I was now 16 and found myself in Juniors and out of ponies. The only problem was that I did not have a horse to ride. My father decided he would let me try a few events riding his own horse to see how I would manage. My father bought 12 year old Venture to Tell, fondly known as Venture to Hell (Sid), for a small sum of money as he had broken someone’s leg out hunting and was duly banned from the hunting field! Sid had competed with various degrees of success with my father at Novice level for four years. He hated horses coming towards him and was renowned for changing direction very quickly when any did! He was also not very fond of Dressage and preferred to act more like a camel when performing his tests.
Unfortunately for my father, Sid and I hit it off immediately and I took him from Novice to Advanced in one season! I won several Intermediate Events and I participated in the Junior Trials. Another of Sid’s bad habits was that he refused point blank to jump a practice Show Jump fence. I was in the lead at Brigstock Junior Trial after the Dressage and Cross Country phases, and true to form Sid refused to jump a single Show Jump fence in the practice area. I could see everyone watching me and heard whispers of how sorry they felt for me, but once again Sid jumped an immaculate clear round in the ring and we won!! I was invited to compete at Windsor Junior Three Day Event which was mandatory for selection for the Junior European Championships, but we were out of luck as Sid developed a splint a the age of 14 and we were unable to go. This was the first time he had been lame in his life.
During this period my father purchased a five year old thoroughbred called Bold Member (Ollie), a horse that he hoped to compete himself. My mother also purchased an unbroken four year old thoroughbred called Henry Tudor (Henry). She hoped to have some fun herself, and to bring Henry on to compete. My father very kindly let me compete Bold Member in some Novice and Intermediate events, and also at Junior Trials. Although we were not invited to compete in the Windsor Junior Three Day Event, I did however qualify Ollie to compete in the Senior Section, where we finished last on a score of 423!!!
This was not quite the disaster that it sounds as we did in fact jump an immaculate double clear with a decent Dressage score. During the roads and tracks phase I thought that Ollie had gone lame so I dismounted and trotted him up and down to see what the problem was. I wasted so much time doing this I considered retiring, but just then Nigel Taylor came trotting past me and asked what was wrong? I explained, only to be told by Nigel that Ollie looked fine to him. I quickly mounted, as if I had left it any longer I would have been out of time on the Roads and Tracks phase. I made it back to the 10 minute box, but had accumulated huge time faults. I was, however, Long Listed for the Junior Europeans and invited to compete in the Final Trial at Tythrop, after which I was placed on the Short List. Sadly, Ollie had a niggling suspensory ligament and so, once again, I did not make it to the Junior Europeans.
The next year took me into Young Riders with Bold Member and Henry Tudor to compete. Henry was a lovely horse but was prone to colic attacks, which he started having from a very early age. Ollie also was not the soundest of horses. Although Henry had been very successful in Horse Trials the stress on him caused high lactic acid levels which wasn’t helping his colic attacks. My mother decided to sell him as a Hunter as he seemed to cope better with this less stressful situation.
I was 18 years old and desperately wanting to compete in the Young Rider Trials. At home I had taken the job of managing and running the yard and as I had left school and I enjoyed looking after the horses by myself. Bold Member went very well in the Trials, but had a few recurring injuries and these, compounded with his allergy to grass, meant that sadly, he was dropped from ever being chosen as a Team prospect. As I didn’t really have anything else to compete for Young Riders, I persuaded my mother not to sell Henry and to let me try and continue with him to see if I could find some way of keeping him fit and healthy for competing. She agreed to let me try, so I spoke at length with feed specialists and vets to see what we could do. His hard food was cut down to very small amounts of horse and pony cubes and with various additives to control his lactic acid levels, we proceeded with his Eventing career.
