Obituaries
CAPT DICK SEAMAN
CAPT SEAMAN, a familiar figure on the eventing circuit for many years, died on 15 Febuary aged 95.
Born in Jamaica in 1922, he served in the Royal Artillery after Harrow and, while in India during the war, rode in Flat races and was secretary of the Quetta Hunt, whose quarry was jackal.
He was aide-de-camp to the governor of Bermuda and returned to the UK to teach at the RMA Sandhurst, where he took up four-in-hand driving. He was later elected as a member of the Coaching Club.
He jumped out of Dakotas, flew a Tiger Moth and competed in motorbike trial riding. He also completed the Cresta Run.
As an amateur rider he was a member of the National Champion Riding Club showjumping team with the Hawley Riding Club, and enjoyed many years’ hunting with the Garth and South Berks.
A successful businessman after leaving the army, he enjoyed a year as master of the Worshipful Company of Launderers.
Capt Seaman was a BHS horse trials steward and cross-country steward at the popular Windsor three-day event.
He owned three Badminton and Burghley runners, Cabaret, Copper John and The Reverend, as well as Aintree Fox Hunters’ completer Ballyvoneen.
He also bred the Olympic Team gold medallist Justin Thyme, out of Cabaret.
His hospitality at eventing venue hotels or point-to-point car boots was enjoyed by many.
He is survived by his wife
Fiona, children Julian and Katie, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
ERNEST TEMPLETON MCMILLEN
A LEADING figure in the Pony Club, Mr McMillen died on 21 February aged 89.
Mr McMillen led the organisation from 1985 to
1991 and would visit branches across the British Isles, as well as the largest and smallest area competitions to meet as many members and volunteers as possible. One of his successes was the creation of the Pony Club’s centre membership.
Mr McMillen was an entrepreneur and ran an insurance brokerage in Belfast, owned a hotel in Newtownards, Co. Down, and turned around the fortunes of a carpet factory in Saintfield.
He was also an international rally driver and finished 19th in the 1960 Monte Carlo rally.
He took up riding in his mid30s when his children developed an interest in horses and went on to serve as master of North Down foxhounds from 1978 to 1982.
Mr McMillen was made a life vice-president of the Pony Club in 2000 and was appointed MBE in 2004.
DAVID BARONS
THE Grand National-winning trainer died in February aged 81.
Mr Barons saddled more than 950 winners during his 33-year training career. He is best known for his 1991 Grand National winner Seagram, one of a number of top horses Mr Barons imported from New Zealand.
He also had back-to-back victories in the Hennessy Gold Cup, now the Ladbrokes Trophy, at Newbury, with Broadheath in 1986, followed by Playschool in 1987 — both of whom were ridden by Paul Nicholls.
The 10-time champion trainer said he had his “best spell as a jockey” while working for Mr Barons and also enjoyed his time there as assistant trainer after retiring from race-riding.
JANET DIANNE BETTELL-HIGGINS
A FOUNDER member of Kipling County Carriage Driving, Mrs Bettell-Higgins died on 22 January aged 73.
As a child, she would help with ponies on Hunstanton beach at weekends and would also assist with transporting holidaymakers in a trap from the railway station.
After she left school, she spent a year training at an Arab stud near Norwich, after which she went on to a job with the Kirby Cane Welsh Pony Stud.
Mrs Bettell-Higgins married her husband Larry in 1965 and spent the following two years working under Nancy Wheeler at Home Farm Riding Stables in Norfolk.
She went on to form the Battenhurst Riding & Livery Yard and also enjoyed many successes in driving trials.
In 1985 she joined a Riding for the Disabled Association group at Heron's Ghyll, co-founding her own group, Kipling County Carriage Driving, in 1996, which is still going strong today.
VICKI MACRAE
THE highly respected former showing judge, competitor and trainer has died aged 75 after a long illness.
Mrs Macrae, who also enjoyed hunting and team chasing — the latter with the Odds and Sods — was renowned for her passionate love of horses.
Among her successful show animals were working cob Mr Chippendale, who was virtually unbeaten on the county circuit; middleweight hunter Ratzo Ritzo and home-bred coloured mare Beryl, who gave her a highly prized best turned-out award from a class of more than 40 at the Royal International Horse Show.
Mrs Macrae also enjoyed training individuals to achieve their personal bests, and once coached Britain’s Olympic pentathletes in the equestrian phase of the competition. She also ran Stocklands Equestrian Centre for several years.
She was a member of five judging panels and, with her longtime partner Cliff Jarvis as leggerup, once officiated at Richmond, Swansea and Burnley shows on three successive days, clocking up more than 660 miles and riding more than 230 horses.
Mrs Macrae’s funeral takes place at 2.15pm on 15 March at Guildford Crematorium.