TACK ROOM CHAT CHN chats with
William Fox Grant
Chasing, Hunting, Inter Hunt Relays, Hunt Rides and ROR Showing on my home produced horses.
W
I was a keen Wilton Pony Club Member and did almost all the teams and then trained as an BHSAI Instructor and taught in the UK and America aſter a very short spell in the Army. I travelled widely in the early 1980s working my way around the world.
I am a trained Chartered Surveyor and my day job is to run and manage Fox Grant the specialist Country House and Equestrian Estate Agents which I have done for the past 16 years. We value, sell and rent rural property across the South of England and Midlands. My moonlighting and pension project is a beautiful Award winning camping & glamping business near Stonehenge together with a 4 day Summer Solstice Festival which we have run for 11 years.
How did you get involved with Horses?
My Mother was keen and had me sitting on a horse straight away. Mum bred ponies. We had up to 22 at the peak on the farm. It was an idyllic childhood. I use to run home from school and ride 2-3 ponies which we would sell to the Wylye Valley Prince Philip Cup teams.
Your first pony?
The first Pony I remember was Minstrel a 12hh bay gelding who taught me to jump and I attended my first Pony Club camp at Salisbury Racecourse age 10, but I think the pony I first sat on was when I was 18 months old and was on a grey pony called Muffet (see photo below)
How did you start Team Chasing?
I gave up horses in 1981 and went travelling and came home 3.5 years and 33 Countries later! I went to college at Sparsholt and Cirencester, and headed off as a land agent. I landed a plumb job managing Stowell Park for Lord Vestey and got back into riding with them in the mid late 1990s. I bought my first horse in 1999 and started team chasing with Simon Coady and Wishful Thinkers and then set up my own team Fox Grant Thrusters in early 2000s
What advice would you give to readers who are heading to their first team chasing event?
Enjoy it. Don’t panic Get there nice an early 2.5-3 hours before, Walk the course well. Oh and ride it like you stole it!
What is your greatest achievement?
Tricky, I don’t know, winning the Senior Boys Tetrathlon at Stonleigh twice in 1976 and 1977 with the Wilton PC, 2019 Inter Hunt Relay at Peterbourgh, but probably The National Team Chase Finals in 2012 and 2014. (It’s a hard thing to win. I hate to think how many times I have been second!!! ( 5-6) Possibly being 2 and 3rd in Golden Button Challenge. But I think in fact the proudest moment was winning both the 2019 Open & Intermediate British Team Chase leagues with Fox Grant Open & Inter squad over 13 team chases and 6 months. The logistics, dedication of team members luck and team work.
What aim and ambitions do you have for 2020?
Well of course being a team chaser winning the Open Team Chase Finals at Fernie in March and Spring Hunt Rides at Heythrop, Courtfield Cup, Harbourgh and Silver Spur. And all my horses to get through healthy and in one piece.
Before I retire - Oh, I do want to win the Melton and Golden Button before I hang up my boots.
illiam Fox Grant was born and bred on a livestock farm on the Wiltshire Dorset border between Salisbury & Shaſtesbury. I am a mad keen rider and love my Team
60
February/Marach 2020
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