INTERVIEW


primaryschool. “Wewould walk past a ponyonour waytoand from school and that wasit, Iwas hooked!” laughs Jay. “It progressed to riding lessons and Iwould go and stay at the local riding school whereIwould muck out in exchange forlessons of aweekend.”Spurred on by his ownambitions (asJay’s parents knewnothing about horses),aponywas subsequently loaned and then, in Jay’s ownwords, ‘it spiralled from there.’ Jayconfessesthathewas not the ideal


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scholar and his poor attendanceratewas abone of contention between him and his parents. “My poor Mum and Dad, would’ve probably been sent to prison if Iwas still at school today, my attendancewas about 50%, which is just shameful”,saysJay.“As akid, Iusedtobunk off to go and ride lotsofhorsesand ponies forthe local dealer whereImade good money, probably morethanIdonow to be honest!” Jayalwaysknewhewas not going to learn in


the classroom what he needed to knowtofollow his chosen career path.“Horsesare justbuilt in me,I can’texplain it, but theyare”, says Jay. “Everybody dreams of becoming the next John Whitaker,but Iwas justhappy to work with horses, Isimply lovedthem and wasn’toverly fussed at the time as to what discipline or aspectIworked in, Ijustknewithad to be within the industry.” Jay’sfirstproper equestrian job,after spending a


year working forVersace, wasatTina and Graham Fletcher’syard. Jaywas playing at citylife, when achanceencounter at Olympia with the Fletcher’s former rider,Brian Smith, took Jayoff the shop floor and back intothe saddle.“Ididn’trealise Iwas trying out forTina and Graham, Iwas justgiven an addressand told to turn up at this time and on that day, when Tina and Graham opened the door Iwas shocked and thought therewas no way


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oming from anon-horsey background, Jay’sfirstencounter to the world of equestrianism began on his daily walksto


Iwas ever goingtobegood enough”,recalls Jay. “I went foratrial week and stayed on as agroom whereIalso rode some of their young horses.” Jaystill had alot to learn and when Brian


movedon, the gates then opened forJay to ride more, which lead him staying on working forand learning from Tina and Graham forfive ‘grateful’ years. Nothing is foreverthough, and ambition mixed with natural progression, led to Jaystarting up on his owninhis early twenties. “In hindsight this wasperhaps tooyoung”,says Jay, “I think if Icould turn back the clock, Iwould have takensome time out to go and work abroad and see alittle bit moreofthe world, Ialso don’tthink Iwas quitethere with my riding.” Jayinherited acouple of hunting liverieswith


his first yard,and it wasachanceentry in a Burghleyyoung eventhorse class, that brought achange of course forJay.“Iactually wonan eventing classonahorse that wasn’tvery good,


it wasalightbulb moment, whereIthought, hang on, we’vegot to have agoatthis!”,saysJay.“I started buying young Irish horseswhich Iwould then bring on and competeinthe young event horseclasses, Ihad some success and beforeI knewit, Iwas eventing at Blair,Bramham and Blenheim in the CCI3*; Inever set out to move away fromshowjumping to eventing, but eventing brought another dimension to my riding that has undoubtedly contributed to whereIamtoday.” Jaytook his skills learnt between the white


boards and the psychology of riding forwardfrom the crosscountry back to the showjumping arena. “I ended up turning full circle from eventing back to showjumping after being steered by owners, clients and the typesofhorsesthat were coming through at the time”,explains Jay. “Tina’stop horse,Hello Sailor actually came from my yard during my unknown transition period back to showjumping, I had two horsesentered forBadminton and wasstill


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