About Star Eventing...

I have been riding since the age of 8 and my parents bought me my first pony, Lucky, at 9. Lucky was ‘cheeky’ to say the least and one particular year at PonyClub camp managed to buck me off 13 times. (camp was only 5 days!) On the positive side learning the skill of sitting to a bronking pony has helped me countless time on difficult horses and a good few times at parties on rodeo bulls. 

3 years of being consistently bucked off later, I acquired Jake, aka. The Pig. Jake was an obese rescue case with sever laminitis. He was a difficult pony who taught me so much about perseverance and also to consider all your options before bailing out when being galloped off with! Jake first introduced me to ‘proper’ dressage, and by this I mean head not sticking out to the outside of the dressage arena. The Pig successfully took me to Elementary and Pony Club area level and won the Derby House Dressage Championships.  

Tiger Lilly


After Jake, I played around with various dressage horses and ponies until I went to watch the Pony Club Eventing Championships at Sansaw Park aged 16. It was this day that I decided I wanted to event. I returned home and put my mare on the market and decided to go and find a horse that would jump. I wanted a quality throughbred type, but somehow ended up with another fat pony – except this one was a little overgrown at 15hh1. Tiger Lilly was a Connemara x TB, who’s history was mainly showjumping and hunting.  She could barely trot and thought leg on was the aid to leap in the air, or canter (even if we were stationary) depending on her mood. After a good 6 months of excessive leaping, sideways action, and bucking she was tamed! The following year we qualified for the Pony Club Champs for the individual open eventing section, not a bad turn-around for a dressage rider and fat overgrown pony. Tiger Lilly was a fantastic cross-country horse and it was with Tigger I started to compete at British Eventing with several successes at  BE100 level. 


Following in the footsteps of Tigger were Seren (Gold Star) and Lieber. 2 fantastic mares of totally different stamps who shared the same attitude towards showjumping...why jump over them when they knock down?! They both gained 20 BE points apiece, but lacked the scope to do well intermediate. I managed to force myself to do a bit of British Dressage with Lieber as being a pure Holstein she moved like a dream. We scrambled our way to medium and were surprisingly successful especially at novice and elementary level. 



Lieber
Gold Star (Seren)
My current horse is the lovely Rocco (Celtic Rocstar). He is beautiful, talented, arrogant and frightened of the entire avian race. We are aiming for 2* this season if all goes to plan. I first came across Rocco when I was working on a breaking and schooling yard, he came to us to be broken at 4 as a problem horse. I instantly loved him and although he was tricky to break he came good in the end, and was sent home to his owner. I left the yard shortly after Rocco left to work for an international eventer. Around 6 months later, I visited the breaking yard and noticed a very handsome bay horse over one of the stable doors; it was Rocco back at boot camp after bucking his previous owner off and breaking her ribs- I bought him the next day. I did, however, think I had made a huge mistake in buying rocco the first day I rode him, I asked him to canter and he bucked me straight off - he has always had a sense of humour!  

As I study at Hartpury College I keep Rocco on livery in Gloucester during term time. I am fortunate enough to be a member of the Elite Equine Academy so receive training and support from Nick Burton, Carl Hester and Corinne Bracken. When Rocco and I are at home I train with Tuffy Tilley and Gareth Hughes.