I live with my husband, two children, and many animals on my farm in West Dorset. My love for horses began earlier than I can remember, and as a small child, I begged my non-horsey parents to be allowed to ride. They thought it was just a phase and waited patiently for me to grow out of it – they’re still waiting. Patricia Leitch was my favourite author as a child, and when I wasn’t riding, I read the “Jinny and Shantih” books countless times. I still know them by heart.
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Aged 10, I helped my neighbours start, and train, their homebred filly. Being lightweight I was the ideal person for the first “sit on”, and it was only luck that through these neighbours, I ended up with my first pony on loan; a hot-headed Prince-Philip Cup pony, who went from halt to gallop and gallop to halt, turned on a sixpence, and taught me how to stay on – if nothing else!
After leaving school, I went from agricultural college to working in the equestrian industry, many of these jobs involving starting and training young horses. In my twenties, I was lucky enough to be offered a job at the yard of probably the most famous Event rider in the world; Lucinda Green.
There my love of Eventing began, grooming for Lucinda and Canadian rider Diana Burgess who was based at Lucinda’s. Diana was the most encouraging and kind person I was ever fortunate enough to work for, and Lucinda was extremely generous with her time and knowledge, giving me one-to-one tuition, and even allowing me to compete one of her horses, Lucky Secret, aka “The Grey Horse”.
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My passion for writing was born from my passion for reading, and inspiration for A Matter of Trust started as early as twenty years ago, when I moved to West Dorset and met my, now husband, Fred. I gave up working in the equestrian industry when I got married, starting a business with my husband, which enabled us to buy our own farm. This allowed me to take in young horses for training and eventually realise my dream of breeding my own foal. And so “Minty” was born; a now six-year-old Irish Sport horse mare, with a gregarious nature and a penchant for polo-mints.
