The horse sport addict’s mobile

There’s an essential piece of kit on the desk to help the sports fan through their day, says Catherine Austen

IT’S been a busy summer for Sarah’s phone. One last big push for the World Equestrian Games, then the poor thing can have a rest. Now that so many big equestrian events are livestreamed, it spends its days propped up in the corner of her desk ploughing through reams of data and keeping Sarah abreast of the action from the four corners of the globe. Eventing, dressage, showjumping, racing — Sarah keeps an eye on them all while working nine to five.

Obviously the sound is turned down, and Sarah keeps a large mug within reach to push in front of her phone if her boss happens to walk past her desk. In the old days, she’d take half-days of holiday to watch championships if they fell midweek, but now she just buys top-up data if she knows she won’t be able to get Wi-Fi and carefully schedules meetings around her favourite riders’ rounds, or races.

The only giveaway is when someone falls off and Sarah can’t help gasping. Sarah’s boss is quite well aware of what’s going on, but as he has the golf playing on his own phone, he’s not going to make a fuss.