John Whitaker - The Legend

The six-time Olympian is sharing his life story for the first time in a newly released biography - as told to Sarah Peacocke. In the first of this threepart series, H&H gives a sneak peek from the chapter on Ryan's Son, the "carthorse" who set John's career alight.

THE year was 1973 and John was competing at a regular local show near Halifax when his father came over to him to talk about a horse he'd just seen jumping with a young girl, Sandra Wright. "I've had my eye on this one and just tried to buy it," he said. "They want £800 for it; I offered £600 and they turned it down." John knew the horse Donald was talking about - Ryan's Son - and wasn't impressed.

"He didn't look much at all. He had a ewe neck, a long back, big feet and feather all down his legs. I was convinced my dad only liked him because he reminded him of the workhorses we used to have on the farm." But Donald wasn't one to give up easily and spoke to a dealer he knew, known as Docker. He asked him to try and buy the horse.

"Docker managed to buy Ryan's Son but decided to keep him for himself.

That wasn't really the right thing for him to do, but I was quite relaxed about it as I didn't think that much of the horse at the time," remembers John.

A couple of weeks went by, then Donald and Docker met up again at another show.

"Docker turned to my dad and said: 'Do you think your John would ride Ryan's Son for me? I can't ride, it's too painful, I've got piles.' Next thing I know I'm jumping him around a newcomers at Winterton show.

"As I came out of the ring, having jumped a clear, I leant down to my dad and said: 'Buy him; whatever it costs, buy him now.' "Docker wanted £2,000 for him, and we hadn't got anything like that sort of money. That was what you'd pay for a good hunter at the time and was a more than decent price for a horse that had about 50p on his card.