For Argyll

Defying age - she is seventy-one, the remarkable Tove Gray-Stephens of Brenfield’s Argyll Trail Riding Centre, south of Ardrishaig, has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Horse Society (BHS). The award was made at the Blair Castle International Horse Trials in Perthshire and recognises her forty-year contribution to British equestrianism. Her son, David Hay-Thorburn, with whom she runs the Brenfield business, a previous Technique de Randonee de Competition (TREC) world individual champion is now the British champion after his recent victory on Brenfield Mhairi. Obviously a strong gene pool.

Just reading of Tove’s career is something of a ‘hold your breath’ experience. She learned to ride from her earliest years in Norway ‘by falling off’. Her parents made her ride bareback for fear of getting trapped in a stirrup if she fell. She’s been a film stunt-rider - for example in Master of Ballantrae. She has taught a range of actors to stay in the saddle in their roles, including some of those in Braveheart as well as Michael York and David Robb. She has been a BHS volunteer for years and has run BHS-approved centres for more than thirty years, including the first ‘outdoor-only’ centre. She set up the Cowal Pony Club when she lived in Colintraive. She is an international trainer and competition judge. And she has also been breeding black labradors for forty years. The words ‘lifetime achievement’ just about come close.