Horseytalk.net Special Interview

Martin Diggle

Martin Diggle joined the now-defunct Greater London Council’s Supplies Department in 1971. He’d just left Sir Walter St. John’s School in Battersea, at the time one of the top Grammar Schools in London, but now also defunct. He says he has that effect on institutions.

Always keen on sport, he cycled, swam, played football, cricket, tennis and golf, but was about to add another major interest to this repertoire. The GLC had a number of staff clubs and societies, including a Riding Club, which was particularly engaged in encouraging newcomers. Although they had never ridden, Martin’s parents had always liked horses and there had been numerous annual trips to a big horse show that used to take place on Clapham Common, within walking distance of their Battersea home.

Martin says: “I remember always liking horses. As a kid in those days, the rag and bone man would come down the street; I would always run out and give the horse a carrot. But that was all. There was no question of having a horse or anything like that.”

Now, however, with an income to pay for lessons, he threw himself into this new sport with great enthusiasm.

The GLC Staff Riding Club was, at the time, pretty much in its infancy. Its main base was an old riding school in Upper Norwood, within the London Borough of Lambeth (an area which produced top dressage rider, Dane Rawlins). This school was also the main base for the South London Saddle Club, and provided the horsepower for club members and clients to participate in local shows held on nearby parks and commons.

Martin says: “I remember hacking one of the school’s horses through the streets of Norwood to compete in the local Jumping class at the Lambeth Country Fair. We came third behind two people riding eventers. I became friendly with these people and later used to ride with them at their yard in Kent.”

<< Ebony attacking the first fence at a hunter trial with her usual gusto.

As experience increased, Martin made other significant contacts. One influential figure was Terry Colgate, whose son and daughter went on to have successful careers as professional riders. Based in Surrey, and later in Hampshire, Terry gave Martin great support and the opportunity to compete further at local level.

In 1978, Martin answered an advert in Horse and Hound from a couple in Chislehurst who were looking for someone to compete their Thoroughbred ex-hurdler, Willie Dwell, a grandson of the Derby winner, Never Say Die. This led to a happy and successful period showjumping, hunter trialling and eventing, until Willie’s thin soles signaled semi-retirement.

Still involved in the GLC Staff Riding Club (and for several years its Secretary) Martin continued to take part in club activities, went hunting in the West Country on occasion, and helped a friend qualify his point-to-pointers. In company with a friend, he also acquired a cob mare, Ebony who, in her previous riding school ownership “had been famous for carting people over Epsom Downs. She had the heart of an eventer. All she was interested in was eating, jumping and galloping. She was a great local-level competition horse but unfortunately developed navicular.”

A first outing with Clifden. >>

Later, after a career change into publishing, Martin acquired a TB/Irish cross, Clifden, “a real character with prehensile lips and a penchant for blackberries”. Unfortunately, the business Martin worked for hit financial problems, and redundancy forced the sale of Clifden, to a good hunting home in the Shires. It was in the aftermath of redundancy that he began his current career as a freelance editor.

Martin’s connection with publishing had begun in the 1980s when, initially with a view to helping Riding Club members, he set about writing a pamphlet on jumping. This, entitled Riding Over Jumps, was published by J.A. Allen, who went on to commission further titles in the same series: Riding Cross-country, Riding a Dressage Test and Riding From Scratch .Following these titles, he wrote Teaching the Mature Rider, Teaching Basic Jumpingand compiled the Masters of Equitation series of four books and The Allen Encyclopaedia of Dressage. The book that was most fun for him was Equitation– the Truth (1993), a title produced together with the illustrator Maggie Raynor, with whom he has shared Clifden. This, described by the publisher as a “hilarious examination of the grass roots of equitation” is a mixture of fundamentally true anecdotes, comic verse and cartoons that deserves to be better known in the horsey world.

Martin’s latest book, The Novice Rider’s Companion, published by Kenilworth Press, is his thirteenth, and he is still riding.

“I just like it,” he says. “I like horses. Riding is the thing I enjoy most in life.”

Of all the hundreds of horses, he has ridden over the years, showjumping, eventing, hunting and even just hacking out (once when hacking across Epsom Downs, he parked the mare he was riding against the racecourse running rail and watched the Oaks from her back), he has no problem recalling some favourites.

“The first was a funny little multi-coloured Cob, William, who was at the West Norwood riding school. He was a real character who knew his job inside out. I heard that he lived into his late thirties and was put down because he’d gone blind.

“Willie, the eventer, was a bold and generous horse on whom I gained some great experience. His owner, Elsie, was a truly great maker of cakes.

“Clifden and Ebony were both great fun and real mates, and my friend Yvonne had a hackney mare, Holly, who was like a pterodactyl on speed – if something really grabbed her attention she’d respond with a series of courbettes.”

Try him on horsey books:

“Paul Belasik, Dressage for the 21st Century. It was published in 2002. It’s the best modern book on dressage I’ve read. I also admire Gustav Steinbrecht’s The Gymnasium of the Horse. First published in 1885, it spans the transition between the old classical high school and the development of outdoor equestrian sport.

“My father gave me a copy of Riding and Jumping by Bill Steinkraus soon after I started riding and I still think it’s one of the best books on showjumping.

“On the racing front, I enjoyed Peter O’Sullevan’s autobiography Calling the Horses and, as a book on race-riding technique, I like John Hislop’s Steeplechasing.”

Asked what he thought of Jilly Cooper’s equestrian themed books, his response was monosyllabic and dismissive.

So what about riders?

“I was a great fan of John Francome when he was race-riding, and there are some really good jump jockeys around nowadays. From the eventing perspective, I still reckon Mark Todd and Lucinda Green were as good as any. In UK showjumping, Ben Maher seems to be doing very well. At the moment I’m out of love with competition dressage – it’s in danger of becoming a freak show, with some questionable practices and judging. That’s not to say there aren’t some very talented riders out there, but some of the most inspirational pictures are of riders such as Richard Wätjen, from the middle of the last century.”

And the final question: what’s his next book going to be about?

“We’ll see how the latest one goes, and perhaps do something similar on the first steps in jumping, but I’d really like to revisit the ideas in Equitation – the Truth.”