I grew up in South Molton, a farming town in Devon. It is a part of the country where hunting, point-to-pointing and National Hunt racing is very popular. Nick Williams and Victor Dartnall trained relatively close to my home but Martin Pipe, who was based some 40 minutes away, had the biggest yard in the area. Both my parents enjoyed riding, particularly hunting, so I learned how to ride when I was no more than three years old. Horses were a huge part of all our lives when I was a child - family weekends consisting of going to the stables and point-to-point meetings.

From about the age of 10, I started hunting and joined the pony club. The head of the pony club, Janet Cumings, ran a small point-to-point yard with her husband, Keith, which I did work experience in when I was 13. I enjoyed that so much that I continued on with it as a weekend/summer job for the following three years.