British showjumper Joe Stockdale, 24, needs little introduction to equestrian fans, with a string of big wins and team performances to his name. But did you know his younger brother Mark is a rising star of the golfing world, too?
The Northamptonshire-born brothers sat down to talk about the highs and lows of their respective sports and the influence their late father, Olympic showjumper Tim Stockale, continues to have on their lives.
“Mark has ridden and I have also enjoyed playing golf,” he says. “Especially at the top level of sport, it is extremely difficult. With horses you have so many ups and downs – it is a real rollercoaster. From my amateur perspective in golf, it is a mentally frustrating game and you are battling against yourself. In showjumping, we are almost lucky that we have other factors to contend with, for example, the horse.
“Golf is a very individual game and there is only really yourself to blame,” he adds. “So I think mental strength is one of the most important things that you can learn from both of the two sports.”
Showjumper Joe Stockdale and golfer Mark Stockdale. (Photo: YRA) | (Photo: Nelson Chenault).
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
Nineteen-year-old Mark, who is currently on the men’s golf team at the University of Central Arkansas, agrees with “staying patient and trusting in the work you put in.”
“These things take time and you have to have plenty of resilience to get there,” he says. “The sports are very different, but very similar at the same time. You are not going to be the best in the world overnight, you have to keep going day-by-day.”
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Joe continues: “The core value of any top level sport is that it is not necessarily about what you do or the outcome, but the mental side of it and the perspective you have from a performance. You can compare this, even though they are two completely different sports.”
The Stockdale brothers on the importance of teamwork
The Stockdale brothers pinpoint some surprising similarities with the relationships between caddy and golfer, and rider and groom.
“The trust is going to be there,” says aspiring professional golfer Mark Stockdale, currently ranked 320th in the world. “Joe has to trust his groom Charlotte Attwell to make sure the horses are as well prepared as possible and on top form to compete. I have to have that trust with my caddy that we are both going out there with a certain mindset and goal.
“When we are talking about certain aspects of the round we have to be on the same wavelength, we cannot be arguing with each other. But when Joe enters the ring or I am hitting the shot, the groom or the caddy are out of the equation, they have done their part and it is down to the individual to go and perform in the moment.”
Joe Stockdale adds: “It takes such a weight off your mind when you know that you have someone behind you that you can trust to get you to where you need to be.
“It is so important to have someone to be able to bounce ideas off – so Mark can ask his caddy: ‘What do you think about this shot?’, and even if the caddy just says that is a great idea, it gives you that extra bit of confidence,” he says. “When I am in the warm-up with Charlotte and ask, ‘How did he jump that last vertical?’ and she says, ‘It was perfect’.
“Even if it is just a mental thing for us, it gives you that next bit of confidence to trust your process and what you are already doing. It helps with your mental strength and gives you an extra layer of confidence and backing before you go in the ring or you take that shot on the course.
“I have a great team behind me. My team spans a huge amount of people, it is not just the people working on the yard every single day, but it is the vets, farriers, physiotherapists and many more.”
Joe Stockdale: “If you can improve yourself by 1% in every area, it makes a huge difference overall”
“There are a lot of people who help make it all happen,” Joe continues. “I have recently been reading a lot of sports psychology books and cyclists talk about making everything 1% better. Your team can escalate you so much – if you improve yourself by 1% in every area it makes a huge difference overall.
“That is certainly what we are aiming for, making everyone push to be that 1% better. The team and the people around me are incredible – they put 110% in their work every day and I cannot thank them enough. I would not be where I am today without them.”
Mark underlines the importance of collaboration, whether it’s family members or anyone else.
“Golf is a sport which, as a family, we did not have any prior knowledge about, so everything we do, we do it together and it is a constant learning phase,” he explains. “There have been plenty of hardships that you need to be able to talk about and learn from, so that has been a big part.”
Mark receives plenty of support from trainers at his university to ensure he is in peak physical condition.
“England Golf is also helping me to play in the best tournaments and compete at the highest level possible,” he says. “Even looking at the manufacturers of my golf clubs, there is a long list of people who without them, I would not be in the position that I am.”
Joe Stockdale (GBR) looks back as he walks out for the medal ceremony during the FEI World Jumping Championship.
(Image credit: Sport In Pictures/Alamy Live News)
Mark Stockdale: “The endless pursuit of getting better is what I really love”
“My mum and dad played golf and Joe had lessons alongside them, so they would play when my dad was back from shows,” says Mark. “I wanted to learn so that I could spend time with them – I had a few lessons and immediately the competitive side kicked in.
