Tom Jackson

IN the centre of a beautiful, quiet estate in Surrey, surrounded by gentle hills and fields populated by a few resting deer, a handsome, grey, exemplary model of an event horse relaxes in his enormous stable in an airy indoor barn, taking it easy after finishing second on his Burghley debut last month.

“Here’s the man himself,” says rider Tom Jackson, as calm and cool as his surroundings, with such obvious pride in this great horse.

Next to “Walshy” – Capels Hollow Drift, owned by Patricia Davenport, Sarah Webb and Milly Simmie – stands “Wesley” or Waltham Fiddlers Find. Wesley was found in a dealer’s yard when Tom was 14 and the gelding was a lanky four-year-old crib-biter. He unseated Tom a bit in the early days, too. They weren’t the perfect pairing, but they became one – and that was the beginning of Tom’s journey.

Together they went all the way to five-star, picking up junior and young rider medals en route, and would have contested the European Championships at Blair in 2015