A Christmas to remember

Christmas comes but once a year, and for some riders it’s an excuse to do something especially unforgettable. Eleanor Jones discovers some notable memories

- Eleanor Jones

AH, the magic of Christmas. Bright stars shining in a frosty sky, stockings hanging round the fireplace, the whisper of a reindeer in flight – or your dad stripping down to the altogether to ride his horse naked but for a Santa hat.

This last may not be a widespread festive tradition, but for Stewart Turner last Christmas Day was a rather chilly one.

The father of three had only started riding in his forties, when his daughters did. Documenting his experiences as a novice horse-owner on social media, he amassed thousands of followers, who helped him to raise money for equestrian charities. Realising last winter that he had some 16,000 followers, including Carl Hester, he came up with an idea.

“I said if I made it to 20,000 by Christmas – which was pretty unbelievable – I’d ride naked on Christmas Day,” he says. “I wanted to cheer people up, then everyone started sharing the post and I had a slight panic!”

The donations, for Ebony Horse Club in London, rolled in faster than the followers, and although he did not quite reach the magic 20,000 mark, he soon realised that this did not matter.

“People weren’t giving me money to get followers, they were doing it for me to get naked on a horse, so I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to have to do it!’” he says. And on a chilly Christmas Day, he did.

The presence of small children at the yard put paid to his plans for a morning ride, so he returned in the evening.

“I thought there wouldn’t be anyone there but there was,” he says.