Showjumping model

Myrtle Hallion on juggling jumping, catwalks and schoolwork - and why horses are “truly a gift”

- As told to Eleanor Jones

When I was three years old, my mum bought me a miniature Shetland, Cookie.

I started riding her around the garden and that was it: everything ponies. My mum, Claire, had always ridden, and Mark [Hallion, now Myrtle's stepfather] was teaching her. He helped me with my ponies, then when I was 11 I had a huge growth spurt and moved on to horses. The day after I turned 12, I did the London Global Champions Tour (GCT). I'd been there before to watch Mark so I knew the atmosphere, but it was a different feeling being in the ring.

That GCT was a turning point. We're friends with Jan Tops and his wife, Edwina Tops-Alexander, and he offered me the chance to be the youngest person to ever jump at the event. Because I was so young and had just got Java, my first horse, Jan said I had to jump double clear in a 1.25m in the Netherlands to get in as a wild card.

It didn't go well trying to get that double clear, but on the very last day, I did it - it was like fate. Jan knows it's hard for young riders to come through, and he was the one who opened the gates to make wild cards happen.