Access all areas Italian event rider Vittoria Panizzon reveals how she manages her Gloucestershire yard
Catherine Austen visits the Italian eventer, who runs a relaxed yet professional yard where teamwork and wellbeing for horses and humans are paramount
IDO pinch myself every day,” says Vittoria Panizzon. We are standing in the garden of her large bungalow at Hollins Court Farm near Hartpury in Gloucestershire, overlooking acres of green, rolling fields with the Malvern Hills and the Cotswolds beyond. The Italian event rider bought the house, yard and accompanying 33 acres two and a half years ago, and has transformed the former DIY livery stables into something that rather reflects Vittoria herself: an efficient, professional, relaxed and slightly quirky set-up.
The Italian flag that flies over the yard indicates the heritage that she inherited from her father, who died when she was young.
The white-painted, blue-framed house and its burgeoning flower garden introduces the Scottish side of her parentage — Vittoria’s mother lives on Mull.
“When I broke my collarbone [in 2016] I got a load of plants from her and she gave me ‘gardening by numbers’: this one needs sun, this one needs shade, prune this at this time,” Vittoria says with a smile. “She comes down once a year and has a bit of a sort-out.”
It is difficult to imagine when she fits the gardening in around riding a full yard of event horses; she says she does speedy weeding between events.
“It’s the first time I have ever lived on-site, and this view makes me feel happy,” she says. “Working with horses brings long hours and a lot of challenges, but being able to say that this is mine makes it all worth it.”
Her bedroom, with a stunning view over fields, farmland and hills, also overlooks the vast tack room, approached through an arch between house and yard, which she built as the hub of her operation on moving in. It was built by a company belonging to one of her owners — Alan Morrison and his wife Mandy own two horses with Vittoria.
“They are kindly letting me offset some of the building costs against livery, which makes the dream tack room possible,” she says.
A wood burner, donated by David and Laura Redvers, whose Tweenhills Stud is just a couple of miles away, keeps the room warm in winter. The cabinets she found on eBay for 99p. Pariani saddles line the walls — and so does an enormous collection of ornate trophies, won by Vittoria in her youth in Italy.
“They are mostly plastic,” she laughs.
Next to the tack room is a wash bay, where Sweep (One Night Love) stands wearing an Equissage massage rug, warming up his muscles for galloping later.
Beyond that are clusters of stables — 23 in total — where horses live according to their preferences. Borough Pennyz, with whom Vittoria finished 11th at the London Olympics in 2012 and seventh at Badminton the following year, lives in the end box overlooking the open countryside.
“She is particular about her friends — she only likes advanced horses,” says Vittoria.
Most of the horses are out at night, but a few, like Pennyz, are suited to being in at night and out during the day. She shares a field with Woody (Merlots Magic), now retired from eventing and the yard mascot, who wanders around the yard almost completely free-range.
“He’s very busy because he has to supervise Pennyz in the daytime and Sweep at night,” Vittoria says.
“Turning out at night has a lot of benefits for us, from a logistical point of view and in terms of the amount of time they can spend in the field,” she says. “They settle better, are calmer and pick up fewer injuries. It is better for their joints and for their digestive systems to be out walking and grazing.”
THE first horse Vittoria works during H&H’s visit is a chestnut five-yearold mare called Florence, from Groomsbridge Stud. She rides her in one of the grass fields beyond the yard, teaching her to balance and carry herself over the undulations.
“I like to school on grass as much as possible,” says Vittoria. “I pick a gradient for the age and stage of each horse; you progress much more quickly working on a hill, and a good event horse should cope with working on grass in a variety of ground conditions.”
She hunts regularly with the Ledbury, her local pack, and hosts a meet at Hollins Court.
“I do find horses that have hunted are particularly good on wet going — and if you hunt at the front of the field, the ground is usually much better than it is at the end of the day at a spring event. It really helps a partnership to form and teaches you how to support the horse in different conditions.”
Next on the riding rota is Sweep, and H&H photographer Peter Nixon and I follow Vittoria as she hacks him through the quiet lanes to Paul Chapman’s farm.
Lots of turnout with friends, field location and time of day or night to suit the horse, and the same for stabling — for instance, mares usually don’t like crowding.
Lots of hacking on all terrains for mental and physical wellbeing.
Horses must have manners and be responsive and respectful.
Physio Flora Hurrell and chiropractor Ellen Stanwell have magic wands and keep our horses in top shape.
Feed top-quality forage like Devon Haylage and natural feeds like Pure Feeds to keep horses healthy and calm.
Make it fun and ride positively for horses who would jump the moon for you and who want to win — sometimes this means thinking outside the box.
“His daughter comes for lessons in return for letting me do my fast work here,” she explains. “It is fantastic, I only have to use an all-weather gallop if it is too wet or hard here.”
Vittoria and Sweep are accompanied by her collie, Teddy, who joyously keeps pace with Sweep as he canters uphill, downhill and round various fields.
“These hills deserve a massive amount of credit for Elvis [Chequers Play The Game] — they have revolutionised his balance and his base fitness,” she says.
Vittoria blithely pops a roller on Sweep on her way back to the road, and recently nipped over a couple of gates while exercising Pennyz. It would be fair to say that Vittoria’s horses don’t lead boring lives.
“I only do that when I am certain the horse can read the obstacle and won’t have a problem with it, but that level of trust is what I aim to achieve with training,” she points out.
As we re-enter Hollins Court Farm, Vittoria proudly explains that she laid the gravel in her driveway herself.
