Biography
I started riding when I was nine years old at the local riding school where I became a very enthusiastic 'pony helper' and I rode a great variety of horses and ponies. One of my 'specialities' was riding the horses that were misbehaving in the riding school and so I became rather adept at staying on! When I was 20 I took my BHSAI and my examiners suggested that I took the Intermediate exam. I needed more training though so I started a course with Sue Payne FBHS. I couldn't pay for it so I started trying to find a way to make the money. I got a job making sandwiches starting at 4am. Sandwich-making was followed by teaching, and then I did bar work in the evenings. I worked seven days and nights a week but my riding improved!
Sue suggested that I had some lessons at the Talland School of Equitation before my exam. The first time I went to Talland I was amazed by the horses and riders. I'd never seen anyone ride at that level before and it really inspired me so I redoubled my efforts to afford tuition. At Talland I learnt about dressage, rode flying changes for the first time and eventually I was allowed to ride Pammy Hutton's retired Grand Prix horse, Blazeaway, in my lessons with Adam Kemp. Adam and Blazeaway taught me how to ride the Grand Prix movements and I passed my exams up to BHSI (SM) level. Pammy and Adam then offered me free lessons in return for working at the yard. This was fantastic as Talland was a fee paying centre so I mended the roof of an old mobile home in order to accommodate me and the dog.
At this point I'd run out of days and nights to work, so the only thing to do was work all night on one night a week to bump it up to eight days. So after a session in a nightclub in London I drove directly to Gloucestershire to work on the yard at Talland from Monday to Wednesday and back to work on the Wednesday night. I wasn't much use as I was knackered but they put up with me. I rode my first competition aged 23, although I was a bit nervous as the horse had broken both his owner's arms in the previous competition - but I didn't fall off.
After this I returned to London and other rides followed - including a spell riding for some of the local Irish sports horse dealers. These tasks involved riding just-backed horses at the sales in Ireland from time to time. Steering and brakes were not always at a premium but I learnt a few life-saving skills. Hunting and cross country were also part of the agenda but I was always trying to train the horses for dressage and get them to local shows.
Whilst I was competing one of these rather unruly youngsters one of the judges, Judy Firmston Williams, noticed me and asked me to ride one of her young horses. A real dressage horse - I was so excited! I still ride for Judy now, ten years on. During this time other competitive rides started to pick up. I rode Irish horses, Anglo Arabs, a Cleveland bay, a Danish Stallion - you name it I had a go at training it and these horses were soon competing up to Inter I at National Championship level. One horse I was given the ride on was a very, very naughty Holstein gelding called Liebling.
I spent seven years training Liebling and eventually went to Germany to train with Ulla Salzgeber. For two years we were based there which was an incredible experience in many ways. I competed him from his first Prelim' to eventually 10th and the top British combination at the European Dressage Championships in 2007. I rode my first international on him when he was six years old in 2003 and I won my first International Grand Prix on him in 2007. I rode on the British team with him for two years and he was the non travelling reserve for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. We won the World Cup Qualifier in Poland in February 2008 and competed at the CDIO Aachen twice. Liebling then moved on to a new rider, Carl Hester, who was also successful with him, and has now been sold to a Canadian rider with the aim of competing at WEG 2010.
In 2007 I won the British Equestrian Award for outstanding achievement and in 2008 the British Dressage Personality of the Year. I'm now based at Bury Farm on the Herts/Bucks border, training a team of really talented horses who are competing between Medium and Grand Prix. In spring 2010 I was selected to compete with Pegasus MK at the Addington CDI where we performed well, and then for Team GB at the Saumur CDIO, where the team were third in the Nations Cup.