Victoria Pendleton: 'It’s not like I’m next to a horse in a saucy little jockey outfit'

Victoria Pendleton is used to having her switch from bikes to horses dismissed as a publicity stunt. But, the double Olympic champion tells Nick Townsend, she plans a long-term future in her new sporting passion

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A dank early morning, and beneath the Chilterns in Oxfordshire a small string of racehorses stride out in file with almost military precision. Among their riders is Britain’s most successful female Olympian, who could be considered an incongruous presence in the sense that a woman more familiar to straddling a piece of two-wheeled carbon fibre is now aboard half a ton of four-legged horseflesh.

Yet, it is also apparent that Victoria Pendleton could not have better adjusted to this new environment. Ten months ago, she had never sat on a horse. Today she does not look out of place within this complement of work-riders.

Just as importantly, her features, fixed in fierce concentration, belie a feeling of rich satisfaction. “You can see the M40 and all the cars backed up, and we’re out galloping all the horses,” she enthuses later. “I think ‘Wow, how lucky am I?’ Apparently, I have such a serious race face, even when I’m doing a bit of work, at first everybody wasn’t sure if I was enjoying it or not. But it’s absolutely exhilarating. It feels like you’re one with your horse and you’re flying.”

By March, the former elite track cyclist plans to make the transition to a jockey proficient enough to negotiate the 22 fences and over three miles of the Foxhunter Chase, the amateurs’ equivalent of the Gold Cup, at Cheltenham Festival.

Her preparation involves riding out every day, with very few exceptions – and Christmas Day won’t be one of them – at Alan and Lawney Hill’s Woodway Farm training base at Aston Rowant. On many Sundays before the Festival, she will be riding in point-to-points.

In June, 20-times champion jump jockey AP McCoy, a man who could compile an orthopaedic dictionary, given his tally of fractures before retirement, came to watch her schooling horses and offered a blunt assessment of her novel enterprise.

“He said ‘this is crazy – and you’re going to get hurt’,” recalls Pendleton. “I said ‘yep, I probably will get hurt’. It’s the most dangerous sport out there. But it didn’t ever stop him, did it? He can totally appreciate why I’ve fallen in love with it. It’s a rare and special feeling to ride a racehorse.”

And a rare opportunity for the winner of two Olympic gold medals, who was also nine times world champion sprint cyclist. For a while after London 2012 she had moved easily enough in that twilight zone between retired high-profile sportswoman and celebrity. She competed in Strictly Come Dancing, though Pendleton will happily concede that as a dancer she was “hopeless”. Last year, Pendleton spoke on the importance of sport in schools at the Conservative Party Conference (and would have accepted a similar invitation from other parties, she emphasises).

But then the 30-year-old was emailed an offer she couldn’t resist when the betting exchange Betfair approached her with a “Switching Saddles” initiative. Initially circumspect about a project that Pendleton admits was “on the verge of ridiculous”, she took stock. “I realised all the components would appeal to me. Animals, training and routine, a bit of a challenge – I loved all of that. Plus I’d be backed up by the likes of Yogi Breisner (performance manager of Great Britain’s eventing team, who also works with many leading trainers in jump racing) and Paul Nicholls (the eight-times champion jumps trainer who has offered to provide a Cheltenham mount). How can you say no?”

Which is how she has come to be here, tacking up her mount, a chestnut mare, named According To Sarah, riding her out, and afterwards hosing her down. “Sarah” is regarded as a safe conveyance and has been the more recent of her first two rides in point-to-points following three amateur rides on the Flat. She pulled up before the second last of both her ‘point’ rides as her mounts tired.

In the box opposite, is Sedgemoor Express, a prospective mount for her when she has gained more experience. Pendleton calls him “my Roger” as she strokes him under the chin, her excitement bubbling over. “Oh my gosh, my heart could explode. He’s little and lovely, a real racer. Isn’t he so gorgeous? But headstrong outside the stable.”

For a few seconds, this could be Victoria Pendleton, Bedfordshire schoolgirl speaking. “I’m like a giddy 13-year-old girl who’s just been given pony lessons,” she admits, laughing. “If I could have bedspread, wallpaper, pencil-case, the lot, I probably would – if I was a bit younger. I’ve been told from the start ‘don’t fall in love with the horses’. But that’s so hard. I’m in awe.”

Pendleton celebrates during the London 2012 Olympic Games (Getty Images)

The former Olympian had six weeks’ tuition under Breisner before arriving here, fully prepared to become part of the day-to-day operation of the yard. Exuberant and obsessively determined to succeed, this is the anti-diva. “She’s not treated as a prima donna here. We don’t polish her boots. She does that,” says Lawney Hill. “She’s so down to earth, and I’ve never met anyone with such enthusiasm.”

Pendleton confesses to an unpropitious start. “There’s footage of me bouncing around, all uncoordinated, trying to work out how on earth you’re supposed to do a rising trot on a really extravagant moving eventing horse. I got home and my butt was so sore, and I thought ‘this is just like being a cyclist again – why am I putting myself through this?’ But I absolutely loved it. You’re almost overwhelmed when it all goes right and you’re in sync.”

She finished second in her first Flat race, but was unseated in the final furlong – albeit that her mount was already beaten – in her third event, at Newbury when the horse stumbled. “If people thought I was never going to fall off, they were dreaming,” she says. “And it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, which was a bonus…”

At that time, a few of those not totally enamoured with the whole idea of this swapping saddles concept will, no doubt, have nodded knowingly. A PR exercise, some had contended. Pendleton firmly refutes suggestion of it being a stunt. “It’s not like I’m standing next to a horse waving and smiling in a saucy little jockey outfit, or something.”

Pendleton in the Velodrome (Getty Images)

Another objection, as one female jockey articulated it, was that such an arrangement “was a slap in the face” for hopeful hard-working stable staff who would never have the same opportunity.

Pendleton gives that short shrift: “I’ve spent my entire life striving to be the best at a sport and worked really hard, just in a different arena. So, saying I haven’t worked for it – well, hey ho, if you want to go and win two Olympic gold medals, you might get some really awesome rides. Can you imagine anyone saying: ‘I’m sorry – I really couldn’t accept this very exciting offer because I don’t personally deserve it?’”

Resilient enough to deflect such barbs, Pendleton says Breisner is pleased with her progress. However, she will readily accept it if he and the Hills advise her before March: “‘Sorry, you’re not ready for Cheltenham.’ Because they don’t want it to be dangerous or ridiculous.”

Regardless of whether or not she gets to the start for the Foxhunters, Pendleton plans to purchase a couple of horses and be an owner-rider in point-to-points.

Longer-term, Pendleton, married to Australian Scott Gardner, whom she met when he was sports scientist with the GB cycling team, would “genuinely love to nurture cycling talent – especially female talent.” She adds: “I know what it’s like to be at the top. I know how hard it can be. But I just think it’s too soon for me.”

She certainly knows more than most how to derive the maximum from a not necessarily perfect physique for the sport. “Physically, I was never the specimen they (GB cycling) were looking for. I was too small and slight and the only thing that dragged me to the top of my field was pure tenacity and nothing else.”

Now, devoted to a sport in which her physique is well-suited, she will need to dig deep into those reserves of tenacity once again, just to get to the Cheltenham start line. Somehow few would doubt her capacity to do so.

To follow Victoria’s journey with Betfair, visit www.switchingsaddles.com