RIDER PROFILES
Andew Davies
Thirty-one year old show jumper, Andrew Davies, says he has probably been riding from before birth – well he has certainly been riding for some time and holds a respectable list of successes to prove it! Currently he is building up a team of promising young horses and he hopes they will be able to carry him to European, World and Olympic glory in the coming years. Although riding Milton would have been his dream horse, one of his favourites in the current string is Sir Graditz. “He’s young and inexperienced but has the heart of a lion and tries his best all the time,” Andrew told , “and I am looking forward to taking him further.”
Being successful isn’t easy though and Andrew is an advocate of hard work and total dedication. His day starts at half seven, when he helps out his grooms with the yard duties. After breakfast he starts riding and usually spends most of the day schooling and exercising his horses. “Preparation is so important and the groundwork has to be in place before you can expect your horse to perform well - I spend a lot of time on the basics,” says Andrew, “so hopefully it will pay off in the long term.”
If Andrew hadn’t been a show jumper he would probably have tried his hand at Motor Racing and quite fancies himself in the Formula 1 circuit, “It would be better paid than horses,” laughed Andrew, “but I love what I do and am lucky to get to travel and meet a lot of interesting people.” Andrew spends most of the summer travelling all over the UK and Europe competing, but he tries to fit in a bit of teaching during the winter – in between schooling his own horses – all 14 of them!
Bad Habits:
My time keeping is notoriously bad!
What couldn’t you live without?
Baileys Horse Feeds!! Also Thermatex rugs
Lessons with Andrew:
Andrew charges £30 per session ("I don't agree with 'by the hour' as some people need longer and some that are going well equally don't need to be jumping back and forward for no reason!")
VITAL STATISTICS
BASED
Warrington, Cheshire
AGE
31
NUMBER OF HORSES
14
FAVOURITE BAILEYS PRODUCT
No.17 Top Line Conditioning Mix, No.13 Oat-Free Horse & Pony Mix, Outshine, Garlic, Aqua-Aide
GREATEST RESULTS
| European Young Riders - Individual Gold |
| Olympia Masters - First |
| Belfast Grand Prix - First |
| Millstreet World Cup - First |
| Aachen Nations Cup - First |
TOP TIPS!
- Hard work
- Dedication
- Perseverance
- Plus luck on your side when it matters