Mary King talks about surviving winter

The name Mary King may conjure up visions of pristine yards and glamorous riding facilities, but when it comes to adverse weather conditions, this Olympic eventer struggles just as much as the rest of us.

Yards across the country have been battling the unusual amounts of snow sweeping Britain, and even Mary has found it difficult to keep her yard running smoothly.

“We haven’t had too much snow, but the lane outside the yard hasn’t been gritted so that’s been a bit of a problem and we were yard bound for a few days,” she says.

And although she may be one of the most famous riders in the equestrian world, even Mary King doesn’t have the privilege of riding in a warm indoor school when the weather turns.

Mary explains: “I don’t have an indoor school to ride in when the weather’s like this, I had to get salt and grit the lane up to my arena myself.

“When the weather was really bad we had a few days where we could only exercise the horses twice a day on the horse walker, which must have sent them a bit dizzy.”

Put this together with late food deliveries and frozen water troughs — which Mary has had to re-fill herself but claims this has given her bigger biceps — and it’s plain to see that when the bad weather hits, this top rider has no choice but to just get stuck in, just like the rest of us.