In 2013 I interviewed a blonde Kiwi rider called Jonelle Richards at Haras Le Pin in France
You now know her as Jonelle Price
In 2022 Jonelle and her husband Tim finished the eventing season ranked as the World Number 2 and World Number 1 respectively. These achievements come after years of hard work, not only on horse back but also in the development of a business and establishment of a home base in the UK as well as bringing up a family
“But it takes time’ said Jonelle back in 2013, after they had been in the UK for eight years “I think it’s just persistence, a bit of determination and hard graft plus of course, remaining in the country because after a couple of years, so many people opt out”
In this interview in 2013 Jonelle told us about ‘the steep learning curve’ when they first came to the UK, how they took on the project of renovating Mere Farm, which they will leave in 2023, and how ‘Looking back, we were probably a bit mad!’.
After the first few years of establishing a base, the focus was very much on building a string of horses, which included ‘a lovely little blood mare, really gutsy’ who ‘could be handy for the future’ called Classic Moet (and we all know how that turned out …..)
If you want to know what it takes to be Number 1 and Number 2 in the world, this flashback in time and insight from the early days of Team Price may be a very good indication
Watch more of our Eventing Feature Interviews here
