life - EQUESTRIAN
“I would love
to compete in
the Olympic
Games before I
finish riding!”
Part One
Tim Stockdale is one of
our leading showjumpers.
He has represented Great
Britain 35 times in Nation
Cup teams and was a
member of the 2002 World
Equestrian Games Team.
He also competes regularly
at the Horse of the Year
Show and Olympia as well
as having appeared on TV
shows Only Fools On Horses
and reality show Faking It.
Tim is an extremely busy man
but we were lucky enough to have
a quick chat with him at Brickfields
before he started his lecture,
demonstration and seminar.
Tim is a rider with a fantastic
track record and so it comes as
something of a surprise to discover
that when he first started riding he
hated it.
He says: “One weekend my
brother and I were getting under
my mum’s feet and we were sent
off to the riding school.
“It didn’t seem to be a very
natural thing to be doing. It’s a
very insecure thing to be on top of
a horse.
“I really hated it but they had a
good way of organising the lessons.
At the end they would ask us if
we’d like to come back next week
and at the age of seven I wasn’t
66
strong minded enough to
think I could say no.
“All of sudden after six
months I realised the
ponies would listen to
you if you were positive
and I realised I could
ride.”
By the time Tim left
school he was convinced
he was going to succeed
as a showjumper.
“I left school without
any
qualifications
whatsoever so it was
make or break.
“I wouldn’t recommend
that to any child now.
If it all goes wrong you’ve got
nothing as a back-up.
“The idea was if horses didn’t
work I was going to go to
agricultural college and if it had all
gone wrong I would probably have
been a farmer by now.”
Now 42, Tim runs a yard with 19
horses and a staff of five.
“We start riding at 8am and try to
get all the riding done by around
1pm
“At the moment we’re doing two
or three demos a week like the one
at Brickfields.
“The lecture/demo season is
a short one, it’s really just from
February to mid April.
“I started doing just five or six on
a low key basis as a little add on,
now it’s up to something like 25.
“I think the TV work has created
a bit of a profile and then the
success in the ring has enhanced
that.”
This success means Tim is now
in the position where he gets to
‘interview’ any horses offered to
him.
“When I first started out if
anyone rang me up and said I’ve
got a horse you might like to ride
I’d take it. I didn’t care if it only
had three legs and one eye.
“Now I’m in the fortunate
position where people will ring
and say they’ve got a nice horse
I might like to ride and I’ll say
bring it over and I’ll see if it’s good
enough for me to have.”
The first thing Tim looks for in a
horse is ‘trainability’.
He explains: “They’ve got to be
able to pick things up and learn
from their mistakes.
“They’ve got to be bright, sharp
and compliant with the rider.
“Carefulness is important and
then comes the power of the jump.
“There are a lot of horses out
there with powerful jumps but
if they don’t tick the other boxes
they won’t be any good at all.”
Good riders have to be strongwilled, resilient and have empathy
for the horse.
Tim adds: “Ours is a tough sport.
You are reliant upon another living
creature. I can ride fantastic and
the horse makes a mistake and it’s
ver y difficult to absorb that.”
The
impression
that
showjumping is the preserve of
the wealthy is one that Tim hopes
to correct.
“Anybody can ride. Ours is a cando sport you don’t have to come
from the landed gentry.
Sponsored by Froghill and Brickfields