Lockdown taught me to seize life by the ears. My horse Nelly is beautiful
As her book review show, Between The Covers continues, Sara Cox talks to ABI JACKSON about buying herself a pony during the pandemic and why these are her ‘golden years’
DURING lockdown, Sara Cox managed to do something she’d been wanting for a very long time. She got a horse – and her “work-life balance has massively improved” as a result.
“I’d not had my own horse for 30 years, and I always wanted to get back round to it,” explains the BBC radio and TV host, who developed a life-long love for the animals while growing up on her dad’s farm near Bolton, Greater Manchester.
Sara rode as a child and even worked as a groom for a showjumping couple before moving to London to pursue modelling, then forging a broadcasting career. Horses remained a side-love though, and she’s twice ridden in Goodwood charity race the Magnolia Cup.
She lights up talking about Nelly, her pandemic purchase. “The last 10 years, I’d really been thinking about it, and the last five years really, ‘Oh I’ve got to get onto this’. Lockdown really taught me you’ve got to seize life by the ears. So I got Nelly a year ago and she’s beautiful.
“She’s at a livery so she gets looked after, but nobody else rides her, so I have to make the time to be up five days out of seven and riding her. Fresh air and being out with the horizons and the sky, it’s lovely. We just had a little canter today. A little fox popped up, there are bunny rabbits and I’m trotting around. I’m going full-on Disney princess.”
It wasn’t all galloping in fields, however. Sara also managed to write another book in lockdown – this time a debut novel, Thrown, due out next May. It follows 2019’s Till The Cows Come Home: A Lancashire Childhood, her bestselling memoir which revealed a childhood full of countryside capers, a far cry from the London ‘ladette’ scene Sara became famous for in the Nineties. But whether partying, presenting, writing or pottering in stables, something that always seems to have been present is Sara’s easy wit and friendly, chatty charm.
Today, she is also a mum of three – Lola, 17 (from her first marriage to DJ Jon Carter) Isaac, 13, and Renee, 11, with husband Ben Cyzer. They’re all, thankfully, recovering from the trials of homeschooling and, despite the early mornings, Sara is glad Nelly has added another string to her wellbeing bow.
“Normally, I cycle into the radio and back most days, I’m all about the endorphins really. That’s how I look after myself mentally,” says Sara. They’ve installed a Peloton bike in the garage too. “So I’ll go and do a bit of that,” says Sara. “I’ve got my brother’s Iron Man T-shirt and medal there to inspire me, so I’ll look at that as I’m puffing and panting.” Her brother, David Cox, died in late 2019 of an undiagnosed heart condition. He was only 56.
It’s clear Sara has a strong sense of taking care of herself, weaving exercise and relaxation into her day, along with ever-present humour and that refreshing knack of keeping things real.
Fortunately she didn’t lose her ability to concentrate on reading during the pandemic. Just as well, as she had a lot of books to get through for BBC Two’s Between The Covers. The first series aired in 2020 and a third one’s on TV now.
“It’s just the most lovely job to be given a big stack of books and to be able to call it work”, quips Sara. “I feel better when I read. I sleep better,” she says. “At night, if I’m not doing a food shop online, I often write the next day’s opening link, and then I’ll fall into an Instagram hole. You start looking at stuff and then you’re swallowed up and it’s nearly 11... pretty late for me.”
Sara has always been a keen reader, but admits she’s “completely awe-struck by a good book” now she knows just how much work is involved. “I’ve always admired authors. To be able to grab you by the scruff of your neck and drag you into a story is a real skill.”
The idea of hosting Between The Covers left her a little intimidated initially: “I was like, ‘Oh God, can I sit in a room with four other people who are all going to be smarter and better read than me?”’
In the end though, she thought, “’So what if they are?’ It really doesn’t matter.” Plus, that sense that something is going to “scare me a little” and “give me a bit of a fire in my belly” is something Sara has come to look for.
“And if something gets me genuinely excited,” she says. “I’m not bothered about what will get me exposure, it’s not really about that. I feel like I’ve found a really good home on BBC Two. I love the shows I do. Love In The Countryside, that taps into my upbringing and with my dad being a farmer.” And she likes keeping a bit of live TV in the mix, as it’s “using a different bit of your brain” than writing and radio.
“I’m really lucky, there’s a nice range of work I’m doing at the moment,” Sara reflects. “It feels like the golden years.”
■ Watch Between The Covers with Sara Cox every Wednesday on BBC2 at 7.30pm and iplayer