FOR many fans, Jane Holderness-Roddam might be a daunting figure, a heroine in the world of eventing with an equestrian CV that few can match. She has won team gold at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, been chairman of selectors, judge, steward, president of British Eventing, author of The Galloping Nurse and stunt double in the film National Velvet. But within minutes of talking to her, I realised I'd be hard pushed to find a warmer, more welcoming person. Still, you don't win Badminton on a 14.3½hh, the legendary Our Nobby, through kindness alone, and her bones of steel are sometimes detectable in the form of strong opinions, though nearly always followed up by diplomatic counterarguments.
So what does eventing's royalty think of the current state of the sport?
“Well, I mostly miss the proper longformat three-day events; the roads and tracks and steeplechase,” Jane says. “I think they ensured you gave the horse much more of a warm-up and got your horses really fit.”
