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Would you like to pay a tribute to Roland?
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us your stories and memories.
And photographs, if you have any.
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Horseytalk.net Special Interview
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| Roland
is cheeky, mischievous, romantic and best of all, full
of life. He always spares time to help people. I can't
wait to read his book. He's written me in as a photographer!
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Roland Clarke was
a freelance contributor to Eventing magazine for several
years until ill health forced him to give up reporting
the south east horse trials circuit for me. His reports
were always amazingly accurate and submitted on time,
plus his writing benefited from him knowing so many of
the riders on the circuit. I used to live in the same
area, so our paths regularly crossed while I was freelance
reporting for Horse & Hound and I can honestly say
I have never met a more helpful reporter. If there was
ever a winner I didn’t know, Roland would be the
first to go off in search of them, bringing them back
for both of us to interview.
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He has a sprit
of true helpfulness, which is one of the most important
things in life. He certainly well deserved the award
he was presented with by BE for his unstinting support
to the sport of horse trials through his South East Eventers
League and organisation of Borde Hill horse trials.
Julie Harding -
Editor Eventing |
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Roland
is an exceptionally remarkable guy in the way he has coped
with MS and continued his journalism and photography and
now organises an event which would be exhausting for a fully
fit person.
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Roland Clarke has, for many years,
made a valuable contribution to the sport of eventing
from both inside and outside. His recent award from British
Eventing is a clear indication of how much the association
which runs the sport in this country values what he has
done; as a long time organiser of the Borde Hill horse
trials, and also as the originator and organiser of the
South East Eventers League, and the celebrations that
have gone on in conjunction with the prizewinners' presentations.
Roland has also been able to
stand back and take a look at the sport as a journalist,
with regular reports in Eventing magazine, and has been
a long-standing and enthusiastic member of the British
Equestrian Writers' Association. |
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As BEWA's chairman until last
month, I knew I could always depend upon his support,
in particular for the annual awards lunch: the 2008 lunch
underlined his determination to continue to do so. Though
he is now in a wheelchair and unable to drive and has
to depend upon others to transport him, when his original
guests (and potential chauffeurs) had to cry off at the
last minute, Roland was determined to come, and fortunately
was able to call upon Jenny Nolan, at one time his fellow
organiser of Borde Hill, to bring him. If not, I think
he would have wheeled himself up to London.
Alan Smith
Equestrian - Correspondent, Daily Telegraph.
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For one of the South East’s top award-winning eventing
writers, journalists and photographers, Roland Clarke’s
life has certainly been one major event after another.
The first major event came with his christening at Highbrook
Church, near Ardingly. He was called – wait for it – Ralph
Roland Bickersteth Stephenson Clarke. But he changed
it by deed-poll as soon as he could to Roland
Rafael Clarke.
“My original name was such a mouthful. I also got tired
of forever writing it out on forms and so on. I wanted something
much simpler,” he says.
His father was Robert Nunn Stephenson Clarke, who worked
for the family shipping company and at Lloyds, the famous
worldwide insurance market that insured everything from a
dancer’s legs to the Empire State Building in New York.
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His mother, Juana Nidia, was the horsey member
of the family. She had a horse of her own and used to ride out
and also hunt regularly especially as the real horsey influence
in their life, Roland’s grand-father, Sir Ralph Stephenson
Clarke, was a master of the Old Surrey & Burstow Hunt.
Roland, however, was not very horsey.
“I remember my first pony, Long John Silver,” he
says. “ I had him when I was about four. He was grey, naughty
and slightly fat. I spent more time getting on him on one side
and falling off the other side. With his co-operation, I might
add.
“But I was never very good at riding. I didn’t take
to it at all. To tell you the truth, I used to dread the lessons
sometimes. I was more interested in shooting.”
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When he was ten, he decided to give
it up.
“My family were terribly upset. But funnily enough,
not my grand-father, who you would have thought would have
been the one more interested in me riding. All he said was,
One day you’ll meet a young girl who is interested
in horses and you’ll want to start riding again.”
Roland may have given up riding but he couldn’t get
away from horses. When he was 17 years old he got a summer
job at Hickstead working in the main arena.
“I was one of the arena party working for the course
builder, Pam Curruthers. When I first started I had
to wear overalls.
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But after a while I got promoted. I could wear a suit. But
I still wasn’t allowed to carry the tape-measure.”
Now came another major event in Roland’s
life. In his late teens, he went to Canada to finish
his A-levels.
“At the time, I wanted to be either a farmer or a
journalist. I couldn’t make up my mind. When I was
in Canada I even thought of joining the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police.
While in Canada the boy who was scared of falling off horses
discovered even more dangerous activities: white
water rafting and downhill ski-ing. “I was mad.
Literally. I would go from the top to the bottom as fast
as I could. Straight. It was crazy,” he says.
