‘I thought I’d lost my mojo’: five-star event rider Simon Grieve on bouncing back to the top tier of the sport
The event rider – who scored his best five-star result yet at Burghley last year – talks about returning to the top level after losing his mojo, the “chalk and cheese” friend who taught him to breathe across country and making the most of life after losing close friends, in this exclusive interview for H&H subscribers
“Not that I’m saying I’m a top sportsperson, I’m an also-ran,” grins Simon Grieve as he finishes talking about all the elements of sport and business event riders must juggle.
An also-ran? I want to stop him and say no, no, you’re not, you’re much more than that. But on paper, I know what Simon means. He’s started 19 times at five-star and had his best result last season when he finished 18th at Burghley on Autograf. With that profile at 44, it’s unlikely he’s going to win at the top level or ride at the Olympics.
Yet just competing at five-star puts you in eventing’s elite top tier and it is the stalwarts like Simon Grieve who make up the lifeblood of the sport.
“When I was younger I went to Badminton and Burghley and I was inspired. I always wanted to compete there. I always wanted to go and jump a good clear round, be part of the buzz, really enjoy it, but I never dreamt about winning it,” he says, naming eventing vet Tim Randle as an early hero.
“More than the winners, I was inspired by people like Tim, with Legs Eleven, or Helen Bell and Troubleshooter – those sorts, who weren’t super-famous and didn’t win everything, but did quite well. It’s weird, that’s kind of how it’s materialised for me.”
Does Simon want to go and do better at Badminton now, after that Burghley result?
“Of course. I’d love to be top 15, if not top 10 at Badminton – that would be insane. But as long as the horse has gone as well as I hope he can, then we’ve had a great time,” he says.
“It goes back to a conversation on my first day of my first job, with Debbie and Patrick Edmundson. I went hacking with one of their owners. She said, ‘To be honest, as an owner, what I want is to go to an event with somebody I like, watch my horse and hope that it goes as well as it possibly can that day. Then I’m going to have had a great day. And if it wins a prize, then that’s an added bonus.’
“It has always stuck with me that it’s about enjoying it and that’s even more in my head now.”
The road to Burghley 2025
The more five-stars you report, the more you realise it’s not always the winner who has the best story (though Ros Canter’s pregnancy was a pretty good yarn at Burghley). Sometimes, the best stories come from the self-styled “also-rans” and Simon Grieve’s tale of progression to Burghley is a fascinating one.
The background is that after his then most recent five-star in 2021, the Leicestershire rider thought his days of top-level competition were over.
“I thought I’d lost my mojo – I was getting very nervous and I was doing more showjumping, coaching, media, presenting,” he explains.
“I carried on eventing but my attitude changed – before it was very intense and I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I’ve been eventing since I was 16 and spent most of that time chasing my tail. Doing this as a job is all-consuming and it takes over to the detriment of everything else in your life. My family, my partner’s family, my friends, they’ve all taken a back seat at times, which is not how it should be.”
Autograf (Buster) belongs to his breeder Gerry Torr and her niece Evie Mackel. Initially produced by Samantha Hobbs, he had stints with a few different riders “because he was a bit tricky at times” and then competed with Evie. When she went to university, Gerry rang Simon Grieve and asked him to showjump him to improve that phase, with a view to selling him. One thing led to another “and all of a sudden we were qualified for five-star”.
In the spring last year, Simon headed to Thoresby for the CCI4*-S.“I was going down to the cross-country on Sunday with Buster and I was really nervous. I came out of the start box being quite drippy and didn’t jump through the first water very well. And then he had a run-out, which is unlike him. We came back to the water, he jumped in amazingly and jumped the first corner, but I was pulling and not riding well at all.
“So I pulled out of the second corner. I was like, ‘You are not even going to try that as you’re riding like an absolute moron.’ So I retired and thought, ‘You’ve lost it mate, you can’t do this anymore’.”
Deflated on the way home, Simon realised that he had driven for 12 hours over the previous four days, as well as teaching non-stop the previous week. He was exhausted. He also hadn’t had much training recently.
“I know I need help with the dressage but I thought I knew what I was doing with the jumping phases, but it obviously wasn’t working. And I also thought, ‘Your mindset’s rubbish, so let’s speak to a sports psychologist’.”
He booked a session with Chris Bartle, which ended up being with Chris and Ros Canter, and with sports psychologist Charlie Unwin.
“I hadn’t spoken to Charlie Unwin before, though I did go to school with him and he gave me lines once when he was a prefect,” he remembers with a smile.
In the week before his next big event, at Burnham Market, Simon didn’t teach, focusing instead on his headspace.
“And honestly, it was a revelation. I was a completely different person. I was confident. I was happy. I was really looking forward to it. I enjoyed the whole weekend and the horse went brilliantly.
“Performance is like an onion – there are so many layers to it.”
He cavorted through the summer with a string of good results.
