ITSHORSEYDOT COM ASGINNYS WEBSITEGROWS
ITSHORSEYDOT COM ASGINNYS WEBSITEGROWS
Ginny Elliot MBE,
winner of seven team
golds and six individual
World and European
eventing titles has had
a change of direction
over the past six years.
Tamara Farrant
found out more
SIX years ago world class eventer Ginny Elliot (then Ginny Leng) married Mikey Elliot and moved into the farm at Middle Barton, Oxon. She and Mikey built the substantial farmhouse when they were married. "It was a nightmare at the time because of the planning problems. But looking back I really enjoyed the challenge and the logistics – I wouldnt mind doing it again!"
Their superb Cotswold farmhouse with large airy reception rooms is at the end of a three quarters-of-a-mile-long drive.
Mikey farms with his brother and father, and in his own right has a small farm and farm business tenancy totalling 283ha (700 acres). In addition he is a management consultant on several thousand acres which stretch from Suffolk to Wiltshire and from Hampshire to Warwickshire.
One of the enterprises on his farm is a 500-sow outdoor unit. "The loss in the pig sector is very worrying. The industry would fare much better if more consumers only bought where they saw the British charter mark," he says.
On the farming crisis Ginny comments: "I feel the present government has no idea of how the countryside is run. The pressures on both farming and hunting will have a significant effect on jobs and the lives of country people. I know Mikey very much wants to keep the pigs going, and I would be sad if he decided that the best way forward was to sell the farm."
Like other farmers they are looking at any other forms of income that will help make up the short fall. "I was looking forward to having a fun retirement after my international eventing career," Ginny jokes.
As anyone who has met Ginny realises, she is not the sort to put her feet up and take up painting. Like a terrier, she likes to be busy and dashing around, and she has now got her teeth into a new enterprise – Kickon.com.
"We hope that by entering the dot com world, which is at the very forefront of business, the troughs in our primary industry of agriculture might be easier to ride," she says.
For the past four months Ginny has been working flat out on the project. "Our aim is to provide the ultimate equestrian web site, and my job has been to make sure all the great and the good are on board. Now it is up and running the whole thing is snowballing, so there is very little time at home."
She aims to go out riding two or three times a week on her point-to-pointers. She trained her first point-to-pointer, Gildrom, last year, who started his career with a win and two seconds. If this success can be repeated with her second horse, Catchatan, bringing on young racehorses could be a useful second string to her alternative enterprise bow.
"Living on a farm really comes in to its own when training horses. It means there is plenty of opportunity for keeping clear of traffic and getting some canter work done. However, the horses are also taken to an all-weather gallop three times a week."
Ginnys passion for horses and the countryside was probably fuelled by her grandfather, Ewitt Rice, who was a sheep farmer in Devon. He also bred polo ponies and made regular purchases at Exeter market. In fact he bought, as a foal, the eventer that took her into the junior British team and the junior European title.
Throughout history horses and farming have supported one another. For the Elliots it looks as though Kickon.com could add an extra dimension into the 21st century.
Ginny and her
husband Mikey
hope to provide
the ultimate
equestrian web site.
Ginny Elliot MBE,
winner of seven team
golds and six individual
World and European
eventing titles has had
a change of direction
over the past six years.
Tamara Farrant
found out more