How LeMieux Became a Global Equestrian Brand | Talk Horse Live from Royal Windsor

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]my first proper ride as a cowboy.

[00:00:02]>> Unbelievable.

[00:00:03]>> And it was amazing. The color story was probably the biggest uh innovation there. When I started probably, you know, everybody would have a a couple of whites for their competition and a black and if they're daring, they might have a blue or whatever. But there was no question of ever riding in any other.

[00:00:17]And we thought, well, why why do people not want to dress their horses a little bit more excitingly? Makes you feel very old when the Olympic Games are going back to Los Angeles. Time for you to make a comeback. Exclusive. You heard it here, bud.

[00:00:42]So, we are recording this live for our podcast as well. So, you guys are part of Talk Horse family now as well. Um, thank you for joining us. We are loving the pod. This is the second year in a row at Rawwinds or Show. We had a great year last year. So, we're back. I'm very excited. We've got some lovely guests today. Starting off with a legend in many facets of the equestrian world, Robert Lemure. Um, Pip, would you like to give Robert an intro?

[00:01:05]>> Well, Robert, I mean, thank you very, very much for joining us. Obviously, people will know you more for your brand, the massive brand in Lemure, which we're longing to hear a lot more about. And obviously, I remember you from your days when you were aventing.

[00:01:24]>> We do.

[00:01:26]Um, but yeah, it's great. It's really great to be back here. Tristan's had a really horsey couple of weeks because he was at >> a horsey year.

[00:01:35]>> He was at Babon last week. Um, and then I think you were playing rugby yesterday and he's winging cuz he's got a broken rib.

[00:01:42]>> Winging. I think I'm don't make you laugh too much.

[00:01:45]>> Yes, problem is pit makes me giggle too much. So, it's it's in pain. Yes, I have sacked off the horse riding, but I've injured myself playing rugby, so bear with me. And the laughing I think partly was due to I don't know whether anyone saw the the short social clip that seems to have gone quite viral.

[00:02:03]>> Give us away.

[00:02:09]>> The amount of people who shouted out to me to for potentially injuring funnel at Babmonson when she's not on a horse but on a bicycle was was uh a lot. But anyway, Robert, we're here to chat to you. We've got a really exciting interview today. Um, the first question on Talk Horse is always the same. How did you first connect with horses in the equestrian world?

[00:02:28]>> Oh god, that's How long have you got?

[00:02:30]>> As long as you um how do I connect? I was a I was quite a late starter. Um, didn't really start riding seriously till I was about 17, 18. Um, my family had a few connections and the my sisters rode and so on. So I I definitely had come into contact with horses but definitely not riding around in circles or jumping them or anything else. And um yeah, my first time I went to a racing stable in one of my holidays a bit of thought I might be a national hunt jockey. Thought it was great. I was with a guy called Toby Balding who was brilliant with amateur riders and he was amazing. Um but that mom and dad snuffed that out. Um my father was a legal uh um man so he ended up as a judge. So definitely nothing to do with horses.

[00:03:18]Just putting money on them was about the closest you got to to to a horse. Um and so yeah, he insisted I went back to school, did all of that. And then I actually left school after my A levels, thought I wanted to get away and a bit of a break, went to North America, and mom being mom had actually had a few boyfriends who from the war that were um owned ranches. So I ended up actually my first proper ride was a cowboy.

[00:03:44]>> Unbelievable. and it was amazing. And and one of the ranches in Montana, obviously famous now because of Yellowstone, was absolutely classic. Um was very high up in the mountains, so they couldn't use a lot of pickup trucks and and motorbikes. So the horses were really used to drive the cattle and work the cattle. So that was really good fun.

[00:04:02]Then I went to another another one of her boyfriends down in Wyoming, very flat ranch, bit boring, lots of motorcycles and and pickups. Um, but then eventually I ended up in Kentucky and I ended up in Kentucky working on a stud. Um, actually swept the gravel outside Njinsk's uh, stable and Northern Dancer, two very famous stallions. Uh, was never actually allowed to touch the horses. I was definitely a skiibby. But I was in a bar in um, Lexington and thinking, you know, I this is getting a little bit boring. And there was some Irish lads on the end of the bar and they were chatting and and um I overheard we got we got drinking and they were here in Lexington for the world championships of eventing in 78.

[00:04:50]Makes me sound very old. Um and amazingly but only the Irish could arrive with not enough grooms the number of horses they had. So these guys were saying we've got nobody to muck out and just do all the and I said well I'll come and ski for you. you know, you can do all the grooming bit and I'll just, you know, and so I my first contact with Aventing was actually as as a de facto groom for the Irish team in the world championship.

[00:05:16]>> Who who who can you remember the riders back then?

