About Me

I was born in England where I lived till I got married to Iain who was brought up locally. That was when I was 20 and we have lived in Dores since then. We have two daughters, Lorien, who is an Army doctor (based now in Inverness) and has two small daughters of her own, and, Fiona, who is a marketing person down in Edinburgh. Both o them ride but do not have much time for it now.

At first we had some Highland ponies and ran a trekking yard. We then moved on to having more of a mixed yard and training students to take their BHS exams. We hosted exams at the yard up to Stage 4 level. During this time I was becoming interested in Endurance riding and had gone down to the Golden Horseshoe to take part in the 100 mile class on Exmoor. I started the Highland Long Distance Riding Club in 1982 (now SERC) in Inverness. There are now 9 branches in Scotland.

I have competed on several horses in endurance rides, including some Tersk horses which I imported from Russia and also bred over here.

I have more recently imported part bred Arabs from France and trained them on. Several of the horses I have trained have gone to the Gulf and others have been sold on for top level competition in this country and abroad.

 My most successful horse was White Trooper who took me to two World Championships, one in America in 1988 and the other in Barcelona (the venue for which was the Olympic 3-day event course).

Trooper with the trophies from his most successful season, when he was top British Endurance Horse, in 1991

I have been fortunate enough to have ridden endurance in many countries now – Russia, Poland, Spain, France, Ireland, South Africa and Australia.

I have twice taken part in the Arab Marathon, winning it one time on a French horse, Univers du Port, who was subsequently exported to Qatar. I rode marathons twice out in this Gulf state as well.

I am still involved with endurance and put on rides for the local branch of SERC., for which I am presently on the committee.

I spend quite a bit of time teaching both students who are studying for their BHS exams as well as clients with their own horses. Some of the horses presently in training are available to experienced riders to go out on the trail or to take lessons on, both on the flat and over fences. In 2007 I attended the Level 3 Coach Educator course run by the BEF. I believe in the horses have a varied diet of work – cross training.  I am fortunate in having indoor and outdoor arenas as well as a 60’ horse exercise machine. We usually have some quality horses for sale and offer excellent trial facilities.

I am very lucky to be able to spend my time riding around such a lovely area of the country and I enjoy showing it off to visitors who are keen on riding too. I sometimes take trail rides for several days and run clinics where folk can do a variety of different things equestrian.

I now also chair our local South Loch Ness Access Group as well as being on the Local
Access Forum which I consider vitally important to riders.