Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin are the perfect partnership for British dressage as it targets a major Olympics breakthrough this summer.
Dujardin did little to dampen expectations surrounding British medal hopes at Greenwich Park when she returned from Germany's prestigious four-star Hagen show last weekend with a new world record.
And that remarkable feat was achieved just eight months after Hester and Dujardin won four European Championship medals between them - two team gold and Hester's double individual silver.
Dujardin's Olympics horse Valegro is owned by Hester, the world number two she credits with underpinning her rapid ascent in a sport dominated for so long by Dutch and German riders.
Germany has won the last seven Olympic team events, while together with the Dutch, they have shared seven successive Olympic individual titles.
Britain has never collected an Olympic dressage medal, but now appears to be on the verge of smashing that German/Dutch domination in London.
Hester and his brilliant stallion Uthopia, Dujardin and fellow Briton Laura Bechtolsheimer with Mistral Hojris are all currently world-ranked top five combinations, with only Dutch star Adelinde Cornelissen above Hester.
Dujardin, 25, linked up with Hester five years ago after her mother asked him if he would give her daughter a dressage lesson.
Dujardin had spent 10 days at Hester's yard grooming horses, but she never left, and the two of them subsequently helped elevate each other to career heights, working in magnificent purpose-built facilities just outside the small Gloucestershire market town of Newent.
And when Dujardin set new world figures for the Olympic grand prix special - an astonishing 88.022% - last Sunday, Hester was there to witness his prodigy's greatest moment.
"Valegro was spot on from the start. You could tell it was going to be his best ever day," said 44-year-old Hester, who has won five European Championship medals and more than 50 national titles.
"To get the sort of mark they did you have to show so much quality, as well as be mistake-free - and they were both.
"I could see straightaway when I first knew Charlotte that there was a huge talent there. There is something very steely and very gritty about her.
"She doesn't suffer nerves - she looks forward to competing in championships - and we feed off each other. Mind you, she has always been lippy!"
Dujardin added: "It meant everything to have Carl there to help me in Hagen. I wouldn't be where I am without him.
"The key, though, is you have to stand up to him, and I am the only one that does. I don't bow at his feet, as much as he would me like me to!"
Hester readily recalls his first dressage experience with Dujardin, which came when he judged a world-class viewing day - designed to identify possible future star combinations - that she attended on her previous top horse Fernandez.
"I remember we watched Charlotte ride this horse, and it was quite a normal horse to watch, but then I asked her if I could have a sit on it," he said.
"I could feel immediately it was a really well-trained horse and that it would go to grands prix."
Hester's prediction rang true early last year when Dujardin and Fernandez posted a record debut grand prix score of 74% at Addington in Buckinghamshire that offered a first real glimpse of how good she could become.
"When Carl rode my horse during that world-class viewing day, I had never seen anyone riding my horse like that. It was amazing," Dujardin said.
"My mum then asked Carl if he would give me a lesson, and it has gone from there.
"Last year was surreal. I did my first grand prix in January, and by the end of it I had won a European team gold medal and the grand prix at Olympia.
"But I don't look at any show any differently. I think I have got to do the same thing that I do at home. I don't ever put myself into situations to get stressed about it, hopefully."
That same logic she will hope can be applied amid the rarefied atmosphere of an Olympic Games on home soil, and Hester cannot wait.
"Winning medals, you don't think about it until afterwards, to be honest," he said. "We want the pressure of expectation in London.
"Laura has done it for long enough, I've been doing it long enough and Charlotte will deal with the pressure. It's good pressure - I don't think anyone is afraid of it."
