Biography
I was born in Scotland but grew up in the Cotswolds. I started riding aged three on a two-year-old Welsh Section A and have been starting off young ponies and horses for the last thirty one years!
A fantastic grounding in the Heythrop Pony Club culminated in me winning the Pony Club Championships at Weston Park on Jenny Black. The next season I came second in my first three day event at the JRN Championships at Tweseldown. I gained a coveted place as the 1990 Subaru Scholar to train with Mike and Angela Tucker (peculiarly 17 years later I was to marry Mike's godson Rupert Sturgis and end up living only a few miles away!). The invaluable training at the Tuckers' enabled me to win the Junior National championships at Windsor in 1991 and go on to win Team Gold at the Junior European Championships. All this was on the wonderful mare Jenny Black - an ex racehorse who really got me hooked on the eventing bug.
Since then I have been quietly and doggedly working away buying, producing and selling horses until the next dream horse came along. Duel managed to go from a Malvern Sales bargain to taking me clear inside the time round my first Badminton as well as being the first British horse to ever jump clear round a World Cup Final. Badminton is the dream all horsey girls have when they are little and after years of blood, sweat and tears my dream eventually came true!
2008 started well with Monarch's Rock successfully completing Badminton to finish 27th. Lebowski finished 2nd at Belton Park Intermediate and is currently on the Equine Pathway so I have high hopes for him. Then, half way through the season to my and Rupert's delight I found out I was pregnant so all of my eventing and most of the riding then stopped for the rest of the season. Most of the horses went out to grass, with a couple of exceptions. Wizard from Aus (or Wiz as he is known at home) owned by Mrs Hughes, is a really special horse and I felt he needed a few more competition miles on the clock so he went to finish the season with Bumble Thomas where he gained places and a wealth of experience. Monarch's Rock was ridden by Louisa Brassey and successfully completed Barbury Castle, a valuable training ground before having a great 2008 season field mastering with my husband for the Beaufort Hunt.
A particularly proud moment for the whole Sturgis family was the re-launch of Dauntsey Park Horse Trials in October 2008. It was incredibly hard work (especially being 7 months pregnant at the time) but with a great team the event ran successfully. The 2009 event was also successful and it was particularly gratifying to raise a lot of money for our local Air Ambulance in the process. On the riding side, having given birth to Sid, I was back in the saddle and completed three 3* events clear with Lebowski, who is showing tremendous promise for the future!