[00:05:19]>> Um, who were the riders? Um, God, >> you weren't worried about them. You were worried about the horses. We were well I have never really had that much contact with them to be honest with you because I apart from mcking them out and and did rushing around on cross country day actually kind of with copious amounts of water and I mean it was dramatic to say the least as you know. I mean that it was so humid uh you could hardly breathe. Um but um the the rider I had most contact with was John Watson who was so lovely to me and he actually ended up coming from near last to second.

[00:05:55]>> So you you obviously developed the horsemanship kind of from a young age and being a cowboy that sort of thing.

[00:06:00]How did you find that translating translated into the eventing world cuz obviously you've reached a very high level of eventing?

[00:06:05]>> Um that was purely out there. I remember there was a stand at a show like this uh for Riding Magazine. remember riding magazine and right I picked up my free copy of that and I was looking at it on the plane on the way home and there was an article about a Swedish trainer called Lars Sedome and he ran this place called Watertock in near Oxford and I looked and I thought that's quite a good place to go and I remember saying to to mom and dad right that's where I'm going to go um and um yeah that's why >> um just for Tristan's information Yogi Bryner um who we had on a previous episode, Yogi was at Watertock. So, Lars and going to Watertock was the place to go, wasn't it? Back in those days, >> well, masses of riders were there. In fact, I um groomed for Yogi um with a horse called Ultimus. Wonderful horse cuz it had a hoged mane. So, as a groom, you didn't have to have very good platting skills, which I do remember being a great relief. So you know that I started grooming for him and I uh a little bit with Richard Walker who's another very well-known rider. But what was lovely about Watertock in those days is that they had show jumpers, event ride, everybody all came there. I Michael Whitaker used to bring their horses to jump. Um in my very first year there Caroline Bradley who lived very close to to to Water used to come fairly regularly with horses for Lars to see.

[00:07:33]It was such a brilliant environment >> and he was very much uh I mean we're going back obviously some time ago but that sort of old school way of training I think we I really believe we miss out on that in this day and age because I came up through that sort of system lots of lunge lessons so much without stirrups all working on your >> with Ruth with >> Ruth McMullen but all working on improving yourselves as riders.

[00:08:03]And I actually don't think that happens enough nowadays that that real attention to detail with the basics which all that hard work and detail on the basics really really helps.

[00:08:17]>> We had to have a lunge lesson every single day.

[00:08:20]>> It's years and years and years of work improving yourself and and gaining experience and and learning from mistakes. I mean, the lunging was was a classic thing and I definitely recommend somebody starting out now to have lunge lessons because it works on your core strength and balance without hanging on because you weren't allowed any rains because obviously the rains are all tied off and you had to hold the front of the saddle or you know and you could do some really basic exercises on that um and and improve so much so quickly rather than have that what you're going to so I think that's absolutely the first step for me on the lungs with Pipper. I think I could see a session coming.

[00:08:59]>> Sounds like a comedic skit, doesn't it?

[00:09:02]>> The only thing is I can call anyone out there, any listeners, any listeners at home, anyone here, if you've got a big enough horse that you think is capable.

[00:09:11]>> If you haven't got one, then I don't think anyone else does >> because you do. I mean, there are I mean you, as Robert said, classic lunge lesson. You no strups, no rains. You have to circle your arms. You have to sort of circle your legs. take your legs away from the saddle and basically it teaches you without you realizing it, you you start to improve. You have to improve your core to stay in the middle of the saddle. And I when I teach, I often say to someone, imagine your if I was to cut your arms and legs off, you've got to still stay bouncing in the middle of the saddle. Yeah.

[00:09:47]>> And and and it's amazing when you have that independent seat, >> how the horses can then move move underneath you cuz if you haven't got that, you're balancing on your hand or you're gripping with your leg because if you haven't got that natural balance, you've got to grip somewhere and the horses feel that. I mean the whole training program now which is very sad that they had it somewhere like Watertock you can't go anywhere now and get that level of immersion and and and 100% um education and so you almost have to pick it up as a rider in different places and push it all together yourself. There's no go-to place is there really for that.

[00:10:25]>> I still lunch people.

[00:10:26]>> Yeah. Well, if you can get yourself into the funnel operation as a working pupil, great because you've also they spend their whole life, you know, you got so many horses to ride because riding out, you know, that was what was good at Watertock, you had the school horses. So what people used to do uh you know people like Pipper ex um Avengers who had retired would be given a working home at Watertock and they were so you could be riding horses and I remember horses that were international show jumpers being around Bington you know and here you were as a anomous rider it's brilliant thrill they were a little bit stiff obviously in the first thing in the morning but you know they knew enough to teach the riders it was just and again that's something where do you find that it's it's a uniqueness. Yeah, >> I've I've got about 10 >> Avengers cuz I won't let them go.

