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Would you like to pay a tribute to Joanna?
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us your stories and memories.
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Horseytalk.net Special Interview
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Animal healthcare. Especially horses. If there is one outstanding
theme running through Joanna Price's life, it is horse welfare.
Apart, of course, from all her other activities and interests
as an actress on both stage and screen, a popular and classical
singer, race horse jockey and owner and both dog and cat
lover.
"I suppose I've always had a soft spot for animals," she
says."I hate it when anybody does anything cruel to
them or neglects them. I would do anything to stop that from
happening. "Which is obviously why she is so well-known
and respected in both horse- and animal-welfare circles.
Trouble is she is known to so many people
by so many different names.
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"Most people know me as Joanna although where I live
in Alfriston people know me as Anna. That's because I used
to have an antiques shop in the village and there wasn't
enough room above the door to put my full name, Joanna so
I shortened it to Anna."
Just as well then the door wasn't even narrower or she would
be known as Jo.
It's the same story with her surname. Some people know
her as Joanna or Anna da Costa. Other people know her as
Joanna or Anna Price.
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Joanna or Anna da Costa or Joanna or Anna Price owes her
interest in horses to her father, whose family fled Spain
during the Spanish Inquisition and has been here ever since.
For many years after World War II he kept and owned race
horses. In fact, he owned the first horse to win at the first
Cheltenham races to be held after the end of the war.
"It was the 2 o'clock, the first race of the day." says
Joanna. "The horse was called Freetown. It was owned
by Henry Rogers. He was trained at Newmarket by an Irish
trainer, Tom Larkin.
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He was your typical Irish trainer. I remember he used to
clip all his horses with this huge pair of shears. While
he was clipping them, he would call his wife out into the
yard, get her to sit down with the horses and he would clip
her hair as well with the same pair of shears."
Joanna got her first pony when she was
ten.
"I was at school at school in Hertfordshire. It was
a convent school, St Mary's at Baldock. My sister, Deborrah,
had this Connemara pony, Candy. For some raeson or other,
she got fed up with it. I had a look at it. It was marvellous.
I was thrilled. I decided to take it. She was five-years-old.
Do you know, it stayed with me until it was 36 years old.
She came with me wherever I went. When she died, I was holding
her in my arms."
From school, Joanna moved to Alfriston.
"I used to ride for a local trainer, somebody called
Riley. He was an Irishman from Co. Meath. I then went to
America. Got married. Candy stayed behind. I arranged for
her to stay on the brooks in Alfriston. I came home to Bolney.
I had some land and some stables. Candy came to join me there.
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"I got a horse called Max. He was a retired race horse.
He had killed his jockey. But I didn't mind. He was a lovely,
big hunter. But he had terrible trouble with his legs and
had to be put down. He was 15.
"I then got another horse, Gay Guinea. He was by Gay
Sovereign, a real champion. He was dark grey. Very handsome.
Big. He had been trained by Ryan Price, a famous trainer
at the time. His mother and father had both been sprinters.
They had both won at the Curragh. But he grew too big to
be a sprinter. I bought him for £300. He was very fast.
I entered him in various hurdle races all over the country.
He won at Towcester, Plumpton, Fontwell.
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"I got married again and my father sold him under my
nose. There was nothing I could do about it. He sold him
to a girl who wanted to go hunting. I did everything I could
to find him. But I couldn't find him."
For the next few years Joanna's life was even more hectic
than usual. Her show business career blossomed. She was appearing
in more productions and concerts. There was no time to ride.
She did, however, manage to start showing dogs, Borzois.
At one time she was looking after no less than six dogs and
15 cats.
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"Things settled down after a bit," she says. "I
came back and moved from Bolney to Chiddingly. Candy came
too. I used to hack her around the lanes - once I could catch
her. She was terrible to catch. I then retired her and turned
to horse welfare."
Together with Pauline,who used to ride Candy for her, Joanna
helped to establish the Sussex
Horse Rescue Trust, which is today one of the biggest
horse welfare societies in the area.
But that, as they say, is another story
. . . .
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