“I had to practise to try to be better than them and beat them. I picked it up quite quickly and started to play in some tournaments and I just fell in love with the process of practising and improving. It is one of those sports that is so frustrating – you think you have it and then you go out the next day and you have lost it. The endless pursuit of getting better is what I really love.
“From my family, I learned you cannot take a day off. You have to ride every day, you cannot just leave a horse in the stable, you have to constantly work. When my dad and Joe would ride, I would go off and practice and focus on my craft. You also have to have a lot of resilience. You are going to have hard times, but if you stay focused on the same goal and keep working every day you will get there.”
Stockdale motto: “Keep going and keep trying to find a way”
Both brothers have clearly inherited a competitive mindset and sporting excellence from their father Tim Stockdale, who died after a short illness in 2018, and Joe describes the superb horseman as “resilient and stubborn”.
“If it was not going right or he was not winning, he wouldn’t ever back off, he would put more into it,” he says. “He was always working his hardest and trying to find a way to get back to winning. He was so determined, if it was not working he was going to make it work, and he was going to find a way to get it over the line to get the result that he wanted.
“Even if we half have the idea that we might want to quit we always have his voice in the back of our minds saying: ‘You have to keep going and keep trying to find a way’. He is a great motivation to the two of us.”
Tim Stockdale and Fresh Direct Corlato at the Olympic Games in Hong Kong in 2008. His sons Joe Stockdale and Mark Stockdale are continuing their father’s legacy of sporting brilliance.
(Image credit: Trevor Meeks)
Mark continues to be inspired by how Tim interacted and treated people.
“Whether it was kids asking for autographs or the way he had a conversation with people,” he says. “At shows, he walked around and everyone knew him, and he knew everyone’s names. What I learned is that you have to build relationships with people to earn their respect. He was so dedicated and so hardworking, and to me, that is just the base standard of how you have to be. You have to be 100% dedicated to what you want to do, do not take no for an answer for things, and really fight for it.”
“You do most of your learning when you are out of your comfort zone,” says Joe Stockdale
Within each of their respective sports, events such as the Majors or The Masters are core.
“Those are the events to go to,” says Joe. “For showjumpers, when we speak about going to a Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping Major such as the CHIO Aachen or The Dutch Masters, we speak about them as the best in world – they are massive and spectacular events. If I am speaking with any of my non-equestrian friends, I can list the names of different shows, they do not understand, but when I say that I am going to a Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping Major, they immediately have an understanding and level of respect. That is the legacy that Rolex has around those shows.
“For us riders, they are the biggest of the biggest shows, they have the best prize money and they are the ones that everyone wants to win. They are where you get the top-level sport.
“You do most of your learning when you are slightly out of your comfort zone,” he adds. “The first time I went to CHI Geneva, I loved it – it was an incredible experience. You are there with the best in the world, there is not one top rider who is not there, they all have their best horses and are all there to win it. The jump-offs that you get in the classes are sensational – you just do not get that at the other shows. You might see one person do an incredible round in a month of shows, but at the Rolex Grand Prix at the CHI Geneva in 2022 we saw five riders one after another going as fast as they could, and every rider you watched you thought that they could not be beaten, and then they were.
“It was the best of the best sport, not only for the spectators but as a learning experience for me. To have that opportunity as a young rider has been so valuable, so it is a credit to the Majors to provide that chance for young riders. I am not sure where I would be if I did not have those opportunities – they really elevated my game so much.”
It is the same in golf, says Mark: “People hear The Masters and they understand the prestige and history around it. They would know people that have won the tournament, even if they are not golfers themselves and they would know about the ‘green jacket’. The Majors bring together people who maybe aren’t usually interested in the sport – they can see the prestige, and I think that is incredibly important to the sport.
“I would love to win The Masters,” reveals Mark. “In golf, it is the closest thing to perfection, with velvet green fairways cut to perfection. In a non-perfect sport, it is the closest thing, and the image around it is unbelievable. When you see the players putting on the green jacket at the end of it, that is what the image of golf was for me growing up.”
Meanwhile, as well as Paris 2024, Joe’s ambitions lie with winning the Rolex grand prix at Aachen, Germany.
“It is such a special grand prix, with multiple rounds, and everyone talks about how big and difficult it is,” he says. “The CHIO Aachen has such an incredible grass arena with so much amazing heritage to it – it would be a dream to win there.”
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Jennifer is passionate at showjumping and her role as H&H’s showjumping editor has taken her around the world reporting from shows and interviewing riders, connections and those involved behind the scenes. Since joining H&H from BBC Sport in 2005, she has written on every subject across the equestrian sphere — from turnout rugs to stable management — and has interviewed gold medallists, world champions and winners galore. She also has first-hand experience of working in the equestrian industry as a riding instructor and yard manager.