[00:11:15]They're part of my family and they're at home. So maybe >> Billy walk on. Actually, he's big enough. I could put you on him.

[00:11:22]>> Let my let my ribs heal first. Um so Robert, obviously, you know, so you started off at Watertock. Was the was the site set on kind of eventing, you know, full-time professionally at that point? Was that always the dream? cuz obviously you're a very successful businessman which that part of the story comes in a bit later but at that stage of your life was it very much you know eyes on the prize I'm going to represent my country my nation you know as an event rider >> I don't know whether you kind of start start off with that it was just you know late it was catching up really I was just cuz a lot of people like Pipper had had amaz they had been winning gold medals when I hadn't even sat on a horse do you know what I mean as in the youth teams am I that old >> well no not quite okay I'm not I'm as an example no you actually hadn't but um you know a lot of people had. And so, you know, when you when you come in and don't really compete till you're 18, you you you're always on the back foot and you're kind of catching up really. Um but but my my my whole career was completely asked about face because I my first horse that I went to bam on.

[00:12:18]>> Um I don't know he was I don't know where he was fifth or whatever in his first and went straight and went straight into the Olympic team.

[00:12:28]So I'd only been eventing for four years. So it was like whoa what is happening here you know so it was a bit odd and I had to kind of restart after that and go back to basics build back up but it was a very rarified slightly odd scenario. Yeah exactly and um bit odd now makes you feel very old when the Olympic games are going back to Los Angeles next time round. time for you to make a comeback.

[00:12:51]>> Exclusive. You heard it here.

[00:12:54]>> Having walked Babington, I was like thinking I'm quite happy to enjoy the week without all those nerves. But probably I don't know. I still riding lots of horses every day. And um I think Oh, I think probably if I if I had one that I really felt was as good as Lord Shitz Gruff, I'd still be doing it.

[00:13:13]>> Doing it. I know. Absolutely.

[00:13:14]>> And wasn't that amazing? Amazing. I mean that just leaves you speechless, doesn't it? But it's so much the training and the partnership of that huge reliability and making it look that easy. The regularity of it, the whole it's just every fence is taken in the same way in the same rhythm. It's it just make it look ridiculously easy.

[00:13:36]>> And and of course Ros actually came originally from that old school Judy Bravwell. So she very much learned >> the sort of another product of Watertock and Lome Judy Baral. So yeah, exactly.

[00:13:50]And that discipline and Ros has got that discipline and that's what you need. Um it's nothing to do with physical size.

[00:13:57]Look at she's quite dimminitive.

[00:13:59]>> All about I mean that's what's what she's she's really such a relatable rider I think to a lot of people. But you don't you look at Mark Todd and you know he's a genius on a horse and you think you can't really relate to him. But I think average riders can look at at Ross Caner and just say yeah I can learn a lot from this and how neat and tidy and quiet she rides how strong her low leg is all these things isn't it? Even from a very uneducated person like myself kind of watching Ros go around cross country at bmmon you know even I can see that synergy she has that partnership with a horse and it just as you said it looks effortless you know and I guess on a horse like Walter >> I mean I I interviewed her I had the pleasure of interviewing her after cross country and I said I said you're you're a freak of nature and your horse is a freak of nature and I got there was a comment saying I don't think freak's the right word but actually >> I I mean really >> I mean who does it 3 and 1/2 months after having a baby?

[00:14:58]>> Yeah. For the third year in a row.

[00:15:00]>> It's crazy.

[00:15:00]>> I mean it's ridiculous. I mean she rode obviously when she was pregnant early in one and then literally three it is.

[00:15:06]>> It's very impressive. She's a very very impressive woman. Um Robert I want to hear a little bit more about you.

[00:15:10]>> Well she's very important because she we sponsor her. She's our number one ambassador.

[00:15:14]>> Well she and what a great ambassador.

[00:15:16]>> She's done a lot. Yeah. A lot for us as well.

[00:15:18]>> Well let's hear about how Lemu was born then and how that sort of came about.

[00:15:22]Well, in a in a nutshell, my um I I I actually broke my left leg quite badly.

[00:15:28]Not a fall. Was the horse ran out and just took my it was a classic hunting sort of gate post. Leg got rotated, broken. The OP didn't work the first time. That's to the second one. And I kind of went from probably being out for 3 4 months to then it went to 69 and and and that's when you you think should I go teaching um and coaching? and I'd been one of the um national coaches on a program in in Australia uh and I'd done quite a lot of teaching and it was like should I do that and then the Canadians had said oh come on be our national coach but we all know that's a bit like being a football manager you're the flavor of the month one moment and then you're you're out the next and I thought I really don't want that type of life and it was at that moment that I you know I think I thought we business was definitely it and I'd been sponsored by quite a lot of people so I kind of got into that commercial bit cuz it's the only way I'd made my career work was extracting sponsorship from people and one of them was a company called Horse Health. Um and Lisa, my partner at the time, I thought um and she wanted a job.

