‘The best thing I’ve ever done’: pub landlady and her £1 horse achieve Hickstead dream

A pub landlady who set a bucket-list goal of competing at Hickstead with her £1 horse said she had the time of her life – and plans to jump bigger there next year.

Jayne Tillsley said she achieved a lifetime goal when she went to the Hickstead Derby meeting at the All England Jumping Course last week, with Alina’s The Business, whom she bought for £1, and Dakuno (Juno), whom she has on loan, and who at 17.2hh towers over his 4’11” rider.

Jayne and Juno jumped double clear in all three of their classes, finishing in the top 10 of up to 190 starters each time, and Alina completed her and Jayne’s first 1.10m derby, and came 11th of 190 starters in another class.

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” Jayne told H&H, adding that she was the only one of her family to miss a holiday to Mexico to jump at Hickstead. “I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.”

Jayne, who runs the Butchers Arms in Sheepscombe, Gloucestershire, said she had always ridden, and worked full-time as a groom, but her family had always been publicans.

“But when I hit 40, I’d had enough, and thought I was done with horses,” she said. “I met a really nice man and we decided to run a pub, and I gave up horses – didn’t sit on one or go near one, or even look at one, for seven years.”

But as others have found, sometimes horses do not let you give them up. Jayne kept her photos, and admits she did sometimes miss the equestrian world – and when a barmaid asked if she would ride her horse, she said “Absolutely not!”

But of course she did, and when a friend saw her Facebook post about it, she got in touch.

“She said ‘Oh my god, you’re riding again; will you come and ride Purdy?” Jayne said. “I said ‘No, she’s as sharp as they come’, and she carried on, so I thought ‘Ok then’.”

Jayne drove from Reading, where she was based then, to ride the mare in Worcestershire, and liked her, but could not afford to keep her. Purdy’s owner offered to pay half the costs.

“I said I’d have her; my parents said ‘Don’t do it’!” Jayne said. “I said I was only having her to hack, then two weeks later, I booked transport, registered us both with British Showjumping [BS] and went to Cherwell, did my first BS show for years and came second, out of about 100 people. My parents said ‘No way, this isn’t going to happen again’. Two weeks later, I did it again.”

Back into the game, and thanks to a bonus from the pub she worked in, Jayne bought a horsebox. Two weeks later, Purdy tore a ligament, repeating an old injury, and Jayne was devastated to learn “there was no fixing her”.

She then jumped Unforgettable (Eric) for five years, jumping at the BS national amateur and veteran championships, and was thinking she would like another one to run alongside him.

“I met these lovely people in the pub, who had a horse they wanted to loan; their daughter had done dressage on her but the horse didn’t like it,” she said. “I went to see Alina and fell in love straight away. They were happy for me to have her on loan, and we had the best time.

“Then, a year ago, they said: ‘We need to talk to you about Alina,” and my heart sank. They said they needed to sell her and I said ‘I completely understand. But I can’t afford her’. And they said ‘Do you not have £1?’ I got my shopping trolley pound out of the car and gave it to them.”

Then there was devastation again when Eric died.

“When I lost that special horse, I almost gave up again,” Jayne said. “I was very poorly last year with an infected gallbladder; I was lying in hospital thinking ‘That’s it, I’m a goner’. So I made a bucket list’.”

This included jumping at the Blue Chip Winter Showjumping Championships, on Alina, and Dakuno, who is owned by Sarah Hedges.

“She messaged me after Eric died and said ‘I’ve got a horse for you’,” Jayne said. “She said he was 16.2hh. I’m 4’11”, and when I rocked up there was this great big horse. I said ‘I’m not getting on that, he’s enormous’.”

Jayne jumped Juno, after which she said Sarah “nagged” her to take him on. He and Jayne have not had a pole down this year, including at Hickstead.

“I saved hard for it,” Jayne said. “Everyone there was lovely, and when I got there, and walked down that long walk, I thought ‘Wow’.

“I knew what I wanted to do there; I’d told my coach Claire Chambers I wanted to do the 1.10 derby and she said ‘You’ve got this’. And to jump some 1.15s beforehand, to be prepared. And I wasn’t put off; I’ve made another goal to jump the 1.20m derby next year, on my £1 pony.”

Jayne said the whole show was an “amazing experience”, also walking the Hickstead Derby course and watching the professionals do their thing.

“Isn’t that the beauty of showjumping?” she said “To be able to compete alongside them. And I spent all my savings to go, and had my £5,000 lorry next to one that must have cost £400,000, but you’re treated as if you’re just as important; Hickstead does it right.”

Jayne went home with four rosettes, as well as the memories.

“I didn’t win a class or a rug, but I came away feeling as if I had,” she said. “I jumped my first 1.10 derby, won the rosettes – which are on display in the pub – had the best time ever, and achieved my goal, so I felt like a winner. I’m proud of them both, and proud that I was determined to do it. When you’re so ill, and thinking about how you’re going to carry on, and find the willpower and strength to say ‘This is my bucket list’ – you don’t know what’s round the corner, and life is too short.”

Jayne added that she wanted to thank Claire, who “has given me the confidence to go to Hickstead and achieve my lifetime goal”, and also the Moose drink company, which paid for her stabling.

“The man from Moose who comes in the pub organised it, and without that, I wouldn’t have been able to go,” she said. “He’s a good man, and his vodka’s pretty good too – I had a swig before I jumped my derby!”

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