Farewell to… eventer Karen Dixon’s mother Elaine Straker
The mother of Olympic eventer Karen Dixon, Elaine Straker, has died aged 86.
Elaine was brought up in the Tees Valley, rode from an early age and was a point-to-point jockey before she turned her attention to her children’s riding careers.
Three of Elaine’s five children competed at Badminton — two at the age of just 18, including Karen.
“Her courage, determination and exceptional eye for a horse, underpinned [our] riding ambitions,” said Elaine’s son Matthew.
Elaine also bred Lucinda Green’s 1977 Badminton and European Championships winner George, whom Matthew rode round Badminton in 1973 and 1974.
This news story was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (6 June 2013)
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.