I don’t really know life without horses , my mum has always ridden from when she was a young girl and ever since I can remember we have always had to visit the yard twice a day, turnout, muck out, make feeds etc – I can’t imagine a world where that doesn’t happen!  So it was only a matter of time before I got one of my own and that time came when I was 11. 

We bought my pony, Jet, from Beeston Market for 240 guineas and I loved him from first sight.  He was everything I had dreamt my pony would be, a Friesian type and jet black (hence the name and probably the reason why I haven’t been allowed to name another horse since!).  He was an unbroken, 3yr old stallion, which I’m sure isn’t a great idea for your first pony but somehow it worked!  Jet was brilliant to back and I was soon riding him around on my own, not that I had much choice in where we were going, Jet always had his own ideas on that one! 

I remember taking him to the local show to compete in the equitation qualifier; the class was full of children on their very well behaved ponies.  I was on Jet, who somehow managed to get his noseband off in the line up and then during our show struck off on the wrong canter lead, tanked off straight for the judge, who had to dive out of the way!!  Needless to say I didn’t get anywhere near the placings!! 

Two years later, when I had grown but unfortunately Jet hadn’t, came the time to sell my beloved pony.  And although he got himself a wonderful home, I was absolutely devastated to lose him!!

My next horse was called Gilbert; he was an unbroken, bay, 16’2 ID/TB.  I didn’t even like him at first, his eyes were too big for my liking, or maybe I didn’t like it because my mum had bought him without involving me!!  Needless to say though, I soon changed my mind and loved Gilbert to bits.  He gave me my first proper taste of dressage and together we were pretty good at it.  I remember us doing out first affiliated competition at South View Equestrian Centre and winning!  My friend had to explain to us that I had part qualified for the Regional Finals, my mum and I didn’t even know what they were!!  When we were lucky enough to get a wildcard for the Winter National Finals, I remember telling my trainer and she nearly fell over in shock!!  Gilbert wasn’t very expressive but he was very correct, I don’t think she ever thought in a million years that we would get there; then again neither did I!!  I don’t really remember much from my first experience of a big competition, other than Gilbert spooking (which had never happened before!) and my mum telling me that Carl Hester was watching me work in!  I’m pretty certain there was no way that he was watching me but that comment was enough to send me into a quivering mess!!

When I finished my A Levels, I didn’t want to go to university.  All I wanted to do was ride horses, so I began searching in the Horse and Hound for yards that I could go and train on.  It wasn’t long before I had found an advert for a working pupil to work on a dressage yard in Germany with an English speaking lady – it seemed perfect!  The only problem was that Joanna, the lady who I would be training with, didn’t think Gilbert was good enough to progress to a high level in dressage, so I would have to sell him and then buy another one when I was over there with her.  I was so upset at the thought of having to sell Gilbert but I knew it was the right thing to do.  In the end I had already moved to Germany before Gilbert had been sold, which probably was a good thing as I couldn’t get too upset watching him leave!  As it turned out my time in Germany didn’t go as well as planned, although I did learn a lot, it was not an ideal situation for me to be in, so I ended up leaving Joanna.

Through a friend, my mum got in contact with a horse dealer in Holland, Harry, and I ended up travelling around with him for 2 months.  As interesting as this was to see how they do things in Holland, both Harry and I knew it was not an ideal situation, as I really wanted to be riding every day.  So through Harry, I ended up working on a show jumping yard.  Not ideal, as ‘I don’t do jumping’ but at least I was riding.  I ended up schooling the show jumpers for them and did enjoy my time with them.  But as Christmas got closer, I began to miss my family; the fact that I wasn’t on a dressage yard finally helped me to decide to return back home.

Through Harry, my mum and I had bought an unbroken 3yr old gelding by the stallion The Lord Sinclair.  It was between him and another absolutely stunning grey gelding, but in the end it was the price that swung it – little did we know but this happened to be one of the best decisions we could ever have made!  We called him William, after Pop Idol winner Will Young (my mum absolutely loved him!).  He is just amazing and without him I probably wouldn’t be the dressage rider that I am today.  He has taught me so much and I owe him everything, that why I have given him his own page on this site, to read all about our achievements go to the Sinclair’s Symphony page.

As with anyone that owns horses, it was always a dream of mine to own my own yard and keep my horses at home; in 2006 this dream came true.  It is every bit as good as i  thought it would be, having the horse’s right outside my house is brilliant.  Running out in my dressing gown to feed them and then going back to bed for half an hour is just fantastic!  We only have a small yard with 5 stables but it is just perfect for my horses.  I currently still work full time in order to fund my hobby, so I don’t have enough time to train a large number of horses.  I have William (who will never be sold) and normally one or two youngsters that I bring on for a season and then sell.  Ideally one of these youngsters will be the horse to take over from William, I haven’t found one yet but they do have a pretty tough act to follow!