For Tim Stockdale, the road to international show-jumping honours began as an enthusiastic seven year old, at Nottinghamshire’s Grove Pony Club, in partnership with a skewbald mount known as Danny Boy.
It was there that the first inklings of a special riding skill were recognised. Tim’s talent began to be encouraged and then polished, to the point where he would eventually win selection to Britain’s Nations Cup team and compete with the very best in the world.
Convinced that he could make it to the top levels of the sport and determined to do so, Tim bypassed the opportunity to study at agricultural college after leaving school, opting instead to go straight to work with horses in July 1975.
Following a year in Mike Saywell’s yard at Retford, Nottinghamshire he seized the chance to work as second jockey to the acclaimed rider, Graham Fletcher. Gaining valuable experience in the world of professional show jumping, Tim went on to work and train under two other professionals, John Taylor and Lutz Meyerding.
He struck out on his own in 1990 with six horses and rented the yard from Meyerding. Competing well enough to keep the venture viable, Tim’s major breakthrough came in 1988 when he won the AIT Class at the Royal Windsor Horse Show on Supermarket. More success followed, with Stockdale-trained horses like The Frog, Mighty, McGuigan, Santa’s Echo, Interview, Glenwood Springs and Wiston Bridget all becoming star performers in the top show rings of Britain and Continental Europe.
In 1995 he was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary on show jumping. Then in 1996 Tim won 6 Grand Prix events. He now runs his own yard in Northamptonshire, assisted by his wife, herself a BHS qualified instructor, son Joseph born October 1999, and a tour staff. In 2000 Tim was involved with the Channel 4 programme ‘Faking It’ and more recently appeared on the BBC Sport Relief ‘Only Fools on Horses’ programme in his capacity as trainer to the celebrity contestants.
Tim is a loyal SPILLERS® customer and is currently feeding Horse & Pony Cubes, Response™ Slow Release Cubes and READIGRASS® to his own horses, as well as those who competed in the ‘Only Fools on Horses’ competition.