RIDING TO THE RESCUE

In this exclusive interview, Jodie Kidd tells us how horses cured her anxiety after she quit modelling and opens up about her equine-loving royal friends

- SOPHIE HAMILTON

Looking a picture of health and glowing with vitality, Jodie Kidd gently strokes her horse’s mane as she stands in a field surrounded by her beloved animal companions.

The 46-year-old entrepreneur has had a passion for equestrian pursuits since she was a child. However, these noble creatures have also played a vital role in her life: they have helped cure her debilitating anxiety.

“Animals helped me through a scary period of anxiety and lows, and very tough times in my life,” Jodie reveals in this exclusive interview with HELLO! from her home in West Sussex. “They bring a huge sense of calm and happiness and love.”

Best known for a glittering modelling career in which she rubbed shoulders with Kate Moss, shot global campaigns for Chloé and walked the runway for Chanel in Paris, she first suffered from the condition during her catwalk heyday.

Her ascent had been rapid: Jodie shot to fame in 1994, aged 15, when she was scouted by photographer Terry O’Neill on a beach in Barbados. The following year, she found herself drinking champagne backstage at shows.

“I didn’t know what was going on, because I was a late teenager,” Jodie has told us. “It was when people didn’t really know about anxiety, so I thought I was going mad.

“I had to stop my career, I had to stop modelling, I had to move to the country. It was terrifying.”

Her rural retreat became a place of refuge following her decision to quit the catwalk, just a few years after her life in the spotlight began.

“I really think that getting back into riding after modelling helped cure my anxiety,” she tells us now. Indeed, riding became her rescue. “There's something very powerful about being on the back of a horse. I did research into it. When you rock on your coccyx, it activates the vagus nerve [in the brain]. It puts you in a very calm state.”