“I was rather pleased with myself — it was a good test of my tractor driving!” she says with a grin.
SHE and her staff — headed by Bryony Milton, who came to Vittoria in 2014 to “play ponies for a year” after graduating from university, and who is now her ultra-organised head groom — and a
‘Yes, fast food, a messier house and no garden might save some time, but we each need a few pleasures that make us happy
when you can’t afford days off ’
VITTORIA PANIZZON
variety of friends old and new have worked hard to transform the place.
“We are constantly learning about the yard,” Vittoria says. “I have learnt a lot about field management and maintenance, advised by one of our local farmers, Ben Edwards. I certainly learnt to have better, more expensive equipment and machinery as it breaks less often, so I have slowly upgraded things.”
Alongside various charts and notebooks in the tack room, there is a “farm jobs” book, with lists of short-term jobs and a longer-term “wish list”, which contains things like “improve drainage”, “repaint yard”, “redo fencing”.
Borough Pennyz is waiting in the wash box, gleaming white (“she always looks this clean,” says Bryony, crossing her fingers behind her back) and wearing the breathable saddlecloths and boots made by one of Vittoria’s sponsors, Husk. Others include Ariat, Pure Feeds,
Nedz bedding, Candioli supplements, Devon Haylage, Equissage and Pariani.
After warming up, Vittoria jumps Pennyz over the large hedge that borders her fields, over a narrow tiger trap and over the new trakehner that now acts as a field boundary. She’s kindly doing it for H&H’s benefit — this mare hardly needs the practice — but Pennyz clearly relishes her varied life. On the way back to the yard, Vittoria jumps her in and out of the garden, neatly avoiding the flower beds.
“I think too much dressage can put a lot of strain on older horses,” says Vittoria with a twinkle in her eye.
It’s now time to give Ken — Super Cillious, who was bred by Vittoria’s long-time mentor Sarah Bullen — a jump in the school. The nineyear-old is in his first season at advanced.
“Ah, partridge for supper!” announces Vittoria as she rides into the school. It is lined down one of the short sides with mirrors and, despite Vittoria having bought two plastic hawks to scare away smaller birds and putting silhouettes of birds of prey on the mirrors, birds do still occasionally fly into them.
“I don’t mind the odd pheasant, but I was a bit upset when we found the green woodpecker,” she says. “It does provide supper about once a month, though!”
THERE’S quite a bit of discussion about food during our visit. She recommends nettle pasta – “a bit like spinach, and it’s free! I make loads of nettle pesto and freeze it”. Like so many Italians, Vittoria enjoys eating well and does the majority of the cooking for her live-in staff.
“Yes, fast food, a messier house and no garden might save some time, but we each need a few pleasures that make us happy when you can’t afford days off or holidays; life isn’t entirely about business,” she says.
Fed up with constant supermarket trips and naturally thrifty, she has converted some large tack trunks into storage cupboards, and bulk-buys. There are boxes and boxes of pasta, jars of olives and supplies of dog food and Jaffa Cakes; enough to survive a zombie apocalypse.
While she is warming up Ken, Woody strolls into the school, snorts at the dead partridge and then stands gazing at himself in the mirrors, clearly admiring himself. Nobody takes any notice of him.
Working pupil Billy Marshall moves in and puts up fences.
“We do feel like a family and we learn while having fun,” he says.
There are normally three permanent members of staff, led by Bryony (“I don’t know what I would do without her — we’ve had plenty of challenges and she has been with me through all of them,” says Vittoria), as well as regular visitors such as Emily Moffat, who now stays for university holidays. There is a tangible emphasis on working together as a team.
“The whole team know how I want horses to be ridden when hacking — forward, sharp off the leg but attentive to the contact and with obedient transitions,” Vittoria says. “Most people come here on a working pupil basis, and I want them to be helpful to my horses, not detrimental. Everyone does Pilates every week if they ride our horses — there is no point me riding straight if everyone else is a bit wonky.”
She adds later: “I should have got the team doing gridwork without hands and stirrups for you — our speciality. Balance and freedom for the horse is so important to me.”
Ken has a thorough workout — and showjumps clear in the advanced intermediate the following weekend. Life may seem a little unconventional at Hollins Court Farm, but this is a serious professional yard that achieves very good results.
“We are relaxed about some things, but we are very particular about it at the same time and everything is carefully thought out,” explains Vittoria. “The detail makes a lot of difference at the top level. The horses are well behaved and respect us — and are happy because of it. I might not ride as many horses in a day as some people, but I like to spend more time on each horse, and do all the warmup and much of the hillwork myself.”
All successful professional riders have to be driven, highly focused self-starters. Vittoria certainly is, but her manners and charm are such that it would be easy to fall into the trap of assuming she has been very well supported along the way. Not so — she has worked very hard for what she has got. She is a member of the Italian Air Force, hence she competes in uniform, and they assist her, as do the Italian federation, but it is nothing like the levels of support a British squad member would enjoy.
“Of course I would like to have a stronger string at the higher levels,” she says. “I have never been to Burghley, for example, as I have never had more than one championship horse at a time. I have been luckier than most to have those horses, I know, but sometimes not enough to compete properly against the big boys and girls of eventing. I have four horses at advanced, so fingers crossed. Then of course one day I will have Pennyz’s babies — currently one three-year-old and two yearlings.”
The future, as seen from the veranda at Hollins Court Farm, looks bright.