Life lessons: Daisy Berkeley — ‘If in doubt, kick on’ *H&H Plus*

Daisy Berkeley

Daisy Berkeley (née Dick) is best known for her partnership with Spring Along (pictured at Badminton), with whom she won team bronze at the 2008 Olympics as well as world team silver and European team gold. Here, the Olympic medallist reflects on appreciating every moment with the horses and people you love, and the importance of feeding the best you can afford, as told to Pippa Roome

I have millions of riding icons, but perhaps the greatest is Lucinda Green, who was a huge help to me years ago when my career was treading water. She used to invite a few riders to these fun play sessions at her yard. She’d build funny obstacles on weird distances and made us leave the horse alone to work it out – it improved the horse’s footwork and reminded him to use his brain.

So many people overdrill horses, taking away their instinct for self-preservation. We’re all going to mess up at some point, so it’s a massive benefit if the horse can look after us – if I throw the reins at the horse and say, “Can you sort this out?”, they do, touch wood.

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Pippa Roome

H&H magazine editor and eventing editor

Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.