage. Their discipline is amazing - everything is done a certain, regimented way. Horses learn from routine, and they have such good discipline in places like Germany. They do the same thing each day. Their horses know what they are doing and are happy - and horses respond much better when they're happy in their job."

Henry also has praise for his Young Riders team-mates. "Having Laura Bechtolsheimer and Maria Eilberg on the team makes you realise what is possible - they're inspirational," he says. "They're raising everybody's game and leading the way by doing things some of us might not have otherwise considered. They have great family support and excellent trainers. Wilfred and Ursula Bechtolsheimer do such a lot for British dressage - it is thanks to them that we have a Junior and Young Riders CDI at Addington Manor."

Warming to his theme, Henry also cites his trainers, Daniel Greenwood and Henk Van Bergen, as inspirational. "They are fantastic -and the reason I am on World Class," he says, adding Jennie Loriston-Clarke, Carl Hester and Emile Faurie as role models.

Henry also rates Dutch rider Anky van Grunsven. "She is amazing," he says. "People like Anky and German rider Ulla Salzgeber have been at the top of their sport and won Olympic gold medals, and they're maintaining that success - they produce horse after horse successfully. It isn't all about winning - consistency is vital."

And 2005 has also been a consistent year for Henry, with the successful Europeans, a win at Addington Manor in the Premier League Young Riders individual class and victory at the Winter Championships in the freestyle dressage to music Prix St Georges class. He is currently fourth in the British Dressage Prix St Georges rankings (based on average percentage) with DHI Faederlite (Jesse), a horse with which he is also climbing the Intermediare I rankings. But world-class horses don't grow on trees - do Henry's horses have what it takes? "I have six great horses," he says

"Will they be Olympic horses? I just don't know, but there's no reason why they shouldn't go to Grand Prix level."

Henry hopes his big Hanoverian, Wind Dancer, will be riding at Grand Prix by 2008, his last year of Young Riders.

So what does Henry think makes a good dressage horse? With long legs a la William Fox-Pitt, he suits larger mounts with good depth in their body. "I like leggy horses," he says. "I also look for athleticism and good paces, combined with a trainable temperament, rather than a specific breed."

Henry clearly has an old head on young shoulders, but he does not come across as arrogant. "People think I don't take what I do very seriously, but in fact I do - I just tend to turn things into a joke," he admits. "Sometimes this is a good thing, as it lightens the moment, but sometimes it gets me into trouble."

He admires people who speak their minds, singling out dressage trainer Pammy Hutton in particular. "It is refreshing to speak to Pammy," he says. "Show jumping has a few high-profile straight-talkers who don't mince their words, but we need more people like Pammy - she is in a position to say what she thinks."

So what's next for Henry? He has qualified for the Intermediare I class at the National Dressage Championships this month with DHI Faederlite. "I will try to keep calm and relaxed and just enjoy it," he says.

With this high-profile competition looming, Henry will need all the inspiration he can muster in order to compete with senior riders - but fortunately he is able to harness his competitive streak into quiet confidence. "I am competitive, but I don't mind what the mark is, as long as I feel the horse and I have performed to the best of our ability."

With this down-to-earth attitude, coupled with serious ambition, Henry is surely set for great things in his Young Rider career and beyond - look out, Carl and Anky... CH