At the Beginning

I was born in Hertfordshire in 1983 but lived in Essex with my mother, father and sister Tilly who was only 11 months older than me which they call Irish twins. I can only just remember these early days, we lived in a large converted barn Tilly and I would cycle our little 3 wheeler bikes up and down the hallway.

My mother and father parted company on very civil terms when I was just 2 years old. We lived in a charming tiny cottage called Eastern Cottage and mother bought us a delightful puppy as a distraction- she was a Dandedimont and we named her Daisy. I also managed to set fire to the sofa with some matches! – I remember that sense of panic to this day. Thankfully all was well as luckily mother caught me just as the sofa started to smoulder I shot up the stairs in tears of panic, typical little girl inquisitive in all things, I was also a nightmare in shops! My mother would constantly be saying don’t touch!

We had so many good days at Eastern cottage and lots of adventures, mother took us down to Devon and Cornwall where we had hours of endless fun playing with ancient toys at a friend’s old dairy farm and collecting shells on Cornwall’s stunning beaches. We would still visit our father whom we loved very much, he was great fun, handsome and you could say a colourful man. He soon re-married and our stepmother was very loving and kind to us in fact she often looked after us more than daddy would but he did make amazing dens with the sofa!

Ali and Symphony

Age 3 our mother briefly dated and then married my stepfather Bob Champion, she had always loved horses and ridden most her life It was her who put me on a pony age 2 and from then on I had caught the bug! My mother bought a plot of land in Newmarket and built our family home and a racing yard for Bob to train racehorses from, then fittingly named it Bechers after Becher’s Brook in the Grand national. I grew up surrounded by racehorses and ponies. There was an old Black Shetland mare living down the road at another trainer’s yard, her name was Symphony and she used to pull Father Christmas in his sleigh at Olympia horse show. She was a retired pony used for the trainers two boys to sit on. Well Tilly and I would get her and lead her back to our house of which she often came inside!

In 1998 my mother and step father Bob had a baby girl, my beautiful little sister Henrietta. Tilly and I were now 5 and 6 and together we spent our days obsessed with ponies and anything to do with them, we played ponies for hours on end jumping the flower beds in our garden and making show jumping courses and race fences with the garden furniture. We often had our very own Grand national using the wide sun lounger as “the chair” fence and we would jump down a large step which would be the drop of Becher’s brook. As the years went by mother seemed to collect more dogs of all shapes and sizes, we had guinea pigs and pet rats and a fabulous black cat named George too. We once had to help friend during lambing season and had a little lamb by our old Aga cooker to warm up, it was around Christmas time so we named him Blitzen and he slept curled up on a dog bed next to Fudge our then Irish Wolfhound.

Henrietta was catching us up in age now and was also learning to ride. Tilly and I would still visit our father but our weekends soon filled up with the ponies and our showing competitions. Our Father also now had two children, a son named James and a daughter named Emma. Tilly and I’s half brother and sister.

Hello Magazine

It was during this period that Bob was quite well known, which meant we were featured in several glossy magazines as children, I didn’t really appreciate it all at the time but now I realise it was actually quite a big thing.

Growing up in a busy household filled with visitors often by the coach load when Bob did walks and talks on the nearby Newmarket gallops I became so obsessed with the racehorses. I loved films especially National Velvet and phar lap they had such an effect on me that I half believed I was the characters in those films. I would get up really early before school and Take my pony Basil on the Gallops often nervous because he would be on his toes excited with the sea of thoroughbreds around but of course National Velvet was fearless so it made it all fine! And when we were tailing off behind the racehorses up the sand gallops I would be whispering in Basils ear – Come on Phar Lap or come on Pie!

My head has always been full of imagination and I truly soaked up magic in those old classic films and found hiding behind a character helped me with my shyness. The racehorses exercised in what you call “lots” by the time it was second Lot it was coming up to breakfast time! Bob would take me out in the car and we would watch the horses together on the gallops and come home with warm bread from what was then the “Bakers oven” Mummy who would be in our large kitchen frying bacon would wait for me to skip in with the warm bread. I adored the atmosphere of our home, mother would have all the lads in the house making them the most delicious bacon sandwiches with her magic chutney and teas and coffees, the loud voices, smell of bacon and horse mixed in together was a scent better than any fine Perfume for me. And how later on in life I began to realise that those smells that we stubble upon bring such strong fond memories flooding back.

