Horse_amp_amp_Hound__06_February_2018
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
EXTRAORDINARY AMATEURS<br />
‘It’s all planned<br />
minute by minute’<br />
Andrea Oakes meets the extraordinary amateur riders who flit seamlessly<br />
between their wildly different lives, to find out how they juggle their<br />
high-powered careers with riding and competing<br />
like I lead two different<br />
lives,” says Sharon Polding,<br />
referring to her frankly aweinspiring<br />
double identity.<br />
“IT’S<br />
There’s corporate Sharon,<br />
travelling worldwide as a global client<br />
director for Vodafone. Then there’s competitor<br />
Sharon, who last year earned a Union flag<br />
with a place on the British team at the amateur<br />
European Eventing Ch<strong>amp</strong>ionships in<br />
Belgium. Only her husband Robert and<br />
six-year-old daughter Poppy, at home in<br />
Kent, see this real-world superhero switch<br />
seamlessly between characters.<br />
Like many extraordinary amateur riders,<br />
her approach is nothing short of professional.<br />
She manages her schedule with military<br />
precision — starting with a crack-of-dawn<br />
alarm call and finishing late each night<br />
on the yard.<br />
“I’m lucky to have a job with some<br />
flexibility,” admits Sharon, who frequently<br />
flies to Germany, Paris and New York. “If I’m<br />
working from home, I might call Australia<br />
at 6am, making more calls in the evening.<br />
Another day I’ll spend an hour on the train to<br />
the London office, or three hours on the road<br />
to headquarters in Newbury.”<br />
Work commitments mean that Sharon<br />
competes just one horse at high level,<br />
Findonfirecracker. She was there when “Dizzy”<br />
was born and they’ve since climbed the<br />
international ladder together.<br />
“I’d had other good horses at two-star,<br />
but Dizzy has taken me that extra step,” says<br />
Sharon of the mare she calls “a quirky old cow”.<br />
“We did Bramham CIC3* last year and were<br />
one of only seven combinations to produce a<br />
double clear at Blenheim CCI3*,” she adds.<br />
Sharon regularly questions her hectic<br />
lifestyle. Times are particularly tough at the<br />
moment, since the family’s house burnt<br />
down while they were at Olympia <strong>Horse</strong> Show<br />
in December.<br />
“I’m knackered most of the time,” she says.<br />
“I don’t go out much and I had to buy an extra<br />
week’s annual leave for a family holiday, as I’d<br />
used all mine up competing. But horses are<br />
how I de-stress — while I love being in London<br />
and taking clients out, I’m happiest at the yard,<br />
playing with the horses.”<br />
Sharon lacked the finances to follow her<br />
dreams of being a professional event rider,<br />
so at 19 she started working in the City to<br />
fund her hobby. Over nearly three decades<br />
she has honed the art of combining a career<br />
with competition.<br />
“I’m a big one for core fitness, especially<br />
now that Dizzy is at this level, and couldn’t<br />
be without my horse walker,” she says. “I<br />
also have a girl who hacks her out a couple of<br />
times a week.<br />
“Otherwise, it’s about making do with the<br />
Picture by Alamy Stock Photo<br />
32 <strong>Horse</strong> & <strong>Hound</strong> 8 <strong>February</strong> <strong>2018</strong>