The first rider to win London’s heritage championship four times reveals she’s ‘still winging it; still trying to prove myself’
Discover how Katy Marriott-Payne started out at the bottom – finishing last two years on the trot in London – before becoming one of the country’s most successful showing riders and producers, how she’s worked at her craft and built up her team, in this exclusive article for H&H subscribers
With 20 ponies to produce, showing producer Katy Marriott-Payne looks set to pick up last season’s winning thread. Katy entered the London International’s prestigious heritage championship in 2025 as one of just three riders to have won the title three times. She left the arena as the first to have won it four times.
A few months later, she says the win remains “a bit surreal. It’s something that I’d really wanted to do for a long time.”
Still, she wasn’t convinced that it would happen despite knowing that her reigning champion, Felicity Thompson’s Dartmoor Salcombe Starehole Bay “had it in him”.
“He was special from the day he arrived and he’d already come so close to winning it being reserve in 2022,” Katy says. “But things didn’t go to plan there on his last visit, and at that time, there was a lot of talk about adults riding the small breeds, which really affected me. I thought maybe there was a certain amount of prejudice against adult riders and judges were being forced to favour the children. I started to question whether I should be riding a small breed.
“Luckily, I pulled myself together. I’m happy riding him and he’s happy with me. The people around me told me to stick at it and I’m glad I did.”
“Cecil’s” win at London was especially sweet. Just a few weeks before his triumph at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) in 2022, Felicity suffered a near-fatal kick to the head.
“It was still so raw at HOYS,” recalls Katy. “We still didn’t know if she was going to survive. He’d already been champion at Royal International [RIHS], but knowing a HOYS win was something Felicity really wanted to achieve with a home-bred meant that as great as it was, it was also really sad for us. Having her at London made it all the more special.”
Katy’s team fielded five in the championship, with three taking top 10 places. Kimberly Bates finished seventh on Garthfach Classic Addition (Daffodil) – already HOYS and Hickstead-bound again – and Maisie Kerry-Oates punctuated a stellar year finishing fourth and highest-placed junior with reigning RIHS junior champion, Cadlanvalley Royal Bronze (Ozzie).
“They’re both ponies who have had real highs and lows and that I’ve had from breaking in,” she says, adding, “That’s something I’m proud of actually – all four of my London winners all started their careers with me.”
The win came almost 30 years after she first rode there in 1997.
“Mandy Jackson had two qualified that year and I was lucky enough to get a ride.
“I finished last and I was last the following year when I qualified my own pony – Crown Royale, a section B I bought from Mandy – for the first time. Showing looks like all we have to do is walk, trot and canter. But, it’s an art. It takes time.”
An art that Katy feels she is still striving to master.
“I’m still winging it. There’s still so much to learn and understand. And showing’s evolved; it’s different now. I’m still trying to prove myself.”
This mindset is possibly, it transpires, the residual of her father’s attitude towards her hobby, and later, profession.
“He always said, ‘no, don’t do it’. He wanted me to have a ‘proper job’ and was quite anti-ponies. It made me really have to dig deep because it would have been very easy to give in and do something else. He certainly taught me to graft and to work for it; nothing’s come easy.”
The encouragement to pursue horses came from producer Andrea Boyle and Katy’s mother.
“Mum worked an extra job to pay for the ponies,” Katy says. “I had natives at home and plaited ponies with Andrea, who was a proper old-fashioned horsewoman. She had a mixed yard of all sorts and I rode whatever I was put on, whether it was a three-year-old or her HOYS hack. It gave me the best grounding.
“At that time, you don’t realise that you’re learning; you just live and breathe it. It’s only now as I look back on the opportunities that I was given that I am so grateful; the path that my mum put me on helped me get to where I am now.”
Emulating Andrea’s mixed lot, Katy’s early strings consisted of plaiteds and natives.
“The first year I rode M&Ms at HOYS, I came out of the small hunters, put my joddy boots on and went into the tent at Wembley on a section A. I remember rushing to change my boots; nothing’s changed.”
Their introduction to the HOYS schedule was a driving factor behind her increasing focus on natives.
“A lady whose Dartmoor I used to school asked me why the pony didn’t just come and live with me? Then the ponies just kept coming because I was so small. I’ve done plaited ponies since, but my heart’s with the native ponies now.”
Were there points when she felt she’d made it?
“The year I had my son, Thomas – 2006 – we were show pony champion at HOYS with Anton Princess Nadia. I still didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing or was good enough. I was just fortunate that I did what I did and it seemed to work. Winning that, because it was something I never thought I would, is one of my proudest achievements.”
If not to herself, she’s proven capable to others in the interim 20 years.
She’s proved formidable in the workers, too.
“It makes me giggle: people ask if I fancy trying the workers; they don’t realise that my first HOYS win was in the workers, with Callmore Bobby Zoda – a Connemara – in 1993.”
The pair went on to stand reserve champion, a spot she later occupied with Hilin Prince Dafydd, and bettered at the RIHS with the inimitable 2003 Olympia champion, Stowbrook Jenny Wren.
“She won the flats and was worker champion on the same day. I was last to jump and didn’t walk the course because we were in the flat championship. I remember I had a flat, hard show saddle, but I don’t remember jumping. Jenny was so special and set me on my way.
“Nowadays I’m just happy watching Kimberley and Maisie in the workers.”
