Francesca's Profile

I have ridden since I was 4 years old, my first experience being on a grey pony called George whom I used to canter around the fields at my auntie's farm. I was always a keen showjumper, and it wasn't until I met my current trainer, aged 14, that I started to take an interest in Dressage.

I moved to Ca therston Stud and trained with Jennie Loriston-Clarke where I rode the Catherston youngsters, I was then taken to Germany for a year to ride and train with Lotta & Joergen Rask. Here I had the opportunity to ride horses bred for their discipline and gained a lot of experience riding schoolmasters before I was given the privilege of riding their youngsters.

When I returned to the UK I re-established myself at my Trainers yard in Chobham, Surrey with a baby horse I'd imported from Germany, and got stuck into doing a Masters Degree in London. I received an email from one of the breeders I had met in Germany a year later, she had bred a filly that she thought I might be interested in. I couldn't resist the flashy bay that came bottom of her class at the foal show as she did nothing but canter the opposite way to her mother, and imported her as a yearling. Sukey has been with me ever since and we have developed her very slowly and carefully. She is bred to jump, but has such outstanding elevated paces she is a natural at dressage. I still train with Lynne Madeira, who has managed to ignore the teenage tantrums and has stuck by me through all the tough times, but Sukey and I now also train with Anne Dicker, Jennie Loriston-Clarke's eldest daughter at Catherston.

I find dressage one of the most magical and beautiful disciplines, where horse and rider are so in-tune with one another it appears effortless.