Sophie Fox – 4* Event Rider
September 27, 2021
Thanks for joining us Sophie, we understand you run a very busy schedule! Would you be able to take us through a day in a life of Sophie?
Of course! By 7:30am the horses have all been fed and tended to for the morning. Most days I have a groom start at 8am (and these days are a dream!). My performance horses get worked first, followed by client horses and lastly my young horses. We follow this order as some days we can run out of daylight, this ensures the client horses and performance horses always receive consistent work to meet their needs.
The number of horses in work determines what time I finish riding, currently I have 9 horses in work and finish around 3pm. I then have a late lunch, and head back out to make feeds for both the night and the next morning, harrow the arena and do any odd jobs, finishing the day at about 6pm.
We know you have many horses in the stable, although I believe there is a stable favourite known as Mr Pig. Tell us about your story with this special horse:
Mr Pig came to me as a 7yo retired racehorse, having just come back from 4 years living and racing in Hong Kong. He was quiet with a great personality; the intention was to educate and rehome him as an allrounder. He lived his first 6 months in a paddock with 2 other thoroughbreds and a mob of cattle. It was a huge paddock so I would bring the 3 horses in by catching Pig, jumping on him bareback and leading the other two beside him to save me doing 3 trips! He really did have all the attributes to make a perfect pony club horse.
After 6-8 months of education and a few outings I decided it was time Mr Pig found a new home. Surprisingly I didn’t have much interest, the one young girl who came to ride did love him dearly but after a discussion with her parents I decided he was too much horse for her.
I decided that lightly campaigning Pig would be a good idea to help him find him a more suitable home. Still to this day he is being campaigned by me, although I can assure you he is no longer looking for a new home!
Most memorable performance with Mr Pig?
This is a hard one, I’m very lucky to have had many great performances aboard Pig. The most memorable would have to be our first big placing together, Melbourne International Three Day Event in 2019 placing 2nd overall in the 3* and winning the best performed OTT.
From a pony club rider through to FEI, tell us about any horses who have played an instrumental part in your career?
I’ve been fortunate to have had several amazing horses over the years, particular horses who have been influential would be ‘Thorwood Dixieland’ a stunning Welsh x Riding Pony who not only took me to many royal shows but also gave me my love for eventing.
I was then lucky enough to own a very successful Galloway ‘Gordon Park Chorus Line’ who took me to compete at national level in showing, finishing top 10. The sad sale of this beloved pony facilitated the purchase of ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ aka Wally, my first FEI eventing horse. This quirky gelding taught me so much, taking me through to 3* eventing and 125m show jumping.
What made you jump discipline’s from Showing to Eventing? They really are two very different sports!
Definitely the thrill of x-country, I have been lucky enough to have owned several great x-country horses growing up. I believe these horses really contributed to my love of this sport.
Lastly, what is your favourite item of Décoll clothing and why?
I love the Active Breeches! Personally, I have never been a huge fan of riding in legging style breeches so I wasn’t sure if these breeches would be for me. However, the lightweight material and full seat silicone on the Active Breech works so well, you’ll struggle to find me riding in any other breeches these days!
Thank you for your time Sophie, we are super excited to have you on the team.