Davina Whiteman

The outgoing chairman of Ponies Association (UK) talks to Nicola Jane Swinney about the talent needed to judge — and her concerns about the way ponies are being produced today

- Nicola Jane Swinney

THEY say that, after any life-changing decision, you should ask yourself: am I disappointed or am I relieved? For Davina Whiteman, who last month stepped down from the board of Ponies Association (UK), it is most definitely the latter.

“It feels like a huge, huge relief,” says Davina, who will be 77 in December. “All my life, whether it was my mother, or the council, or whatever, everyone said, ‘Oh don’t worry about it, Davina will find a way.’ I always felt that I had to find the way, so now it’s like a weight offmy shoulders.”

Davina’s mother was the indomitable Joan Lee-Smith, who founded Ponies (UK) in 1988. Davina describes herself as a “professional rider from the age of seven”, partnering such ponies as Pretty Polly — after whom the hugely popular home-produced classes are named — and producing the legendary Holly Of Spring, who remains the only show pony to have won the championship at Horse Of the Year Show (HOYS) four times.

Among the riders she has trained are the Hollings brothers, Laura Richardson, the dressage international who is now director of operations at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and a certain Charlotte Dujardin. And through it all, she has steered Ponies (UK) and put on the winter and summer championship shows that became hugely popular.

“At the time, I don’t think I realised the responsibility,” muses Davina now. “But people would spend £500 on entry fees to come to our shows, and that’s a huge amount of money. If you get it wrong, they’ve had a bad day.

“Over the years we’ve had some pretty dodgy moments, but we’ve always had fun. The policy was you worked hard and you played hard. So we worked hard during the day and at night we did party quite a bit.”

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