‘She was sent from heaven’: meet the 80-year-old rider aiming for HOYS with his 20-year-old superstar

An 80-year-old rider who is still winning affiliated showjumping classes and aiming for Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) said he believes his mare was “not born, but sent from heaven”.

Ian Marklew and his Irish-bred mare Portroyal – who is 20, giving them a combined age of 100 – are in eighth place in the West Midlands British Showjumping (BS) bronze league with 85 points. The top 15 qualify for the bronze semi-final in August, at which seven will pick up their HOYS tickets.

The pair, who have been together for 16 years, have won three classes together since the start of the current league standings on 1 April, but in total in the last 10 years, they have been victorious in 87 classes, as well as notching up plenty of top placings.

“I’m very lucky,” Ian told H&H. “‘Portia’ and I, it’s something you only dream about. I have to have a reality check because it’s not now and then, it’s all the time; she’s just phenomenal. The partnership we have is unbelievable.”

Ian, who started showjumping over 60 years ago, competing against big names such as Bob Ellis and Stephen Hadley, bought Portia as a recently backed four-year-old.

“There’s nothing to write home about in her bloodlines,” Ian said. “If anyone asks me what her breeding is, I say ‘Out of Black Beauty, by the Lone Ranger’s horse Silver’! She’s gorgeous.

“I’ve had her nearly 16 years and we’ve developed this partnership that’s difficult to explain.

“If I’m in the ring and think something, she’ll carry it out. Or if I know what she’s doing – between us, it’s uncanny. She knows which way we’re going to turn in jump-offs, and if I don’t know where I am, I just sit there and she understands and sorts it.

“It’s the most fantastic thing that’s so hard to pinpoint, to explain, but she’s so careful, she’s so good.”

Ian said he has had slight anaemia since September so he can only compete in one class per day at the moment, so a good friend of his, Billy Colclough, has been jumping Portia in a few, and winning as well.

But otherwise Portia has only competed with Ian, since 2016 – winning two classes on their first outing – and it was with him she reached grade A.

“I was really proud we did that,” he said. “They’ve changed it so you used to make grade A quicker but we went the long route; we were nearly there one year, then they shoved it up to 2,200 points. But we did it in the end, and I felt so proud of her.”

Ian paid tribute to his partner Gaynor, the “backbone of it all” who looks after Portia and helps him.

“It’s getting harder as I get older but once I’m in the saddle, that’s it,” he said. “Getting off can be a bit of a struggle – I was thinking about getting one of those hoists to lift people out of the bath! But she would cope with that as she’s adorable.

“She’s perfect to do everything with; she stands still as anything while I get on and I say ‘Come on lass, let’s go’, then we do what we do, I get off and lead her to my little van, put her in and she just stands there. I think she enjoys it as much as I do. You could give me another horse and I wouldn’t have a clue; it’s me and her, that’s it.”

Future plans

Asked if he is aiming for the HOYS semi-final and final this year, Ian said: “You bet! That would be amazing, wouldn’t it?”

And his future plans involve more of the same.

“Everything’s fine so we’ll keep going,” he said. “The doctors say, when I go in for check-ups, ‘Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it’. And Portia’s fine too; we’ve always given her Cortaflex or other joint supplements; as vets always say, prevention is better than cure, and that’s the most expensive thing she has.

“These are memories, aren’t they? I feel very lucky, and she’s gorgeous; I always say I don’t think she was born, I think she was sent from heaven.”

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