Best of my fun... Four-star eventer Beanie Sturgis
The four-star eventer on neck straps, crochet patterns and vodka jellies
A neck strap. I ride everything with one, even when I’m judging show horses. I’m sure everyone thinks I’m terribly windy, but if they want to follow me around Badminton, they can.
The biggest mistake I’ve made…
Buying horses with bad conformation.
My cross-country schooling tip…
Once you’re warmed up, get going in a rhythm and don’t stop. A lot of people jump three or four fences, stop for a breather then jump three or four fences more. For me, that’s not the way I’d want to school cross-country. I like to jump all the fences I want to jump and if I have to go back and jump them again, so be it.
Saving time around the yard…
Don’t have coffee breaks. By the time you’ve made a cup, you could have been riding a horse.
My favourite restaurant…
The Vine Tree at Norton, Wiltshire. It has really good food and wild nights when you want them. They’re brilliant there. I was 13 and going into the showjumping at the area trials. I could have had three fences down and our team would have won and qualified for the Pony Club championships. I heard a hoot and off I went, but it wasn’t the bell — it was a car horn, and I got the team eliminated. Now whenever I go into an arena, I have to look at the clock to check whether the bell’s gone.
Best event party…
We had a pre-party at Blenheim the year the Europeans were held there in 2005. Julie Tew and I were in charge of it and we made £1,000-worth of vodka jellies. A lot of the European riders had never seen one before so they thought they were fine and not that dangerous, but there were people unconscious all over the place. Two riders ended up in hospital being stomach-pumped.
Getting away from it all…
Before children, it would have been skiing. Now it would be an island called Pabbay in the Outer Hebrides. There’s no electricity, no phone signal — it’s just magic. A Welsh section A called Fonty. I got her when I was three and she was two. She was a gorgeous little pony and so sweet. We now have a pony called Nellie for my children and she reminds me of Fonty.
Most memorable win…
The mothers’ race at school. And I ran bloody fast!
‘My first pony Fonty would trot along then stop dead to eat grass and I’d fly over her head’
Settling down with…
My annual subscription to Crochet World.
Earliest equestrian memory…
My first pony Fonty would trot along then stop dead to eat grass and I’d fly over her head.
My biggest indulgence is…
Hunting. I absolutely love it.
What I’d tell my 15-year-old-self…
Look after your friends, tell the truth and always be kind.
The funniest advice I’ve received…
In Australia breaking in polo ponies, Dubbo, a wise old gnarly stockman, said to me: “Always remember Bean, you can’t make strawberry jam out of goat shit.” Gloucestershire-based Beanie Sturgis, 43, gained her bestever Badminton result and four-star placing in 2016, 11th with Lebowski. In 2017 she was awarded an Armada Dish
(the prize awarded for completing the competition at Badminton five times). Beanie is also a Beaufort field master, a listed show judge and a crosscountry course-designer. Treborough Hill on the edge of Exmoor — it has the best ground I’ve ever ridden on. I remember going there in the height of summer when everywhere else was like a road. It was a good educational event for the young horses too.