Daisy Berkeley

The Olympic medallist on appreciating every moment with the horses and people you love, and the importance of feeding the best you can afford

- DAISY BERKELEY

I have millions of riding icons, but perhaps the greatest is Lucinda Green, who was a huge help to me years ago when my career was treading water. She used to invite a few riders to these fun play sessions at her yard. She’d build funny obstacles on weird distances and made us leave the horse alone to work it out – it improved the horse’s footwork and reminded him to use his brain.

So many people overdrill horses, taking away their instinct for self-preservation. We’re all going to mess up at some point, so it’s a massive benefit if the horse can look after us – if I throw the reins at the horse and say, “Can you sort this out?”, they do, touch wood.