''Champion Horsemen'' is going a bit too far isn't it. He use to compete at West Wilts a lot against my sister in foxhunters, etc. and i don't think he beat my sister once.
He also slated the british showjumping team because they wouldn't consider him for the olympics (the fact that he had only been jumping foxhunter height didn't occur to him) so he said that he would jump for barbados instead, but that didn't happen.
Now i know it's a good achivement if your the first at something in any sport and thats great but what gets me is that he was bulled up as some kind of legend when he was at the same level as all of us.
oh dear, I competed against him at Newcomers level and he didn't look safe or competent doing that! He was on a lovely schoolmistress and she had the patience of a saint with him. All that mouthyness about getting on the British Team for the next Olympics... even if he'd had a horse as good as Shutterfly, he wouldn't!
Well, I suppose it's for a good cause now, but he really wasn't ever much cop as a rider, I cannot understand how he still gets a bit of fame!
Give him a break - this is just a paper talking to a very non-horsey audience who need a handy label for him. And "Champion horseman" is a lot snappier than "guy who showjumps to quite a respectable level". Remember, the article has to establish his credibility immediately with a totally non-equine reader who would probably regard most people jumping over 1m10 as champions!
Of course it's a good cause, so full marks to him for that. But the fact remains that he had no success jumping at even "quite respectable level". The tabloids and some TV programmes played the game when for a short while in the 1990s he became "a personality" and if by any chance he made it seem possible for non-white kids to take up riding than it served some purpose.
Would you give the man a break, so he was not very good at show jumping but he had his 5 minutes of fame, and he is now putting it to back a very good cause.
Who cares what the headline says about him, it got to the front page of a newspaper and highlighted the main reason behind it.
Can somepeople not look beyond a headline and see what good there is hidden in there as well.
I am sure most of us would hate the BNP to do well...and if you have coloured family even more so...
I remember Oliver Skeet, he was ok, he didn't do anyone any harm that I remember, too many riders are downright snobby and catty...we can't all be good and we can't all afford brilliant horses, if he sold the family car to give himself a chance, good luck to him!!
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I remember Oliver Skeet, he was ok, he didn't do anyone any harm that I remember, too many riders are downright snobby and catty...we can't all be good and we can't all afford brilliant horses, if he sold the family car to give himself a chance, good luck to him!!
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Thats pretty much how I would sum him up too.
Point is,it doesnt matter how much he did or diddnt win-he is a "name" and is putting that name to good use.
If any rider(with the exception Zara Phillips) put their name to this would it have made the press?
QR Ok Oliver may not have been a champion rider, but hopefully he is doing some good now.
My OH is yes, I will say it a big black guy who rides for a living and has done all his working life. He has found it difficult "being different" many people are astounded that a black man rides for a living.
Haha! I remember him in Horse&Pony magazine, we are talking a fair few years back now, I always used to wonder how he manged to get his dreadlocks under his hat!
And for what its worth,who cares about his ridng ability, he was always smiling.....proabbly still is!