David Barker
Show jumper and huntsman chosen by the Prince of Wales as one of his ‘heroes of the countryside’
DAVID BARKER, who has died aged 83, was one of the most remarkable horsemen of the postwar years; he excelled in three demanding roles: as international show jumper, a producer of show horses, and as a huntsman who showed exceptional skills in crossing a stiff country.
A forthright Yorkshireman, Barker could ruffle feathers as well as make friends. But when the Prince of Wales, who often rode behind Barker in the Meynell and South Staffs country, guest edited Country Life in 2013, he nominated David Barker as one of his “heroes of the countryside”. As a show jumper, Barker had to cope with a crushing disappointment as well as many triumphs. In the team show jumping at the Rome Olympic Games in 1960 his horse, Franco, refused three times at a fence, thus eliminating the whole team.
“The horse was too green, and so was I,” Barker said. With typical grit he overcame the setback, and forged a superb partnership with Franco, going on to win international classes at leading shows in Rome, Rotterdam, Ostend and Geneva.
In 1962 at Madison Square Garden in New York Barker and John Massarella’s Mister Softee won the puissance class by clearing a 7ft 2in wall. That year he also won the European championship at the Royal International Horse Show at White City on Mister Softee, narrowly beating the German and Italian aces Hans Günter Winkler and Piero D’inzeo.
David Barker was born near York on September 22 1935, the son of a hunting farmer, Harold Barker, and his wife Bessie. David came through junior showjumping classes with much success, and went on to race over fences. His home life was not always smooth, however: his father ordered him off the farm, and David went to work at Chipperfield’s Circus for about 18 months before the rift was healed.
His racing connections led to Barker buying the thoroughbred racehorse Franco out of training in 1958; the horse had run good races, but was not quite fast enough. The partnership shot to the top in showjumping, perhaps too quickly, leading to the Rome debacle.
After their subsequent triumphs Barker sold the horse for a very large sum to a Swiss owner, but Franco was bought back into British showjumping by Robert Hanson, and went on to further success with Caroline Bradley.
Barker’s European winning mount, Mister Softee, later became the highly successful partner of David Broome.
With the money he made from selling Franco, Barker bought a stud in the Whaddon Chase country in Buckinghamshire. He embarked on a new career in making and showing top-class show hunters, winning championships and top placings in the major shows, including the Horse of the Year Show with Lady Zinnia Judd’s horses Balmoral, Whaddon Way and Silver Smith, and with Lady Bamford’s JCB.
Barker now devoted more time to foxhunting, his favourite sport since childhood. He became a close friend of Albert Buckle, the veteran huntsman of the Whaddon Chase country. Barker thoroughly enjoyed whipping-in to the huntsman, showing a flair in handling hounds as well as horses. His ability to cross the biggest country in front of hard-riding mounted fields was phenomenal.
When Buckle retired in 1980 Barker was his inevitable successor. Dorian Williams, senior Joint Master of the Whaddon Chase, wrote in his memoirs: “David Barker … is fearless, frequently jumping what appear to me singularly uninviting obstacles, particularly iron gates.”
The new town of Milton Keynes gobbled up much of the Whaddon Chase country, however, and the Hunt amalgamated in 1986 with the neighbouring Bicester and Warden Hill Hunt. Barker was appointed huntsman of the Meynell and South Staffs country, an ideal terrain for his skills: undulating pastures, divided by stiff thorn hedges alongside daunting scoops and drops.
In consequence the Meynell increasingly attracted well mounted followers behind the brilliant Field Master Phil Arthers Barker bred a good working pack which also won honours at Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show and elsewhere.
David Barker’s marriage to the show jumper Valerie Clark was later dissolved. His second wife, Elaine (née Redding), a keen huntswoman, helped him make a great success at the Meynell.
He retired as huntsman after 13 seasons, and became estate manager for Johnny Greenall, Joint Master of the Meynell. At their farmhouse in the Staffordshire hills, the Barkers embarked on a new hunting venture, kennelling the hounds of the Staffordshire Moorland pack, which hunted a country of moorland, grass and stone walls, and for a decade from 2003 Elaine Barker hunted these hounds effectively.
“I had a good teacher,” she observed. “David loved his riding career, but he was happiest of all in the hunting field.”
David Barker is survived by his wife, and by a son and two daughters from his first marriage.