JEAN TRAQUAIR THOMSON
THE former jockey and respected horsewoman died on 3 February, aged 98.
Jean was the most successful Scottish female jockey of her generation, riding 52 winners in point-to-points between 1946 and 1979.
She was born in Lambden, Berwickshire, in 1925. She and her sister Margaret were founder members of the Berwickshire branch of the Pony Club and regularly seen on the hunting field. Her father Moffat, brother David and nephew Sandy all acted as master and huntsman of the Berwickshire hounds.
After the war, Jean concentrated on breeding ponies, point-to-pointing and gardening, with a special interest in roses.
Her 52 pointing winners may not be many by today’s standards, but ladies’ races were only open to adjacent hunts and some seasons there were only two or three races she was eligible to ride in.
Her best season was 1972 when, aged 46, she was leading rider and overall winner in the newly formed Point-to-Point Authority northern area. She achieved this with two horses – the home-bred Border Rag, who went on to be placed at the Cheltenham Festival, and Young Laird, owned by Fiona
Meiklejohn (Lochore). Laird had been round Badminton and Burghley, but lost his love for eventing, so went hunting and racing.
Jean won on 16 horses for 11 owners. When she stopped race-riding, she reported on point-to-points for newspapers.
She was also a successful showjumper and judged pony classes at shows including the Royal Highland and the Border Union Show.
The garden at Lambden was where she was happiest, having taken charge of it after the war. She carried on running it largely on her own well into her 80s. Her devotion is captured in the words carved in stone in front of one of the benches in the garden, taken from a poem by Dorothy Frances Blomfield Gurney: “One is nearer
God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on Earth.”