Horses and Heroes

"This photography book is a wonderful collection of portraits of horses and riders throughout the years. I was given it after he came and photographed me. You have photos from all the different walks of equestrian life – the showing world, racing, eventing and show jumping. I think eventing gives the impression of being an elitist sport, because horses are very expensive to buy and to keep. But to be honest, with the majority of riders it is the horse owners and sponsors who have the money. I don’t own any horses myself. The majority of riders aren’t wealthy, and are very much reliant on their skill and getting a sponsor. Yes, we lived in a rented cottage and my parents weren’t at all horsey folk. We had no land and no money. We lived off my father’s naval pension. And I am not the only one. An awful lot of riders have really struggled from the start, and you need a lot of determination to succeed. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter I think I was born with the drive. I’m not sure where it came from. But in the village I lived in, the vicar had a pony which I used to find fascinating. I spent as much time as I could with the pony and I would go off on my bicycle looking for other ponies in the area, and find out whether I could ride them. Whenever we were driving and I saw a pony, I would ask my parents to stop so I could stroke it. So for some reason I had a connection with horses, and the more I rode them the more I wanted to succeed and become a top rider, which seemed totally impossible. When I first went on the Pony Club coach trip to Badminton at the age of 12, I was absolutely agog at what I was seeing – all the shiny horses and shiny riders. I couldn’t believe that anyone could be so brave as to gallop at these huge jumps, or to manage to get their horses to do all those difficult moves in the dressage. I came away from that event thinking: That is what I would love to do one day."