Anneli Drummond-hay
Horsewoman who reigned supreme in both eventing and show jumping and competed into her 80s
ANNELI DRUMMOND-HAY, who has died aged 84, was the foremost female rider of her era; invincible in eventing on the great Merely-a-monarch, she landed the world’s two premier three-day events, Badminton and Burghley, in the early 1960s.
She then switched to show jumping, scoring dozens of grand prix wins, a European Championship, the Hickstead Derby and two Rome Derbies. Many riders enjoy a spell of supremacy in one discipline, but being equally adept at two equestrian sports put her in a class of her own.
From the outside Anneli Drummondhay’s life seemed dripping with glamour. Steeped in Scottish aristocracy, she appeared to glide from debutantes’ balls to the world of international show jumping, in a golden age for the sport when it was a mainstay on primetime television.
But her true story was grittier. She weathered an awkward and penniless childhood, going against the grain to become a professional rider when “it was not the done thing for a lady of my background”; her determination to win was borne out of her struggle to survive.
Elizabeth Ann Drummond-hay was born at Shaftesbury in Dorset on August 4 1937, to James Drummond-hay and Lady Margaret, née Douglas-hamilton, daughter of the 13th Duke of Hamilton. Anneli, as she was known, was the third of seven children. Although she was born into high society, by the time she was born the money had been frittered away.
Her father was an Army major while her mother ran a polo club in Dorset. When the Second World War broke out, the ponies were requisitioned bar one ancient mare, Independenza, on whom Anneli learnt to ride bareback. She credited this foundation for the independent seat that proved so useful in her eventual career.
Tellingly, her predecessor in the show jumping elite, the decade-older Pat Smythe, was also based with the Drummond-hays, benefitting from the same excellent grounding on polo ponies.
In 1947, Anneli’s father inherited the family home, Seggieden House in Perthshire, so they – and the horses – moved north.
The childhood seemed idyllic – ponies in the Highlands, minimal parental supervision – but Anneli felt miserable. She was home-schooled by a governess, and recalls still being illiterate aged 11 – although she ended up being a correspondent for this newspaper at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. She sought solace in her pony Spider, whom she taught tricks, raced against local Glaswegian miners in “flapping” (unlicensed) races and who ignited her love of jumping.
The gawkiness continued as Anneli Drummond-hay flopped on her society debut – “I was so gauche, the other girls so sophisticated, and after two deb balls I’d had enough.” She worked as lady-in-waiting for her uncle, the 14th Duke of Hamilton, at Holyrood Palace, attending to a range of celebrities, from Nikita Krushchev to Billy Graham. All the while, she felt like a square peg.
“My upbringing felt like a big con,” she said. “Family heritage was so important, and I had the right birth, but not the money to match it. I had to pretend I was worthy of my background and wasn’t horsey, when the opposite was true.”
An ambitious catch ride saved her from her plight. Her older sister Jane was invited to compete at the Windsor European Championships in 1955 but was getting married, so Anneli took up the offer. The horse, Freya, was habitually lame but somehow completed with a double clear, and Anneli was hooked.
She went on to train several moderate horses to earn placings at Badminton, and boldly refused the Queen’s request to lend one, Trident, for a man to take to the Olympics.
Meanwhile, the love of her life, Merely-amonarch, emerged. Anneli Drummond-hay bought the gelding as a wayward two-yearold for what seemed an extortionate sum of £300, but in his prime she would wave away blank cheques. He won the inaugural Burghley in 1961 at the precocious age of six, followed by success at Badminton.
By then, Anneli Drummond-hay had decided to divert to show jumping. In 1962, female eventers were not allowed to compete in the Olympics, for which she would have been a shoo-in, and this may have contributed to the switch.
However, she maintained that her wonder horse was too precious, too talented, to risk in the hurly-burly of eventing – “and I wanted the technical challenge of the bigger jumps”.
Monarch went on to win countless show jumping prizes; a racing trainer even begged to train him for the Gold Cup. Despite his Fell pony bloodlines, Monarch trounced the top two-mile chaser of the day, Flame Gun, on the gallops.
It seems an aberration that Anneli Drummond-hay never competed in an Olympic Games. She and Monarch were shortlisted in show jumping and eventing (women were permitted from 1964). But as any horseman knows, one’s equine partner must also peak at the right time, and an untimely loss of form due to an abscess robbed Monarch of his Olympic chance.
Besides Monarch, Anneli Drummond-hay found the key to the tiny, wily Xanthos – “I had to shut my eyes and let him gallop flat out” – to win the Hickstead Derby and two Rome Derbies. Another star was Sporting Ford, who jumped 2.37 metres – a British high-jump record, but there was no recordkeeper present to ratify the achievement.
An invitation to compete in South Africa culminated in Anneli Drummond-hay’s first marriage, to Errol Wucherpfennig, and in 1971 she emigrated.
After the marriage broke down, she enjoyed an exceptional second riding career, winning all the top classes in apartheid South Africa with her string of cheaply bought retrained racehorses, including two Derbies and four FEI world challenge titles.
After a spell back on the European jumping circuit with her second husband, fellow horseman Trevor Bern, in 2005 the couple returned to South Africa, where Anneli Drummond-hay continued to compete at a decent level into her 80s.
She said, aged 83: “I wouldn’t contemplate not riding, it’s an everyday thing, like brushing my teeth. I enjoy it. It would be like saying, ‘I’ll never eat chocolate again.’” She was inducted into the British Horse Society Equestrian Hall of Fame in 2010. She was crowned Daily Express British sportswoman of the year three times, and South African sportswoman of the year eight times.
Anneli Drummond-hay is survived by her husband Trevor Bern, with whom she lived in Johannesburg.