Vain Aidan chooses horses for courses

ANYONE thinking that Poldark star Aidan Turner might be a bit vain would seemingly be spot on! The 34-year-old, who plays the titular Ross Poldark in the hit BBC show, admits that he ended up choosing a smaller horse to ride in the series – just so he would appear bigger by comparison.

“When I first went up to Yorkshire to choose a horse, Seamus wasn’t my favourite,” he says of his long-faced co-star which he has been riding since the first episode in 2015. “Initially I preferred a horse called Jonny Wilkinson because he’s a lot bigger… The two of us together made Mark

[Seamus’ owner] quite nervous so he persuaded me to go with Seamus,” he tells Radio Times.

“Cleverly he said, ‘You look great on Jonny but you look better on Seamus – he’s smaller, so he makes you look bigger.’

“I immediately switched horse! He certainly knew what to say to convince me.”

Yet, despite the Irishman initially favouring the horse named after England’s rugby world cup winning fly-half, once he’d met Seamus properly he realised they were kindred spirits, adding: “I think we have a similar personality, you know? And we’re both Irish… Seamus is from Cork and Mark says that he reacts to my accent, which makes sense. My dad’s side of the family were from Westmeath, which is north of Dublin. Proper countryside, so they were always riding.”

We bet it wasn’t on smaller horses to make themselves look bigger though!