Studies completed, back in the UK, he decided he wanted
to be a journalist. He took a secretarial course, learnt
to type and do shorthand and at 20-years-old ended up as
a sub-editor on The Field, the country magazine.
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“I spent my time editing the fishing reports and
the news page. Based on my experience working in the
arena party, I wrote an article about behind-the-scenes at
Hickstead.
Then one day the assistant editor, Derek Bingham, took
me with him to Tidworth Three-Day-Event, which was the British
Junior team trial. That started my interest in eventing. It
got me out of the office, away from all those fishing reports. There
was also something inspiring about it. Most of the riders
were about my age. I thought, I like this bunch.
“I then suggested to the editor, Wilson Stevens that
I go to Canada and write about the Toronto Winter Fair, which
is like the Royal Show and Horse of the Year Show combined.
He said, Yes. Providing you can raise the air fare. Which
I did.”
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Two years later, another major
event was taking place in Roland’s life. He
had left The Field and had set up as an equine photographer.
“Things were not as developed then as they are now.
I went all over the country taking photographs at almost
all the big one-day events and selling the photographs to
the riders. I sold photographs to everybody. Princess Anne.
I liked her very much. She always queued up like everybody
else. Mark Phillips, of course. Lucinda Green. All of them.
“The best photograph I think I ever took eventing
was much more recently of Zara Phillips during the Windsor
Three Day Event in 2004.
All the paparazzi were waiting for her to fall off at the
water jump. She didn’t. She fell off at a later
fence on the course and I was the only photographer to get
the picture.”
Now came another major event in
Roland’s life. He decided he wanted to become
a dairy farmer.
“I gave up photography. Things were changing. When
we first started we converted a horse trailer into a dark
room.
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We used to process on site and print all our proof photographs
overnight. That was no longer possible. The riders were
also not as interested in buying them. I decided
I wanted to be a dairy farmer. I worked on farms in Derbyshire,
Scotland, the Isle of Wight. I also became interested
in organic agriculture.
“Instead of becoming a dairy farmer, I helped
set up one of the first organic and bio-dynamic fruit
and vegetable wholesalers in the country. We covered
the whole of the South East. The business is still going.”
So what was the next big event
in Roland’s life?
You’ll never believe it.
“I started riding again. We used to store our fruit
in one of the garages at my grandmother’s house.
The stables were being used by a young couple. I
started having lessons. I got on this horse. A thoroughbred. 16hh.
He’d been bred for show jumping. For the
first time, we clicked. It was wonderful. I could ride.
I could jump. I could do cross-country. I wasn’t
falling off. I wasn’t frightened.
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“I wanted to buy him. I asked my grand-mother
if she could lend me the money, but understandably she
said, You don’t like horses. I couldn’t buy
him so I gave up riding. Again.”
The events in Roland’s
life now became more serious and more international. He
got involved in the ecology and peace movements. He
took part in protest demonstrations in London, Paris
and Berlin. During one protest demonstration in Paris
he met his wife, Joanna, a classics & drama student.
With her, he later set up a film and television production
company in Brighton. It was while he was discussing
a television series about horses in sport that he met
Tina Gifford, the 2008 Olympic Individual Bronze medallist,
and that led to the next major event in Roland’s
life.
“She said eventing needed people writing about
the sport in the press.
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So I started. I rang up all kinds of publications and
said, Do you want a story? They said , Yes. I sent them
a story. Fifteen-years later I am still writing for many
of the same publications.
“It was about this time that I got to know Ian
Bareham. At the time he was running Crockstead
Equestrian Centre. He’s now running Golden
Cross.
I sat down with him one day in his office and we came
up with the South
East Eventers League, which was the first eventers
league in the country and is still the most successful.
And sadly with only one imitator.
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Instead of having reports on just isolated events, we
wanted to link a series of events building up to one
big, major title and prize at the end of the season.
That’s what we did.
Pippa Funnell won the main title the second year in
1996. Jo Marsh-Smith has won it a record four times.
”Having helped to set up the Eventers League,
Roland next turned to reviving Borde Hill Horse Trials,
which takes place on the old family estate near Haywards
Heath.
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“It was difficult at first,” he says. “But
it’s now one of the most popular one–day
events in the South-East. We attract all the big names.
Tina Gifford, Pippa Funnell, William Fox-Pitt but our
mainstay are the grassroots riders.”
It was for all these major events in his life – covering
equine sports, setting up the South-East Eventers League
and reviving the Borde Hill Horse Trials – that
Roland has just been presented with a British
Eventing Award for outstanding contributions to the sport.
But there is still one major event in the offing for
Roland, who is now suffering from multiple sclerosis,
that could propel him on to the international stage.
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At the moment everything is under wraps.
The only clue is Horses. And only an expert writer and journalist
like Roland Clarke could come up with such a best-selling
. . .Oops. We’ve already said too much.
But we’re sure it will be the biggest horsey best-seller
of all time.
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