Stewart is known for her kind hand with her horses. She has had eight-year-old Hit Parade since she was five and seven-year-old Tennessee for the past year-and-a-half. She has done very well in the Caledonian Holdings Amateur Rider Series, and stepped up to the Let’s Bale Pro Amateur Rider Series this year, but Hit Parade has been a little off with a virus, so she’s pulling back a bit.
The duo have previously won the Mitavite Six-Year-Old Series, and won the final of the Cortaflex Seven-Year-Old Series last year.
“Hit Parade has just been off, so you have to take things day by day,” says Stewart.
It’s not that much different with herself.
“Each time I fall off I wonder if it is the last,” she says.
Husband Neil is very supportive but they both prefer he keeps the home front ticking over in her absence.
Stewart has been riding since she was three.
“It’s like a disease really, it's not something you can get rid of easily.”
But it’s not all bad.
“I am also a bit frightened to actually stop riding,” she says. “It is so good for you — it’s like physio and keeps me young.”
That said, she contemplates that this season may be her last.
“If I sold my horses to somewhere I was happy for them to be, then maybe it will be my last. Then I could get something ordinary and just go out and enjoy myself without any pressure to win.”
She muses as to whether it is she who puts the pressure on to win, or others who expect it.
“I'm not really sure, but when you are going well, people just expect you to be out there.”
