MY love affair with horses started when my father arrived home to our family dairy farm in Yorkshire, with a Welsh Section B colt foal for myself and two sisters to share. I was the eldest at six years old and had never had a riding lesson. It wasn’t an idyllic start!

Having worked with farm horses all his life, my grandfather helped us muddle through the breaking process - albeit my grandfather was more attuned to breaking horses to harness, rather than breaking ponies to ride. Once we got going, we spent our weekends breaking, producing and showing a succession of young ponies at local shows.