Emma Thomas

The Bramham under-25 champion talks to Pippa Roome about going for it in eventing, her two contrasting top horses and riding round Burghley nursing a serious kick injury

- Pippa Roome

THERE are certain things you expect to hear when interviewing an event rider, but “I love bones” isn’t one of them. In fact, you’d probably wonder if auto transcription had had a moment. I love horses, perhaps? I love cones – as something to steer round in training? No, definitely bones.

That’s because bones, rather than eventing, were going to be Emma Thomas’s career. And yet, this year she completed her second Burghley and won Bramham’s under-25 championship.

“It was always a childhood dream to be an event rider, but I wasn’t especially good,” she says, frankly. “I had quite young horses and wasn’t anywhere near juniors, young riders or anything like that.”

While her peers were chasing under-21 medals, Emma completed a biology degree at the Royal Veterinary College – “I’m quite academic and I love science” – and was set to study for a master’s and pursue a career as a forensic anthropologist.

“I think bones are really cool – just the way they develop and work while people are alive. The forensic bit comes in because you can tell so much about a person – the way they lived, their diet and their lifestyle – from their bones after they’re dead, even thousands of years later. It’s a bit creepy, but I do love it,” she explains.

Emma diverted away from bones and towards eventing for two reasons. First, she was offered a place on the Wesko programme, set up in memory of event horse owner Christina Knudsen. When Emma was selected in 2021, just three riders received top-tier support.

“It was an honour and a shock because the people I was shortlisted with had already gone five-star and were more high-profile than me,” she says.

She mentions the business advice – “no one ever tells you when you want to be an event rider, you also have to manage a small business” – and help from Pippa Funnell.