Animals are an anchor to normality

DEBORAH MEADEN

Multi-millionaire Deborah, 61, best known as a regular on Dragons’ Den, lives with her husband Paul in a former farmhouse in Somerset. Here she tells what got her through lockdown, and what she’s most looking forward to...

Aged six or seven, I’d hang around Minehead seafront near my childhood home and watch the pony rides. In the end they let me help, not something that would be allowed today.

‘When I was 11, I bought a pony for £50 with money I’d saved from doing little jobs like washing cars and walking dogs. I saved another £50 to pay a farmer to let Apollo, as I called him, live in his field. He was an ex-riding school pony, a skinny little thing that I loved with all my heart.

‘There were other horses through my teens, but it wasn’t until 15 years ago, when my life gave me the time to enjoy them properly, that I got seriously back into horses. I’m not one who wants to jump on a horse every Saturday and expect other people to groom them. I want to be around them all the time.

‘I currently have four retired horses and two riding horses, Summer and Beau, which I keep with my sister Gail, who lives 20 minutes away. I’m riding every day now for a good hour-and-a-half on bridleways or back roads.

‘I’m much nicer when

I’ve been riding. Animals have no idea what’s going on in the outside world so they offer a lovely anchor to normality, which has been precious during lockdown. It’s very rare my head gets a rest: I’m always thinking about stuff. But when riding, you have to concentrate – and that’s very good for your sanity.

‘Paul usually does all the cooking at home. I’ve never cooked, but in lockdown I’ve been experimenting. I don’t eat meat so I’ve taught myself to make a very nice Chinese sweet and sour veggie stir-fry.

‘And as a child of the 70s and 80s I love funk music, so I’ve taken the time to build up a Spotify library. My favourite is Supernatural Thing by Ben E King. If you were a fly on the wall, you would see me bopping round my kitchen to that while I’m cooking. ‘Lockdown has also given me a chance to re-evaluate. When it was announced on 23 March, I spoke to all the people involved in my businesses and urged them to think about the long-term changes we were going to make when we came out the other side. And every single business has found something they’ll be doing better post-covid.

‘As for me – and I know how lucky this makes me – I’m going to mark out four times a week in my diary for riding. I’ll also make time to go dancing with Paul. In 2013 I was on Strictly and, unbeknown to me, my husband was taking secret dancing lessons so that when I was voted off, we could dance together. We’d been doing that ever since, up until the pandemic. I can’t wait to get started again.’

As told to richard barber. deborah supports the brooke charity which helps relieve the suffering of working horses, donkeys And mules, thebrooke.org

Deborah with some of her famous rivals on Dragons’ Den