Biography
I have ridden all my life and competed in most disciplines before I became involved in Mounted Games when I was 13. Since then I have been hooked on a sport that involves speed, athleticism, co-ordination and partnership between rider, pony and fellow team mates.
One advantage of riding in mounted games is that, so long as you are not too tall or too heavy, you don’t outgrow your mount. My first pony, Tom, was 11hh and pink (yes, I liked ‘My Little Ponies’) and I won my very first trophy with him at the age of two. Since then my main ponies have been Merry and, more recently, Blue.
As well as competing all over Britain and Europe, I have followed my other ambition in life, to become a veterinary surgeon and I qualified in 2008. Considering the fact that I have spent most of my life with horses or studying, it has surprised most people that my main interest is in working with farm animals!
One of the highlights of my mounted games career to date was winning the World Pairs Championship in 2007 with my boyfriend, Huw Whitney – and since then we have also won the 2008 British Pairs Championship.
In 2008, I won the British Individual Championships and also rode for England in the World Team Championships in Australia. In 2009 I started my veterinary career in Swansea and balanced this with riding for the county team of Shropshire with my team mates Elaine Trevor-Jones, Peter Walters, Janey Surman and Steven Chorley. We are all great friends as well as team mates, which is just as well as we spend so much time together! We had a great season winning the Open League and the Welsh Championships, and we were Reserve British Champions.
There were downs as well as ups in 2009. I was unable to defend my British Individual title as Blue was lame, and we subsequently missed out on selection for the World Team Championships. My last event of the season was a very mixed bag - I took part in the World Pairs with Quentin Voeltzel and we finished third, despite me injuring my knee, which subsequently required surgery!
It took the first part of the 2010 season for my knee to fully recover but Blue and I exceeded all our expectations in the second half of the year by finishing Reserve Champion at the Mounted Games Individual World Championship in July, and World Pairs Champions in September. We also then won the British Championships with the Shropshire team.
2011 has been a phenomenal year with an incredible winning run, including team victories in the World Championships, the European Championships and the Home International, as well as being British Pairs Champion, Reserve World Individual Champion (again!) and Reserve World Pairs Champion! Blue and I travelled 8500 miles to achieve this!