Gracie’s loss still ‘devastating’ for pals a year after her tragic death

RIDING FRIENDS ARE CREATING HORSE JUMP IN HER HONOUR

IT has been just over a year since the tragic death of Gracie Spinks in a field in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, but despite all the time that has passed those who knew her are still missing her dearly.

Claire Barley was friends with Miss Spinks through their love of horses and the pair would often meet up and chat at Eckington Horse Riding Club.

She said: “I think the whole of the local equestrian world is still left shocked and devastated. I don’t think it has got any easier,” Claire, 48, who works at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, told the Derby Telegraph.

She has set up a fundraising campaign to have a horse riding jump made for the club in Miss Spinks’ honour – a campaign that has already exceeded its £700 target.

It was on the morning of Friday, June 18, 2021, when Miss Spinks was found in a field off Tom Lane and Staveley Road in Duckmanton, where she kept her beloved horse, Paddy. She was pronounced dead at 8.50am with an inquest later hearing she had died from a stab wound to her neck.

At her funeral just over a month later, hundreds of people lined the streets of Chesterfield to pay their respects as her body was carried through the town to Old Whittington Church, where she was laid to rest.

There have since been calls for a change in the law to protect women against stalkers – Miss Spinks was attacked by a man she used to work with before he took his own life close to the scene.

Mrs Barley said the idea for the memorial jump in Miss Spinks’ honour came from friends at Eckington Horse Riding Club. She said: “I’ve known Gracie for quite a few years through the horse world.

“We learnt about a commemorative show that our local riding show are doing on July 31 – it’s their 50th anniversary. We’ve been wanting to do something for a while to remember Gracie with, we knew it had to do with horses because that’s how we knew Gracie and that’s what Gracie loved the most.

“So we decided we’d like to commemorate her by presenting to the riding school a special tribute in the style of a special mermaid jump because Gracie was in love with mermaids, she believed them to be real, she really loved them.”

Along with the jump, the group have also organised a new fun class to be created in Miss Spinks’ memory and asked her mother to pick a name for it.

“We’ve put some suggestions to Gracie’s mum for what we’d like the class to be named and she’s chosen Gracie’s Charm, and that will be a new class introduced on July 31.”

As part of the class, riders will have one minute to tackle as many jumps as they can, then whoever scores the most points and clears the most jumps will have the chance to have a go at Miss Spinks’ fence, which will be bigger than the others.

“It’ll be a fun class because that’s what Gracie was, she was a fun young woman, she loved having fun with her friends, she loved her horse Paddy and to combine all of those things that’s what we wanted to do, Mrs Barley said.

She said that Paddy had gone on a holiday with the group in August 2021 – a trip Miss Spinks had been on before with her horse and was due to go on again prior to her death.

Since then Paddy has returned to the same field where he was at the time of the tragedy and is said to be happy there alongside one of his friends.

The fundraising campaign was launched only a few days ago and it has already surpassed the £700 target, meaning the jump, which is being designed and built in Wales, can be made and transported to Eckington Horse Riding Club.

The GoFundMe page remains open for anyone who wants to donate.

She was a fun young woman, she loved having fun with her friends, she loved her horse Paddy. Claire Barley