Biography
I actually started riding pretty late in comparison to most people, aged 12. I had seen a TV programme about horses, figured out what a trot was and phoned up a local riding school – telling them I was very experienced!
I had some lessons, then persuaded my very un-horsey parents to buy me a cheap grey pony who spent a lot of time teaching me that my place was on the floor, not on his back! I left school at 13 and went to work for the event rider, Tanya Kyle (nee Liddle), where I also helped her sister, Toni, break racehorse yearlings for Henry Cecil. I learned such a lot from my time there and it really taught me how to stick on a sharp one!
The chief instructor at the local Pony Club, Val Gingell, asked me to come and sit on a naughty horse one day and she since become one of my long-standing owners. In 2005, she asked if I might be interested in bringing a former 4* horse who had had a tendon injury back into work and that's how I got the ride on The Busker, aka Ginger. Ginger took me to my first 4* and with him, I won a gold medal in the Young Rider European Championships, as well as winning the CCI*** at Bramham. At the time, I was also riding out racehorses in Newmarket and I even had a few wins as a fairly average jump jockey!
I then took the ride on a very naughty 14.2hh pony called Little Tiger (Frostie) and we went from Pre-Novice to completing her 4th Badminton in 2010, and we also completed Burghley '07 and our first international 4* at Luhmuhlen '10. I have a great string of lovely horses, some young and some experienced, and I am hoping that the young ones will come up through the grades. I've never had really expensive horses and even Little Tiger only cost £1500 way back when!
2010 was a mixed season with Little Tiger having a nasty fall at Burghley and Black Jack showing his inexperience at CCI*** level. However, Flash Gordon stepped up to the plate coming into his own at Intermediate level and a lovely new horse called Identity Crisis coming to the yard who I have high hopes for and will shortly aim for an Intermediate. In early 2011, I also moved yard to ride full-time at Ely Eventing Centre, which is a fabulous base and all the horses love it there!
I try really hard to be the kind of rider that can improve a horse, and my strength as a rider lies in my ability to be really positive and give my horses confidence. Horses need to be told they're wonderful and that's what I try to do. I hope that I'll be able to carry on riding at 4* level for many years to come!