“I rode really well – and that’s another thing, I’m trying to change my vocabulary, because I’m so good at being negative about myself. I’m trying to be like, ‘Actually, I did a good job,’” he says.
When he was at Burghley, he spoke to mindset coach Evie Llewellyn-Smith on cross-country morning: “But to be honest, I’d already got my head in the right place,” he says. “There have been multiple times at five-stars when I’ve wondered on Saturday morning how I can withdraw without looking really stupid, but this time, I literally couldn’t wait. I was really excited about the whole prospect. But it was the most prepared I’ve ever been for a three-day event.”
He jokes at one point that this article might just be “a list of people who’ve helped Simon Grieve” and names a group of friends who were at Burghley in Marie Osborne – “one of my best friends who’s a psychologist who works with young offenders” – showjumper Josie O’Leary and Alison Leonard.
“I also speak to Izzy Taylor most days. We’re like chalk and cheese – I help her with social media and she helps me with focus. I said to her, ‘When I’m at a big event, I get to halfway and I start to do random things and get defensive and don’t ride as well as I can.’ And she pointed out, ‘You’re not breathing enough and you’re basically starving your brain of oxygen and therefore you can’t function as well.’
“So she said, ‘When the starter says ‘one minute’, I want you to take as many deep breaths as you possibly can.’ So I was hyperventilating approaching the start box at Burghley.
“And then she said, ‘When you’ve got a long gallop, do the same thing.’ I spoke to my mindset coach about that and she did a little hypnotherapy session to try to remind me to do it.
“As a result, I was a lot more focused all the way and I’m hugely proud of our Burghley round, it’s just how I imagine cross-country to be. My horse had his ears pricked the entire way and I was loving it.”
Simon Grieve: ‘Life’s so bloody delicate’
Simon Grieve’s attitude has also been shaped by losing friends, including Caroline Moore. He says: “It makes you realise that life’s so bloody delicate and fragile and we’re not here for long. Caroline was amazing at getting us to go and do things and not feel guilty about it – she was always saying there’s more to life than horses.
“She said she had a massive wobble when she was first diagnosed with cancer and bawled her eyes out and then was like, ‘Come on, let’s make the most of what we’ve got here’. We went skydiving, gliding, ziplining, we climbed Snowdon.”
Those adventures encouraged Simon to do more hiking, including the Three Peaks Challenge, climbing the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales in 24 hours, which he used to raise awareness of suicide prevention.
“My farrier and friend took his own life and I always felt bad that I didn’t check up on him,” he says. “So I made up a little campaign called #LetThemKnow. I did a video for my followers and said, I’m doing this challenge and rather than giving money, what I’d like you to do is look through your phone contacts, find somebody that you haven’t spoken to in a while or the last time you saw them you thought were a little bit flat and then message them and let them know you’re thinking of them or that they’re special.”
In 2024, he climbed Mont Blanc and Gran Paradiso for the British Eventing Support Trust.
“After three days on each, we got back to the bottom of Mont Blanc and went out for a celebratory meal. The next morning I left at 3am and flew to Gatwick, drove straight to Hickstead, met Drumbilla Metro there and did the trot-up.
“The steward asked, ‘Why are you so lame?’ – because coming down mountains is really bad for your knees. I said, ‘I climbed Mont Blanc yesterday.’ She thought I was completely insane. And then I did the speed derby and finished eighth.”
What a story. And Simon Grieve has a gift for the way he tells it, which is no doubt helpful in his other career, because he’s a popular media presence as well as being a five-star rider and coach.
He presents for Horse & Country TV, on the Shut Up and Ride podcast and at events, as well as having a YouTube channel with 16,000 subscribers. In January he rode Becky Moody’s Jagerbomb at a podcast tour date and he has some “road to Badminton” lecture demos coming up, alongside high-profile grassroots rider Megan Elphick.
With all his other commitments, Simon Grieve doesn’t want many more than the eight horses currently in work at his yard in Wymeswold, Leicestershire. Among them are Best Escapade, who went to the seven-year-old World Championships at Le Lion last year, his year-older half-brother Best Trick – both owned by The Best Syndicate – and six-year-old Pemmely, as well as Patricia Pytches’ Golden Recipe, who previously competed at five-star with Matthew Heath.
“The yard belongs to the Shields family and it has everything I could possibly need,” says Simon, who lives a 45-minute drive away with his partner, shepherd James Horswell.
“It’s a lovely house… I’m just not here that much,” he says. “It’s a good thing James is independent. I’ll say, ‘I’m leaving at 3am to go to an event’ and he’s like, ‘OK cool, have a nice time.’ Because of his background with animals he understands, and when it comes to lambing, the hours are unsociable.”
Climbing Mont Blanc, completing five-stars, the speed derby, 3am starts, being behind the mic, riding an Olympic dressage horse – if being an event rider is about being able to succeed at lots of different things, Simon Grieve’s definitely a winner, not an also-ran.
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.