Binge-watching horsey DVDs and overindulging on Christmas dinner – top riders are no different to the rest of us. Here, Ros Canter shares the details of what she usually gets up to on Christmas Day
“Christmas Day is generally about doing the horses, though we’ll have a traditional Christmas dinner, with turkey. I’ll do some mucking out, as well as Mum (who does it every day year round), and all my staff are local, so normally at least one of my girls comes in. Then all the horses go out and Mum and I finish them off later.
“Normally our big family day is Boxing Day, when we would congregate at my parents’ house, which is where the yard is, with my sisters Harriet and Megan and their families, but sadly that won’t be possible this year. My daughter Ziggy is the youngest of six cousins, so it’s usually good fun. We have turkey again, but we’re also big into puddings – we have a sweet tooth in my family. I make banoffee pie, my brother-in-law makes a Bakewell tart and there will be chocolate mousse and ice cream, as well as Christmas pudding.
“When I was a kid, Christmas was all about the video or DVD we got in our stockings. Dad would look at Horse & Hound and find out which one we wanted – it’d be something like Badminton, Burghley, Milton or thrills and spills. As soon as we were allowed to sit down in front of the telly, that’s what I watched and proceeded to watch for the rest of the Christmas holidays. I loved it, it was my favourite part of Christmas.”
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“I haven’t made set plans for 2021. In my mind I know what I’d like to achieve with each horse and hopefully the season will kick start in a relatively normal way. I’d love to go back to Badminton. Allstar B and Zenshera are getting a bit older so I hope we can enjoy a bit more time with them.
“I had three horses in the four-star classes at Burnham Market – Pencos Crown Jewel, Lordships Graffalo and Rehy Royal Diamond – so it’s exciting to have some who can replace Allstar B and Zenshera at five-star in the future.”
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