Finding Our way

When we started to find our way and our identities of what we want to be and do when we grow up, it was clear that Tilly had a talent for drawing, she was also the much stronger rider and had an academic brain, she was sensible and very much the leader. I was very erratic in my way of thinking, I struggled to concentrate in class, in fact I almost hated school because I couldn’t really keep up but Tilly was always there to help me with homework and we would find one another every play time, often she would reluctantly let me join in with her friends out of sympathy. I had friends but was shy underneath it all I also loved trying to keep up with older children. When we left our little village school and started at a private school in Cambridge Tilly passed the entrance exam with flying colours! Me not so good! Even with mummy and Bob explaining Henrietta will soon join too and that’s 3 lots of school fees etc. they still said no to me. But it was fine because Mummy found a fabulous school down the road called Sancton Wood which I loved and thrived in. We would catch the train from Newmarket to Cambridge early which meant I couldn’t ride my pony out with the racehorses before school anymore but I did have another important role to play! I was given lots of coins and lists of sweets everyone wanted each morning whilst our train bumbled along, there was a typical corner shop beyond Tillys school on the way to my school. So on the way home I would race there to buy my sweets. I did feel rather popular as everyone would gather round me excited to get their sweets for the journey home.

Griselda The Pig

Then times got a little tough when mummy and bob divorced – it was a messy divorce with lots of heart ache, our home became a verbal war zone the friendly atmosphere was going and I was sad, we were also in a few national newspapers that again I didn’t really take note of, what helped immensely was the fact I always had my ponies, dogs and Tilly to talk too. We eventually left our home and moved into what was like a wooden shed at the end of someone’s drive so much so we called it “The shed” There were work tops in the kitchen but no cupboard doors so Mummy used our kitchen curtains as cupboard doors on runners, you could fit 3 of the Little shed into our lovely old home Bechers it was so small but mummy turned turmoil into adventures, our ponies were kept in the village at an old stud which was owned by an eccentric lady who also collected animals but on a larger scale! 14 dogs -strays! She had found in Italy, a pig called Griselda and a couple of cows- one called Chloe who was massive! An ex- dairy cow and a little brown cow too. Henrietta had really caught us up in age now and we all had such fun together! There was a wood beyond the little shed that we spent hours making dens in and of course when visiting the ponies, we ended up riding the pig who would either lay there wanting her belly scratched or she would scoot off squealing as we fell off backwards in deep straw. We also sat on Chloe’s back, she would swing her head round with her long tongue smothered in slobber which would coat us! Through the heart ache we were happy because we had access to countryside, animals and the freedom to roam and have endless hours of fun.

Reunited

Both ponies were pleased to be reunited but I soon came to realise that one pony didn’t like being left behind alone in the field! I was then getting known as the girl who wonders around the country lanes with her two Shetlands! Also rather embarrassing I let go of them once when the hunt was about! Jack and Joe joined the handsome horses causing utter chaos! They had great fun though!

After tearful visits from Rupert we realised life was better when we were together so he asked me to move to Norfolk! I said I will come but you must realise I come with 2 ponies and Mr. Pig! (my guinea pig)

We moved into a cottage on his farm and shortly bought a puppy, a little brown terrier and called her Twig.

I spent my years working for Lotus cars travelling to motor shows dressing our racing drivers and being the right hand man to our shop manager of which Lotus designed the clothes in house. It was at these motor shows that I realised we needed some lovely planters and trees to frame the entrance to our stands. I always loved gardens and saw them as interior designing but on the outside of your house! So when I left Lotus I turned my hand to this – it was also the time where I was working hard on our farm cottage to bring it to life! I was the garden designer, the gardener, the interior designer, buyer and painter and decorator!

Starting Out

I started up a business and called it The Garden Box and had a carpenter friend of a friend of Tilly’s make me some lovely planters of which I painted in Farrow and Ball paints, I then bought some stock of bay trees and hired these out to weddings and events. I built up a good data base and it kept me enough that I only had to work a day and a half in shop for what I call pocket money. I was so happy – I had an ex-racehorse of Rupert’s called “Sorry Al” known as Al/Albert which I later named my son Albert/bertie after I rode him across the farm for miles, I met a lovely friend whose young daughter rode Little joe at weekends whilst I lead Jack too. One day I had left my keys on the kitchen table as I was going out to walk Jack so instead of putting Jack away whilst I got the keys I lead him inside. Jack seemed happy calm and it didn’t seem to phase him at all, in fact he walked over to the Aga cooker and tugged on the tea towel that hung over its rail and then made his way to our dustbin and drank out the dog water bowl. 

Jack Confetti Pony

It soon became a novelty of him making a kitchen appearance especially when we had friends over, one of which suggested we ought to have him carry the confetti at our wedding when we get married. So I thought! Hhmmmm does a confetti pony exist? With my connections in the wedding and events world from hiring out my bay trees and planters I managed to spread the word quickly, had a harness made for him, used the rose petals in our garden from our Just Joey roses (planted for the name because of little joe!) and was soon featured in the local paper. It was from this advert that a nurse called me to ask If Jack would visit the care home she is based at to cheer up the residents. She asked what fee I would charge, but knowing Jack’s rather cheeky behaviour I said no fee! Lets just see how we get on. It was a huge success, jack went in most people’s bedrooms and although stole the odd biscuit he was fabulous and we all smiled as we left. Jack and I visited this home on a regular basis voluntarily as it it made me feel good and helpful and useful. It fulfilled me and I knew somehow I can help people whilst elsewhere in family life I felt I was fighting a loosing battle.