Biography
I was first introduced to "serious" dressage in 1998 and later that year bought a 14.1hh Chestnut Mare called Daphne II. The following year I was selected for the British Dressage European Pony Team. The team went on to win team silver for the first time for Britain in over 10 years! Also in that year I won the British Elementary Open Championship on "Daffy".
In the following two years, I was selected to represent Great Britain as a Junior at the Europeans, and in 2002 won a European team bronze medal on my liver chestnut gelding, Maxwel. In that year we also qualified for the National Championships and were Reserve Advanced Medium Champions.
In 2003 I took over the ride on my mother and father's Olympic horse, Argentille Gullit (who represented Great Britain at the Sydney Olympics with Carl Hester in 2000). He had time off with a leg injury but with patience and care we were able to try for the British Young Rider European Team. At the time I was living in Nijmegen (in Holland) and training with Henk Van Bergen. I lived there for a year after originally going for only two weeks training! I regularly travelled back to the UK with my horse for selection trials and made it onto the Young Rider Team where we all finished 5th in Saumur, France. At the end of 2003 I returned to England, where I moved into Headley Stud near Newbury, Berkshire.
Since moving up to Senior level, I have won five National Championships and the 2007 Young Horse Prix St Georges Championship. 2009 marked a big step forward for me. I rode my first Grand Prix with Showtime (Arnie) and was selected for the World Class Squad with him. I was also invited to ride in the demonstration Quadrille at the European Championships at Windsor and started training with Imke Schellekens-Bartels in Holland!
My other horses are all moving up the grades and I was especially pleased with Zolansky (Zack) who was virtually unbeaten in 5 year old classes, and also won 6 year old classes last year. In spring 2010 I was selected to compete with Showtime at the Addington CDI where we performed well, and then for Team GB at the Saumur CDIO, where the team won the bronze medal.
I am currently based near Tetbury at Sandy Phillips's yard and have had many changes in the last 18 months, including getting married! I have a new young horse called Movieman (Sherman) who will make an appearance later in the year and all the other boys are now on track to come out in 2011 and hopefully gain the results I know we are capable of!