Gill Anderson is relatively new to the world of pointing, training her first runner in the 2018/2019 season then returning last year with two horses.
Maiden Quickcharge provided her first winner at Chaddesley Corbett in May, in the hands of novice champion Amber Jackson-Fennell and Gill had her first rides on the experienced Whin Park. Both horses remain at her Stone Farm base near Chipping Norton for the coming season, as she bids to build on her debut success. Also running a thriving horse transport business, she hosted Jake Exelby before the start of the 2023/2024 campaign and explained how she juggles both roles and what she hopes to achieve in the sport of pointing – both in the saddle and on the ground.
Gill and Sid cantering through the trees
After riding Quickcharge, Gill tells me her story. “I’m from Nantwich in Cheshire and not from a horsey family, but a schoolfriend had a riding school party when I was four and I’ve been hooked ever since. A local family ‘adopted’ me and let me ride their ponies, which really set me up and that was all I did in the school holidays.”
Gill got the first horse of her own – Beau – aged 16, “When Dad realised it wasn’t just a phase. We evented – if he wanted to do it, he’d be in the ribbons, but if not… forget it! When I went to the Royal Agricultural University, he came with me, and we team chased and did hunt races. He’s 20-odd now and Mum still looks after him – she learnt to ride on him aged 50.”
“When I left university, I thought I should get a proper job to pay for the horses,” Gill smiles, “And did some agricultural consultancy, but set-up my own horse transport business in 2014, while riding out and box driving part time for Charlie Longsdon. I continued to ride out as much as possible around the driving up to Covid, which is when I took on the yard and started building it up, as well as introducing self-drive hire to the business. I’ve always been independent – as soon as I could drive, I learnt to hitch a trailer to a car, to save my parents doing it, and used to do things like dog walking to get money to buy my own lorry. I still drive for Charlie, and also for the likes of Marcus Foley, Neil King, Heather Main and Graeme McPherson’s racing ponies. But it’s become quite a saturated market now,” Gill admits.
Gill’s first tilt at the training ranks was with the talented but exasperating Jimmy Tew who, according to his trainer, “Had more letters of the alphabet in his form than numbers!” (He failed to finish in his first four starts). “Annabel Wheatley – who I rode out for – broke him in and really liked him. He was in training with Fergal O’Brien for a short while, then went back to owner Ian Howe’s Mum’s place – I kept my horse there, so started riding him too. He was tricky, but I loved him, and Jacob Pritchard-Webb eventually got him to jump off at the start! I would have liked to have continued training him, but I couldn’t manage it along with the driving – the hours were ridiculous.”
Gill explained how she returned to the training ranks, and how that in turn led to her riding debut. “I kept riding out for the likes of Charlie and Howard Pauling (father of trainer Ben). Annabel was training here but was moving to Devon, so I thought I’d take it on. That was three years ago and, as well as the two pointers, I do breaking-in and have horses at livery. I’d always said I wanted to get my riders licence – my ambition was to ride in a point before I was 30 – but work kept taking over. But when I got a base, I tried to adjust things and – thanks to Fern Dalziel, who helps with the horses as well as the driving, I’ve made it work.”
The obvious highlight of Gill’s first season back in the training ranks was Quickcharge’s progression towards his (and her) maiden success and she tells me all about ‘Sid’ – “We call him that because of his wonky eye, like Sid the Sloth from Ice Age,” she laughs! “Fern and I had seen him at the sales. He was well-bred – we both like Sir Percy horses – but small, and just shuffled along. But he had something about him, and I got him for a good price.”
Quickcharge is named after Gill’s partner Grant Quick’s company. “We install charging points for electric vehicles across the country,” Grant explains of a business he set up in 2018, before confirming his part in the horse’s purchase and naming. “Gill said something was telling her to buy him, so I went, ‘Do it!’ I’d always had a dream of naming a horse after my business but – when we got him – he was difficult to keep sound and moved horrendously. However, one day, Gill called me and said she thought he had something about him, so I decided he’d be Quickcharge. He’s got real personality and follows Gill round like a big dog.”
Gill takes up the tale. “We did things slowly with him at first, and people would look at me strangely when I showed him off in the field and said he’d be a racehorse. I asked Amber to come and sit on him and you should have seen her face when she first saw him! But as soon as she got to the top of the gallops, she told me, ‘Sid’s not what he looks like – he’s got some boot.’ He loves his work and usually works better than Whin Park,” Gill goes on, “But we took him to Charlie’s gallops before his first race and he couldn’t keep up – he was fuming like a raging bull all week and I thought, ‘That’s his first race done with!’”
