Jousting knights on horseback, carriage rides and dressed horses parading to a crowd may seem like something from a medieval fairytale, but one group near Hay-on-Wye are still making it a possibility in 2021.

Cavalry of Heroes, which is run by couple Marc and Catherine Lovatt, boasts eight skilled horses which have been trained to undertake various tasks and stunts from rearing, jousting and withstanding cannon fire to pulling carriages.

The couple, who are both aged in their 30s, started Cavalry of Heroes in 2014 after they met at the Hampton Court Palace in London where Marc worked driving carriages for The Queen.

Marc has lived all over the world working with different horses. He said: “I grew up around horses - my mum had horses when I was younger so I was always around them, and she moved out to Spain and later on I followed her out there and she had horses out there.

“Then came back to the UK so I had a good variety of Spanish and sort of European horses - a bit of a different mix because you don’t get so many Iberian horses over here.”

The biggest principles of Cavalry of Heroes when it comes to training their equine partners is treating them with compassion and fairness, and making sure that the horses well-being comes over anything else they do.

Much like with people, Marc said the horses all have different characters - Catherine added that the horses are also different in how they learn too.

Marc said: “You get different characters - it’s like people, you get some really tough and don’t want any attention ones, and you get others that just love humans too

“The way I look at it, is that they’re almost like my children. They can’t look after themselves - or they can to an extent in the wild as they would just move onto new pastures - but they wouldn’t last as long as they do with the help of good loving care from humans and also the right training to make sure they’re strong enough to do the jobs you ask them to do.

“You have to think of it as your responsibility, like with your children, you’re making sure they’re ready for the next step before you try and take it.

“You wouldn’t just strap one to a log and expect it to pull, you would train it up and understand all the aspects of what you’re going to ask it to do and then you would put time into getting strong enough to do it.”

Based in Whitney-on-Wye, Cavalry of Heroes has a mix of horses including Friesian, Andalusians and shire horses which are all trained by Marc.

Marc and Catherine have owned most of the horses for between six and ten years with “one or two” who are younger and less experienced, joining the team more recently.

Their first horse, an Irish Cob named Guinness, is what caused the couple to meet as Catherine had him stabled near where Marc was working.

Marc, who was born in Telford but grew up in the Forest of Dean, said: “Most of them we’ve had for about, six to ten years, there’s one or two we’ve bought a bit more recently and they’re like the prospects for the future - slightly younger, need a bit of training. That is excluding Guinness.

“Guinness was Catherine’s horse and I met Catherine down in London at the Royal Palaces and helped her with Guinness and she was and that’s how we met each other.”

The Lovatts and their eight horses currently have a full show season booked for next year as well as some carriage drives over the Christmas period at Berrington Hall.

The winter is the quietest period for Cavalry of Heroes which sees the horses busy at their home before a very hectic summer period.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the group performed virtual shows - both for people to enjoy but also to try to keep the horses busy a they were starting to get bored.

“We did try to do some [shows] virtually, and it was successful but it’s not really the way we like to do it because we like the interaction, but it worked and it was just good to do something,” said Marc.

Marc said a huge part of their dream, which became more apparent during lockdown, is to work with horses to complete tasks like farming and travelling.

He said: “Our dream is to farm land with horses and to use them for all the jobs still so we can have this almost self-sustained living with the horses, that we can make our own food and hay and stuff like that - that’s the dream I think or the end goal.

“I’m a bit of a mixture in that I like the agricultural work, the filming work, the show work and I like the horses to do as many of the different jobs as possible and we sort of love it here in Hay-on-Wye and we have a good life.”

Marc said they try to make sure they train with each horse every day and that they keep a routine going as the horses enjoy being in a set routine.

However both Marc and Catherine emphasised that they take the process of training the horses slowly to make sure that they are comfortable and safe - whether it’s withstanding the sound of cannon fire and gun shots or rearing up with a rider on their backs.

“If I can, they’ll all get to do something every day - on average you need to spend an hour or more each time with them. You need time for them to be happy to be out with you as well as getting them to do something because they’re very good at learning a routine and they’re very good at learning to rush through it to get back to the stable so they can eat.

“It’s like you have to really take your time, that’s the key for everything that we do with them. They’re so used to wanting to be around you that when you take them out it’s not straight to the hard stuff or that they’re going to go straight up, they get a bit of a chance to stroll around and see things.”

Marc confirmed that working with horses, like he does with Cavalry of Heroes, is what he has always wanted to do since growing up with horses and going to work on his own with horses after left home.

