Out and about with The Horse Hub

The Horse Hub ventured out on the road recently to the new equestrian event on the block, The National Equine Show, which took place at the NEC at Birmingham 

While we were there we bumped into the legendary Sir Lee Pearson CBE, who’d been speaking on the ‘Inspiration Stage’ first thing Saturday morning. We caught up with him shortly after his meet and greet with his fans..

I kicked off by asking him the age-old question of ‘how did you get into riding?’

‘The standard joke is I couldn’t pedal a BMX bicycle, so I had a donkey to ride. Arguably harder than a BMX, as this donkey bucked everyone off and only turned left so, if you wanted to turn right, you had to do ¾ of a circle left and head off in the right direction’

Lee then goes on to tell us about sitting on one of the horses towing a canal boat, like a good Staffs boy!

He talks candidly about his relationship with his horses, ‘They all love me, even though I don’t feed them, I don’t turn them out, I don’t muck them out. But I just have such a strong relationship with them. They are my legs and we get to dance together. We have a working relationship, I love them to bits, but I don’t pamper them. Maybe that’s why they respect me?’

Lee is currently planning on continuing to compete, ‘I will have to step back from competitions at some point, but I’m not sure when that is. I’m very lucky that we don’t have an age limit in equestrianism.’

As an advocate for LBGTQ+ rights, we touched on how Lee feels being a gay, disabled man in the equestrian world. “Being a gay man in the dressage world is hardly unusual! But I am proud to be one of the people who will openly discuss my sexuality. And if you think it about it, equestrianism is actually pretty inclusive, men compete against women and as I mentioned above, there’s no upper age limit. The FEI was also one of the first sporting federations to include a para section!”

Lee is clearly a man who lets nothing stop him from achieving, be that Olympic gold medals, or being an excellent dad, he has not been held back by any physical challenges. “I had no role models in the equestrian world of people who looked like me when I was growing up, I did it because I wanted to. I think a lot of that is down to my upbringing, I was given the encouragement to go out and achieve whatever I wanted to!’ And this is something he’s clearly drawn on in the parenting of his foster son, now 17.

‘You are not prepared for the feeling that another human’s life is more important than your own, and that took me by surprise, as before my son came along, I only had myself to look after! Now I wouldn’t change a thing, although he’s annoyingly natural in the saddle and learned how to rise to the trot within ten minutes of sitting on a horse!’

But now Sir Lee Pearson MBE seems to have reached that age of being ‘100% yourself’,  and frankly the world would benefit from more people like him in it!