When two stunt riders get married – and many of their guests are in the same line of work – the least you could expect is some “questionable dancing”.
Ben and Georgie Atkinson, of Atkinson Action Horses, resisted the temptation to gallop into church bareback, or with a strong of six horses, on 19 November. And although the couple have already had countless “bucket-list-worth adventures”, and performed in front of thousands of people, “nothing could ever compare to the day of our wedding”, Ben said.
H&H reported last year that Ben had proposed to Georgie in the ring at the Great Yorkshire Show.
“If being a farrier from a family of farriers wasn’t enough to make Georgie the perfect wife for a horse addict, her talents as a dressage rider and fearlessness in the saddle made her the perfect candidate to join the Atkinson Action Horses family,” Ben said.
The couple married in St Mary’s, Sand Hutton, the church Georgie went to school with, and in which she played Mary in a nativity play, years ago.
“We had the best time ever,” Ben told H&H. “It was beautiful.
“There weren’t actually any horses there, partly because everyone I trust with my horses was either at the wedding or down south with 40 of our horses, working on the film The Winter King, based on a book by the author of the Last Kingdom series, Bernard Cornwell.
“There was a temptation – the ironic thing is we’re probably the only couple who wouldn’t have had to pay for a wedding coach as we’ve got all sorts of them here for weddings! We had 90% of the groom’s party on standby, and if Georgie had woken up on the day and said she wanted a team of four and a carriage, they’d have jumped into action and made it happen. And one of my two best men was banned from being the driver as he said it would have to be a team of 12 for an Atkinson wedding!”
Each table had a different hand-made shoe as its centrepiece, made by different farriers who have been “a big part of Georgie’s life”, plus one each made by Georgie’s father and brother, and Georgie herself.
“My drunk friends relieved us of about half of them but we’re keeping the rest!” Ben said. “It was a great wedding; it was perfect.”
The pair spent a mini honeymoon in York, for a few days, and will go to Nihi Sumba island, Indonesia, in January to spend a week training wild horses on the beach.
“That will be marvellous,” Ben said. “It’s absolutely stunning there, and I’ve managed to work in some training horses while I’m there. And we’ll be back out and about all over the UK, and hopefully all over the world, next year.”
Georgie said Howsham Hall, where the reception was held, was beautiful and “everything we could have hoped for”.
“The food was amazing, the company was even better and the dance floor was incredibly busy with some very questionable dancing,” she said. “We were surrounded by our closest friends, family and the mentors that made us who we are today.”
And Ben added: “To be able to look out and see every influential person in my life and Georgie’s was just incredible. It couldn’t have gone any better.”
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