He said: “I worked with my mum doing the horses and when I left the nest, I went to work with horses on my own and I went to Buckingham Palace on my own and was driving carriages for the Queen and I was really sort of into the history and the tradition and the relationships.

“I’ve always said that horses are man’s best friend and they’ve helped forge our history - they’ve been in all our wars, our transport, farming and etcetera.

“I have always wanted to do it, and I have always wanted to get the most out of every horse that you possibly can to make sure they’re comfortable but also that they’re able to do more than one or two jobs if it’s possible and to see what they like doing more than what you want them to do.”

When asked about learning how to perform stunts with horses - such as jousting and rearing up - Marc said you have to “go under someone’s wing” to learn while applying your own horsemanship skills and techniques to how you are shown.

He also put emphasis on not rushing horses into stunts, making sure to take time to train a horse slowly so that it knows what you want to rather than doing something because it’s scared.

As well as working with Catherine and their horses with Cavalry of Heroes, Marc also spends time training other horses on film and TV sets to perform - notably in Game of Thrones, War and Peace, and one of the Transformers films.

While Cavalry of Heroes is more about performing shows to groups of people so that they can interact with the team and see the horses close-up and personal, their horses and collection of carriages have appeared on TV in documentaries as well as the music video for Beloved by Mumford and Sons.

Catherine, who is originally from London, said that unlike Marc’s equine background, which also includes working with Olympic dressage riders and show-jumpers, she learned to ride due to her father’s status so that she could play polo and take part in hunts.

Catherine said she was expected to marry a Lord and so received etiquette training, to learn languages like Latin and Ancient Greek, sports like golf and tennis as well as riding. She eventually attended Cambridge University to study Architecture before meeting Marc - the couple were voted the most romantic in Herefordshire in 2015.

Catherine said: “It was anything to put me in the right circles basically. So instead of coming back with a lord, I came back with a knight which I think is even better.”

Catherine explained that as well as their eight horses which are used in live shows, they do also bring in 40-60 horses from friends and other people they know if they need to do a bigger performance.

She said: “We have other people who come in, we have a whole load of freelance riders, grooms, and we have a whole team behind us who come in and work with the horses, although it is primarily Marc.

“Marc does the training and he makes sure all the horses get everything that they need and that they come first.

“It’s all about fairness and compassion, we’re not going about barefoot and bridle-less - it is a discipline, it is professional, and he wants what’s best for the horse all the time and wants to get the best performance for the shows.

“But they [the horses] love what they do, you can see this relationship and that they just love it - they’re like I want to go and do that, that looks like fun, I want to go and try it.

“When I saw it first of all, when I saw him in London, there was something there that you don’t see every day. It was obvious that he had this uncanny ability to read the horses and to understand them and to know what they want, it was speaking their language, it’s really interesting to watch.

“He can get the horse to understand him, move with him, and relax with him so they then want to try all of this different stuff. It’s really hard to describe.

“He works with them, it’s not magic, it is consistency and compassion and fairness. It’s consistency all the time - this is a professional job. The horses understand that they can have fun but then there’s work and Marc can keep them in that balance.”

Catherine said that she can’t imagine not being with the horses on a daily basis as they enjoy going out and performing, although she admitted that the Covid-19 pandemic had hit them hard causing them lose more than 60 events.

She said: “It was really, really hard going for but our head space was we could go and be with the horses. With the horses having nothing to do, they were getting really bored so we were having to invent cool things to get them up and lively so we were doing virtual shows just to get them back into the atmosphere.

“That hit us that we would like to do more in the area so that people get to know the horses - we were doing carriage ride into Hay, we were doing shopping on horseback - we were taking the horses into do shopping in Hay Market and it kind of changed our perspective on how horses could be partners in going forward and trying not to be so dependent on cars.

“ It’s an interesting avenue which were’ looking at the moment, providing more horses in the area for transportation and farming.”

Catherine said that all of the horses have balanced lifestyles between time off, work and training.

She said that each horse is different in its training as while some of the horses learn to do a task in a couple of days, they forget after a matter of weeks where as other - like their Friesian horses - take months to learn but they then always remember it in a way which she compared to elephants.

All photos have been supplied by Chris Norton from Tails of Wales Dog Photography.

Chris, who also specialises in equine photography, can be contacted via his website which can be viewed by clicking here.

Head to our Facebook and Instagram pages to view more of his work with The Cavalry of Heroes.