‘We are still a nation of horse lovers’

The Master of the Horse on the lot of equines in different cultures

- Kate Green

HORSES have been central to Rupert de Mauley’s life for more than six decades, from the VWH branch of the Pony Club and showing the ponies his mother bred through a spell as an amateur jockey—he even found rides in Singapore when working there as an investment banker—to his present ceremonial role as Master of the Horse and his involvement with equine charities. He married a former event rider, Lucinda, and they share as a gentlemanly and much-treasured hack the 20-year-old Oslo (pictured), formerly a five-star winner with William Fox-Pitt.

Lord de Mauley has remained as trim as he must have been in his race-riding days. His most successful horse was Fifth Amendment, winner of four races and his mount in military races—he is a retired Lt-Col in the Territorial Army and Honorary Colonel of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry. ‘I found my best horses and my wife within 10 miles of home,’ he says. ‘Fifth Amendment was a lovely horse, my best friend. He seemed nothing special when I bought him, but I was desperate. I rode him at Windsor [when the racecourse had jump racing] and, fortunately, the bloodhounds were there and he took off.’

In 2005, once he had given up banking and inherited a peerage from his uncle, he entered the House of Lords on the Conservative benches. ‘I wasn’t sure I was going to do it, but I’d married a girl from a rather political family and they said “it’s not all over yet”. There were 92 hereditary peers and, at the third time of asking, I got elected. It was a baptism of fire because we were in opposition, but it was a good place to start.’