“He had his first run in a Larkhill bumper – and was sixth there, then improved to be third at Sandon, before finishing second at Bonvilston in his first run over fences. Chaddesley Corbett was his first time over three miles and I wasn’t sure he’d stay, but he won well,” beams Gill of her pride and joy. “After his win, people were telling me to sell him or send him under rules, but I didn’t want to do either as we’re so attached to him.”
Quickcharge en route to victory at Chaddesley Corbett (Sweet Photography)
“I got Whin Park as a schoolmaster,” says Gill of the horse who gave her a first ride over fences. “I used to live in a flat above Howard’s kitchen and help out with him. I just fell in love with him and that’s why he’s with me. He prefers to think he’s not a racehorse and likes to believe he’s king – I normally ride him first. He’s sulking today because I’ve only taken Sid out. I brought him in early last year to see if he still wanted to race and we did lots of hunt races – like the Isle of Wight Grand National – then had a break in the bad weather.”
Whin Park enjoys the limelight
“Time was ticking until I turned 30,” laughs Gill. ‘I’d got Sid qualified but couldn’t ride in bumpers and Amber helped with the final push – I schooled Whin round Mollington, did my rider assessment there with Charlie Poste, which was scary with people watching, so there were no excuses, and it was time to go! I took him to Bratton Down where nobody would know me. Luckily Annabel was there to lead me up and give me a hand in the changing room. Amber did the same at Chaddesley Corbett. She’s been brilliant – she’s been my life coach and racecourse tour guide! I like jockeys who are willing to get to know the horses, nurture them and understand what makes them tick, rather than just ride them in races” explains Gill of why she gets on so well with Amber. “Because it’s just me riding them at home, I know the horses inside out and backwards. And Amber’s got a vested interest too, as she comes to ride the horses.”
“I’m giving it another go this season,” confirms Gill when I ask if she’s now sated her riding ambitions. “As I said, I’m not sure Whin wants to be a racehorse anymore, but I trust him implicitly – I find it hard to tell him what to do when I’ve got no experience myself. I might ride Sid if Amber can’t, but he’s shown some talent, so I’m not sure I want the pressure. I haven’t got any specific targets as a rider – it would be lovely to have a winner, but I think I’m the wrong side of 30 now!”
As for her training career, “I don’t want to spread myself too thinly,” says Gill, “With the livery, breakers, driving and training. But I’ve really enjoyed doing Sid – he’s only five and I love youngsters. I’d like to get another young horse but haven’t found the right horse at the sales yet. I’d be happy to train for outside owners – and have the space. My ultimate dream would be to have a runner in the Cheltenham Foxhunters, and maybe take out a permit eventually. I love finding what makes horses tick and I think the network of bridleways round here is great – it really helped Sid and has hardened him up.”
“Sid wasn’t a brilliant jumper to start with – he used to struggle if his stride wasn’t dead-on,” continues Gill of her training routine. “So, I did grid work with him – a cross-pole and three spreads. It’s been the making of him, so I do it with my breakers too. For jumping, we use logs and tree stumps in the woods, but Grant has promised to build me some schooling fences!”
For someone new to the pointing scene, Gill has some firm views, and she uses the options she faced after Quickcharge’s win to illustrate her first point. “There aren’t enough incentives to stay pointing and go through the grades,” she opines. “There should be more variety of races – and more opportunities for amateur operations. Pointing’s losing its amateur status, though I like the grass roots rider series, which gives more opportunities for people like me. It also seems bizarre,” she adds in reference to the cost of a rider’s licence, “That I just want to have fun on my own horse yet pay the same as someone who has over 100 rides.”
However, the bugbear of prize money is less of an issue. “Lots of people talk about it,” states Gill, “But I come from eventing, where entry fees are about three times higher and you’re lucky to come home with a dandy brush! So, I think – for an amateur sport, the prize money’s OK, but it is expensive and I’m lucky to have my transport business.” Another aspect about which Gill is positive is the much-maligned point-to-point ‘bumper’. “Some people dislike them, but I love them. They were the making of Sid – he’d never been surrounded by horses before Larkhill and if he’d had to face that combined with fences, it would have confused his little brain!”
“Everyone’s been so supportive,” Gill confirms when asked how she has adapted to the challenge of being new to a sport in which many participants have been around a long time. “For example, I went to Harley Equestrian and asked to buy a saddle cloth. They’d run out, but Tracey Habgood lent me one, telling me, ‘I’m so pleased you’re an owner-trainer-rider – there are so few of you left.’ She couldn’t have been more helpful.”
Before I leave, I can’t resist a last cheeky question of the trainer named Gillian by her parents. She sighs as she says, “The other week, I had to hire a trailer, and the woman I saw said, ‘Wait until I tell my boys that I’ve met the actress from Sex Education!’”