It Feels like a New Chapter

Georgie Strang has hit some significant milestones in the past few years, and with a string of exciting young horses and a brand new base, she is hoping this season will be her best yet. She talks to Ellie Hughes.

- Ellie Hughes

IT’S one of those bleak January days when daylight never quite materialises, but as I pull into Georgie Strang’s new yard, at Bedgebury Park, just outside the pretty village of Lamberhurst in Kent, the stillness and gloom lifts to give rise to a hive of bustling activity. Horses’ heads peer inquisitively over stable doors, yards are being meticulously swept and Georgie’s two dogs, Twig and Gorse, dart in and out of the bushes, tails wagging furiously.

“We’ve been here for less than two weeks, but everyone’s settled in really well,” says Georgie, who is keen to show me around the smart yard that now houses her 15 event horses.

Bedgebury has accommodated eventers in the past — Sharon Hunt was based here for several seasons — and on inspection it is easy to see the draw. The facilities are enviable and include two covered arenas, a horse-walker and a cross country course, plus several hundred acres of hackable forest.

“It’s the first time I’ve had an indoor school and I’m feeling thoroughly spoilt — although last week I fell off in my dressage lesson,” Georgie admits with a grin. “My trainer, Sam Newbury, joked that it would never have happened if we’d been outside in the wind and rain!”

The catalyst for change came about at the end of last season, when Georgie became newly single, having split from her partner, point-to-point trainer Nick Pearce, with whom she had shared a yard.

“It feels like a fresh start and a new chapter. It’s a really exciting opportunity,” she acknowledges.

A wake-up call

THE petite 29-year-old blonde has come a long way since her CCI4* debut six-and-a-half years ago at Burghley, where she failed to complete with Master Monarch, an old-timer who had been there and worn the T-shirt with Australian internationals Brook Staples and Andrew Hoy.