Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
World champion show jumper, three times European champion and twice Olympic medallist.
On the island
Eight records
The Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Well the first one is one that sort of gets me going a little bit
my father's always done things his way and he's always gone a straight and narrow course whether it's been the the obvious way or or the unpopular way and I think all the great people I've met in my life have done it their way and I enjoy the tune as well.
This is where I go a little bit posh, I think. I would like to play a more serious type of record
during their closing ceremony we all sort of parade round the ring, it's usually getting dark, and they play the tune of Wooden Heart and everybody takes their handkerchiefs out and waves them all their programmes or something. It's a very moving sight when you're in the middle and there's forty thousand people waving to the tune of Wooden Heart.
When I got married back in nineteen fifty six. The one tune I had when my wife was walking down the aisle for me was Doctor Chivago with Lara's theme.
Hymns and AriasFavourite
This reminds me of my off where I'm born and I've met this fellow, I find him tremendous fun and I think when I'm on my desert island and I want a little bit of ch cheering up, I would play this.
when in a down and out moment this would sort of give me the courage and the kick in the pants that I'd need to sort of pick myself up and walk over the hill.
A tune that I've s whistled for the last twenty years. And it it's one of those whenever I'm walking in the dark or or or or fairly happy and what have you, I always break it into this tune and believe me, nobody's ever believed the thing ever existed.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:50Could you adjust yourself to loneliness?
I think so. Um I'm very happy to travel on my own and w w when I'm on on an aeroplane or in a train I don't want to talk to anybody else. And I don't think that would be too much of a hardship.
Presenter asks
2:33How old were you when [your father] first lifted you into the saddle?
Well, they tell me I was two and a quarter.
Presenter asks
3:32How did [your father] get you started again [after you decided to pack it in]?
Well, I packed it in for about eighteen months, and one day I was sort of out and about and I suddenly got this quietly got the urge again, I suppose, to have another ride, and I sort of mentioned it to my father, who incidentally hadn't pushed me at all in my quiet time, so to speak, and he bought me another pony and that started it all off again.
Presenter asks
10:12The keepsakes
The book
Winston Churchill
I'd enjoy that and probably find the time to read it, whereas if I wasn't on my desert island I never would read them.
What percentage of a win is due to the horse and what to the rider?
I think i if I'm riding in a novice class, with a young horse, probably... I can beat an amateur rider or or or a young rider. I can beat him with a horse that's nowhere near as good because I can sort of dominate the horse to that much more effect over the smaller fences. I think when I get into the Grand Prix in in Europe or anywhere and you you're up against the very best people in the world then I think it's the horses that decide the competition at the end of the day because I think all the jockeys are nearly as good. And I would say in the first case it'd be sixty percent for the rider, maybe forty percent for the horse, where at the Grand Prix stage it must be at least eighty percent the horse.
Presenter asks
17:00What's the difference between being an amateur rider and a professional rider?
Oh, this is quite complicated, I'm afraid. I think this happened in about 1973, where Prince Philip, who is the president of the World Governing Body... decided that it was time we put our sport in order as far as amateurs and professionalism was concerned... Unfortunately for everybody, the British were were the only nation that actually followed them to the word. And so where we thought we were leading the world, we finished up completely on our own. Which left a little bit of sourness between one way or another... There probably were moves at the time for both of us to turn professional anyway, so I have no regrets whatsoever about being a professional.
Presenter asks
19:40Do you think there's cruelty involved [in show jumping]?
Not at all. I know the horses I have, they thoroughly enjoy it. And, you know, I've had horses that when I've left them at home because I'm taking other ones, they actually kick the door. They're that professional. They want to go to the shows. And it becomes their life. The good ones I'm talking about. Maybe if a horse doesn't like it, he can be ridden badly. And you can see him making a bit of a mess. And I would call that cruelty. Only because he's been badly ridden or he he couldn't jump the fences. But there is such a small element of that that it it would would be less than one percent.
“I think necessity made me look for the money more than the honour and glory in this case.”
“I thoroughly enjoy my farming. I always say it keeps me sane from show jumping.”
“I think if I got back to the land in that line and I had a few seeds and they actually grew and I could see them growing [I could live off the land].”