My inspiration
By event rider Laura Collett
IT was just before her big Grand Slam year in 2003 that I really took notice of Pippa Funnell. I was showing then, and wanted to get into something more exciting. I joined the Pony Club and fell in love with eventing.
I admired the way Pippa produced the horses on the flat, and how gritty she was across country. She didn’t worry about what she looked like, she just got the job done. She could also do it on so many different horses and I liked how she and her horses were always turned out so beautifully.
We first met when we travelled out together to the World Cup final in Deauville in 2008. It was my first year in young riders and she took me under her wing. It was surreal — she was so lovely — and suddenly she went from a rider I watched on television to someone I could have a chat to.
She had been very successful at juniors and young riders as well, and advised me to “enjoy everything as it happens because horses are horses and you never know what’s round the corner”.
I learnt that very quickly — seniors is a different ball game.
Pippa looks at herself first if something’s gone wrong, she doesn’t automatically blame the horse. That’s always stuck with me.
‘It was surreal — suddenly she
went from a rider I watched on television to someone I could have a chat to’