When Julie was five and her sister was six, somebody gave them a pony to eat down the grass in their very tiny paddock. Their non horsey parents clearly thought a free pony was a great idea and would stop them having to go to the local riding school on a Saturday morning. Peter the pony arrived and a lifelong passion for horses began! 

Both her sister and Julie rode so one ancient pony wasn’t enough, another would have to be purchased, so then they had two and her parents began to regret saying yes to the first one!

Their weekends soon began to fill up with gymkhanas and pony club rallies. They got better, and started to branch out into working pony and eventing. By the age of fourteen they had started doing pony Eventing  trials and from here they progressed on to junior and young rider teams. Whilst competing a younger horse, Julie’s sister had a terrible fall, so whilst she recuperated, Julie was lucky enough to get the rides on her two advanced horses. The next year Julie became national young rider champion at the Bramham three day event and won a team bronze at the world young rider Championships in Italy.

In 1998 Julie did her first badminton on her young rider horse, Irish skater. Together they contested 6 five stars and numerous 4star events,
Whilst competing at the highest levels with my two advanced horses, she was also bringing on young ones for herself and for other people. Julie has been lucky enough to take over 20 horses from novice to the highest levels, one of which was a homebred stallion who was the start of her breeding program, which she have taken great pride and pleasure in over the last 20 years.

Julie now spends her time teaching and bringing on quality homebred youngsters and hope that one day she will see at least one of them going round Badminton or Burghley or at the Olympics!