Already this season, they’ve given her pleasing rounds to watch and much to feel proud of – Maisie and Ozzie picked up a stellar win and a tricolour in the M&M workers at Royal Windsor this term against some heavyweight competition.
With enviable highlights behind her and a string of 20 for this season, what keeps Katy motivated?
“You’ve got to have dreams to keep going, because getting to the top is hard, but staying there is exhausting. A HOYS supreme is the one that could keep me going for a bit longer.”
Her team – namely longstanding members Alice Tomlinson and Kimberley Bates – are also a key influence.
“My body is complaining these days, but I’m still young at heart and I love having the girls around,” she says. “I’ve never wanted to do this job on my own – it can be very lonely. It’s hard to have the drive when it’s lonely and cold and miserable.
“People only see the highs; they see the success and the smiles, but not every day is like that. They keep me going; I know it’s a cliche, but we really are a good team.”
Happy clients and happy ponies
The team spirit is clearly extended to clients, too.
“A few have been around a long time; we know each other so well. It’s come full circle and I now have Mandy Jackson’s ponies, and I feel I’ve known her forever now. I met Charlotte Laurens and Chris Phillips – Daffodil’s owners – as a child at Andrea’s.
“We won HOYS with Jess Harrison’s 123cm show hunter pony and took her to Olympia, and I’m now producing her daughter Aurelia’s pony. And Kathleen Scott arrived when her daughter Catherine was a child, and now she’s grown up.”
Kathleen rejoins the show team this year after a few years out of showing. Although, she never really left the yard; her Cadlanvalley Sandpiper, or “Sammy”, now 20, has remained with Katy.
“He’s the king,” she says of her third London winner.
She adds: “It’s lovely to have Kathleen back on the show team. I try to surround myself with the right people. Having your pony with a producer takes a huge amount of trust and I never take that for granted; they know they don’t have to worry when their pony’s with me.”
Keeping her clients in the loop has spurred her – somewhat reluctantly – into sharing more results on social media.
“I’m happy for the ponies’ results to speak for themselves in the ring. But I don’t mind sharing to the team page anymore as some clients aren’t always at shows, so won’t see a photo unless I buy one. And the kids on the yard love it; I share to share their successes.”
She also recognises it as a modern “shop window”.
”We have clients abroad now, and there’s huge interest from other countries in our showing and our natives. For that reason, it is good to have a platform where you can share the ponies with the rest of the world.”
Client satisfaction means careful planning, too.
“I try not to spread myself too thin. I don’t take my own ponies if it’s a busy day for my clients’ ponies, or if I have ponies for the children on the lorry, so that I can give them more time. While I’m still doing so much riding myself, I also try to limit the number of children’s ponies I have because they need time. It’s all planning – a side people don’t see!”
Pony satisfaction is also a priority.
“Mine are very much normal ponies that are happy showing. I think if things start to look a bit stale, then the last thing they want to do is go back on the lorry. It’s something I’m very mindful of.”
She concedes, though, this isn’t always easy.
“Ponies aren’t ‘one-shoe-fits-all’. You can think you have a formula and another pony comes along that makes you go back to the drawing board and scratch your brains. But that side of it I like because you’ve got to keep challenging yourself and evolving.”
It seems she’s not slowing down any time soon, then.
“Every year I start going through a time when I think I’ll retire,” she laughs. “But showing’s addictive and though we all know it can be really difficult on the down days. The highs give you a buzz that makes you want more of it.”
6 ponies on Katy’s yard to watch out for this season
Cadlanvalley Eldorado
Kathleen Scott’s Cadlanvalley Eldorado – a grandson of Katy’s former HOYS flat champion Cadlanvalley Buzby – was purchased from Katy having stood 2025 Picton novice champion. “He has big shoes to fill, but he’s matured loads and so he’s ready to do slightly more exciting things.” He looks set to give the team a lot of fun this term, picking up a second in the first Welsh B qualifier of the year at NPS Area 25.
Loxleigh Eye Candy
Louise Schafer’s Loxleigh Eye Candy – an eight-eight-year-old Connemara mare has had four foals and will debut under saddle this time.
Clanmill Sand Dollar
Katy’s own novice section B, Clanmill Sand Dollar recently made his ring debut a winning one, and is set to cover Katy’s own Clanmill Leteika Miracle.
Linksbury Dazzling Diamond
Linksbury Dazzling Diamond – also Louise’s – was purchased as a yearling from the sales, and now four, is turning heads in novice ranks already this term. “She’s really cool,” Katy says.
Marchmanors Mr BoJangles
Elaine Arnold’s Marchmanors Mr BoJangles hit the circuit last season under Katy, qualifying for HOYS and London despite being low in mileage. He’s “all grown up, now,” and hit the junior ranks with panache at the beginning of this season, standing second in the first qualifier of the season ridden by Heidi Cooper.
Castlehill Emperors Last
Castlehill Emperors Last – owned by Mandy Jackson recently made his ring debut and “loved it. He has got a tonne of winter coat to lose but there is a gorgeous pony underneath it!”
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Bethan joined Horse & Hound as showing editor in January 2025, after spending two years as Editor for Showing World. Having adored ponies since childhood, she started showing as a teenager and has enjoyed wins at major shows up and down the country, including Royal Highland, New Forest, and the Royal Welsh, as well as HOYS, RIHS and London. She is particularly passionate about Welsh breeds and is also a Welsh language commentator.