Biography
I live at home in Worcestershire with my family - mum Geri and dad Ferdi and my two younger brothers, Michael and Luke. I started riding at a local riding school and then progressed onto a shetland pony called Midnight Cowboy, bought for me when I was about six. Following on I had a pony called Dancing Eyes (stable name Peanuts) and Willoway Seasong (stable name Thomas). I was a keen member of the West Warwickshire Pony Club with both these ponies.
Thomas, an ex-eventer, went on to win the U13 Dressage Championship with me when I was 11 and was reserve overall Champion when I was 13. I was selected for the European Dressage Championships when I was 14 and then in 1999 and 2000 I partnered Manitu to get two team silver medals. I was a member of the Junior Team with Don Perry in 2001 and 2002 and a member of the bronze medal winning Young Rider Team in 2004 with Don Perry and 2005 with Topscore.
I was selected as travelling reserve for the World Equestrian Games in 2006 and later, went on to win the National Grand Prix Freestyle Title in 2007, both with Two Sox. In 2008 I went to the Hong Kong Olympics as travelling reserve. On my return, I won the overall National Grand Prix title at the National Dressage Championships.
In 2009 I finally made the team! I got a late call up to the European Championships where we won team silver! A few weeks later, Two Sox and I were runners up at the National Championships and I was also Medium National Champion with Woodlander Rockstar. So 2009 was quite a year!
Woodlander Rockstar and I had a very successful trip to the Sunshine Tour in Spain in early 2010 and we also won the Advanced Medium Winter Championship. His training has progressed well and he has started at Small Tour. I'm also bringing on Two Sox and I performed well at Wiesbaden and were selected for Aachen. We had a bit of a blip there but redeemed ourselves at the Hickstead World Dressage Masters with great performances in the Grand Prix and GP Special.
We were selected for WEG 2010 and had a great time, winning team silver! In 2011 Two Sox was 17 and still feeling well, Woodlander Rockstar competed at PSG/INT 1 and started with Grand Prix work. Woodlander Wavavoom had good placings in the Young Horse classes including Vidauban CDI in France. The National Championships were a success, where Two Sox (Ed) contested his last competition finishing 4th in the Grand Prix. Woodlander Rockstar finished 2nd in the Prix St Georges, 3rd in the Intermediare 1 and won the Intermediare 1 Freestyle and Woodlander Wavavoom was 2nd to Woodlander Farouche in the 5yr Potential International Dressage Horse Final. Sadly, though, the year finished on a low as I was completely devasted when, only 2 weeks into his retirement, Ed shattered his pastern in the field and was put down.