Double Olympic gold medallist Tom McEwen went back to his roots to present awards to members of his former Pony Club branch – and share pizza with them.
Tom, who won team gold in Tokyo and Paris, and individual silver in Tokyo, hot-footed it straight from competing to the Vale of the White Horse (VWH) branch celebration evening.
Branch secretary Joanna Ramage told H&H organisers kept Tom’s attendance a secret in advance.
“He’s always really supportive of us, which is lovely,” she said. “He’d been jumping at Hartpury and he literally leapt off and high-tailed it here. We’d kept it secret but had said lots of ‘You need to come to the awards; it’s going to be a really amazing evening’. He’s so generous with his time; he must have been knackered – but he did get some pizza at the end!”
Joanna said the branch is competitive but that its ethos is very much being friendly and supportive, as well as about horsemanship and pony care, not just riding. The winter awards evening is about celebrating every level and achievement of the riders, but also the volunteers.
“We had long-service awards to present too,” Joanna said. “Pamela Ormond, our president, has hosted the mini and junior camps for years and it was important he gave her her 50-year Cubitt award as he’s known her for years too.”
Joanna said Tom is “very much interwoven” with the branch; on a previous visit he handed round his Olympic medals so all the young riders could see and touch them.
“I said I’d be possessive about them but he said no, because who knows, they might be future Olympians, and he shared them with everybody, which was lovely,” she said. “Last summer, we were running camp and he’d hired some of the facilities; he was there for a job but took the time to speak to them all, and signed their T-shirts – there were a lot of camp T-shirts that didn’t get washed afterwards!”
Joanna said some of the children at the awards were “in awe” of Tom, while others “took it in their stride”.
“He went to the mini and junior camps when he was little, and Pam and Ursula [Scott] and the other fantastic award winners have known him for years,” she said. “His mum teaches for us too. We’re so lucky to have that connection so the children can see that anything is possible.”
The group between them tucked into 56 pizzas on the awards evening including Tom, who became a father late last year.
“Our retiring district commissioner Georgie Davies managed to find a tiny VWH sweatshirt and gave it to him,” Joanna said. “So in a couple of years, maybe Tom will be back at mini camp as a parent, we will wait and see!”
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