The Daily Telegraph

Sheila Willcox

Eventer who had three consecutiv­e wins at Badminton but was excluded from the Olympic team

- Sheila Willcox, born March 12 1936, died June 9 2017

SHEILA WILLCOX, who has died aged 81, was one of the best three-day event riders that Britain has ever produced; as the first woman to win both team and individual gold medals in the European Championsh­ips, she paved the way for women eventers to be included in the Olympic Games; meanwhile her record of three consecutiv­e wins at the Badminton Horse Trials, from 1957 to 1959, remains unbroken.

Remarkably, however, Sheila Willcox was born (at Sutton Coldfield on March 12 1936) into a family with no interest in horses whatever. She described her household as “entirely suburban, based on business and academic careers and given to rugger, tennis, golf and bridge-playing”.

She began her riding career aged four, spending her pocket money on pony rides on the beach at Lytham, near Blackpool, and got her first pony, Folly, aged 10. Though the animal was 18 months old and unbroken, within six months Folly was sufficient­ly rideable to be taken to the local agricultur­al show. “She was pulled in third,” Sheila Willcox recalled, “and finished second when number two disgraced himself by playing the bucking bronco. So I won my first rosette; no other has ever thrilled me so much.”

Though she became an enthusiast­ic Pony Club member, her parents were adamant that she should not do anything so unladylike as become a show jumper, and they were sceptical in 1953 when, aged 16, she bought a six-year-old Arab/pony cross named High and Mighty. She called him “Chips”, and with characteri­stic determinat­ion set about training herself and her horse for three-day events, teaching herself dressage from Henry Wynmalen’s book, Dressage, and later taking instructio­n from Colonel Edy Goldmann.

In 1955 she rode her first three-day event, and the following year was thrilled to come second at Badminton.

When Sheila Willcox and High and Mighty won their first Badminton trophy in 1957, they led the competitio­n from start to finish. They won the title again the following year, with a 22-point lead after dressage, and a 47-point lead by the end of the event. She went on to compete later that year in the European Championsh­ips, earning both team and individual gold medals. She would win another team gold in 1959.

In 1957 Sports Illustrate­d suggested that “because of this pretty English girls’ many triumphs, changes may be made to the Olympic rules [to allow women to compete in eventing]”, but it was not to be for several more years. Before the 1956 Olympic events, held in Stockholm, High and Mighty had been sold to Ted Marsh in the hope that he would be selected for the team. But the horse was not considered for selection and Sheila later bought him back.

Meanwhile she attended the Stockholm Olympics as a spectator and correspond­ent for the equestrian annual, L’année Hippique. The British team took gold but her omission from it clearly rankled. “Without wanting to appear a militant feminist,” she wrote, “I … think the element of danger is in ratio to intelligen­t riding, and that should an unlucky accident happen to a woman instead of a man, she will show equal fortitude and endurance, as well as possibly less sustained shock due to the relief of feminine tears.”

It was not until Helena du Pont competed for the US at the 1964 Tokyo Games that eventing saw its first woman representi­ng her country.

Sheila Willcox returned to Badminton in 1959 with the sevenyear-old Airs and Graces, who had competed in his first three-day event just six months previously. She won the dressage, and a rail down in the show jumping ring by David Somerset saw her to victory for the third consecutiv­e year. The Telegraph’s correspond­ent observed that “not only has this young woman won the cup for three years in succession, but she has done it on two different horses produced by herself. This is a feat that is likely to stand as a record.” Typically, she was angry when, the third time her name appeared on the Badminton Trophy, it was in her married name – Waddington.

Altogether Sheila Willcox won eight major eventing titles. She also won Little Badminton in 1964, riding Glenamoy. A bad fall in 1971 at Tidworth Horse Trials, however, left her partially paralysed. As a result she gave up eventing and focused on dressage, going on to win several Grand Prix titles on Son and Heir. She later became coach to the Canadian eventing team for the 1976 Montreal Olympics and for many years she ran her own stables in the Cotswolds.

In her autobiogra­phy, the future Olympian Mary King, who began her career in Sheila Willcox’s yard, described her unforgivin­g regime: “We had to Windolene the stable windows inside and out, twice a week, and the horses had to be turned out to perfection. [Sheila] would come along with a white glove and run her hand over them. If there was a piece of straw in its tail, you were fined. And it was all done to the clock. Bloomin’ hard work, but if I hadn’t gone there, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Sheila Willcox published two books: Three Days Running (1958), about her upbringing and early career, and The Event Horse (1973), a training book with a foreword by Princess Anne.

Her marriage to John Waddington was dissolved and in later life she lived in Cheltenham. She is survived by a son.

 ??  ?? Sheila Willcox on High and Mighty in 1957: she also became the first woman to win both team and individual gold medals in the European Championsh­ips
Sheila Willcox on High and Mighty in 1957: she also became the first woman to win both team and individual gold medals in the European Championsh­ips

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