[00:16:34]She'd stopped her competitive eventing.

[00:16:37]So we basically she started as a rep for them, took a territory. Um then they changed their model and wanted the territories all to be um uh you know um self self-managed and and not on a on a rep basis. So we kind of took it over and we built we built on that. A few reps went out. We took their area over selling supplements which is force health. Yeah. So supplements but very quickly I knew that there was a short shelf life, low margin, not a great business really to be in supplements. Of course you can make money out of them but not grow in a really big way. And we'd noticed that as we went in the yards with vans that people wanted, have you got a pair of brushing boots? Have you got a number? Have you got so there was the demand there and lambkin actually was where we started because all the lovely lambskin was being brought in from Europe >> and in the UK there was some kind slightly coarser sort of more crude sheep's wool started. So that was our in making a lambkin saddle pad and then it went from there and the color story was probably the biggest uh innovation there that I don't know when I started probably you know everybody would have a a couple of whites for their competition and a black and if they're daring they might have a blue or whatever but there was no question of ever riding in any other color other than that >> yellow >> but I never wore yellow bandages yellow top >> but that and and there this whole thing in in on the high street of the spring, summer, autumn, winter sort of people did change their the way they dressed >> and we thought, well, why why do people not want to dress their horses a little bit more excitingly?

[00:18:13]>> Um, and my wife Lisa was particularly honed in on the fashion bit. Um, and really it was that whole flip between people having two or three numbers to an individual rider now probably having 20.

[00:18:26]Yeah, >> it's a brand that kind of marries all these, you know, it's very technical, it's fashionable, it's practical, and it's premium, you know, how important is it as a business owner, as a founder to have that authentic connection to the world that you're starting a business in, and then also scaling that whilst keeping the authenticity.

[00:18:42]>> Well, it it people often say, well, who, you know, who do you who who are you and who who is your customer? I mean, it's nearly the most impossible question because we mean quite a lot to a 5-year-old, six-year-old kid with their lovely toy ponies and everything else, but yet we had our equipment on six teams in in Paris in the Olympic Games.

[00:19:02]So, who who who do you mean anything to?

[00:19:05]>> And what made you go in into the toys?

[00:19:07]>> Well, the toy was not an complete accident cuz I have to say it was my fault or my idea. It was more that I thought, well, you saw a mom and a teenage daughter all doing it and there was always a younger kid that kind of didn't before pre-riding age that couldn't participate. I thought, well, why don't we just produce a a pony that we could have mini saddle pads and fly hoods in the same colors as moms and the older sister and then and that was really how it started. It was more like let's duplicate that. And of course then it's now got complete, >> you know, life of its own and it's in Selfgages and John Lewis and everywhere else.

[00:19:44]>> It's a brand that sort of, you know, you've connected to this amazing world and all facets of this ecosystem you kind of support, which is amazing. Um, Robert, I'm I'm conscious that I think you you've been whised off cuz you got to do a prize prize. Um, but before we finish, I feel like we've just kind of dipped our toe in the ocean here, so we definitely need to get you back on in the studio. Um, but advice to listeners and the lovely audience here from an equestrian background, you know, from a business uh owner and founder standpoint as well. What advice would you give to someone in the equestrian world who wants to, you know, start out as potentially a rider or as someone who's starting a business?

[00:20:18]>> Have you got another hour?

[00:20:20]>> Well, I think I think I think one thing you've done is thought outside the box.

[00:20:24]Yeah, I think you I think you business-wise is, you know, if if you've got an idea, try and nurture it and get it to a really good stage yourself before you try. The problem with at the moment want everyone wants instant results and, you know, the whole social media thing, instant success. If you got a product you think might work for us, get it really worked up so it's sound and solid and really does the job, then start promoting it. A lot of people just jump on social media, try and sell it.

[00:20:51]>> I've got the product. I've got the books.

[00:20:54]>> Okay, you've got the books >> and you know I want your hobby horses for each of my books.

[00:20:59]>> Okay, there you now you set me up there.

[00:21:01]You see >> I have. Thanks.

[00:21:03]>> Professional press ganganger pip >> Robert. Thank you so much with you.

[00:21:07]Please come join us in the studio. We love you brother. Thank you.

[00:21:10]>> Definitely come back. Thanks.