Emma Hindle is joining the growing band of top British dressage riders moving back to the UK.
Former team-mates Fiona Bigwood and Wayne Channon have returned from Germany and Belgium to the south of England — and Emma is now based at her aunt’s yard in Lancashire.
Emma has been based abroad since she was 18 — first in Sweden with Kyra Kyrklund then Germany since 1993. She has ridden on every dressage championship team and competed the stallions from Brookhouse Stud near Frankfurt, which she took over in 2004.
But Emma took herself out of contention for the World Equestrian Games team this year.
She explained: “My mum became very sick at the beginning of the year and so I came home to help.
“For all that you want to be competitive and successful, that pales into insignificance when the ones you love need you.”
Emma ceased competing and began working for her father’s property business. She has three stallions here — Fürstenreich, Diamond Hit and Chequille Z — so is at the yard by five and the office by nine.
Emma plans to find her own yard with an indoor school to base herself for most of the year, returning to her German base of Brookhouse with the stallions for four months each stud season.
“Property is challenging and exhilarating right now,” added Emma. “I plan to work full-time and have six or seven international horses to ride — it’s a new era for me.”
This article was first published in Horse & Hound (26 August, ’10)
