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"Clare Balding grew up in a rather unusual household. Her father a champion trainer, she shared her life with more than 100 thoroughbred racehorses, mares, foals and ponies, as well as an ever-present pack of boxers and lurchers. As a toddler she would happily ride the legendary Mill Reef and take breakfast with the Queen. She and her younger brother came very low down the pecking order. Left to their own devices, they had to learn life's toughest lessons through the animals, and through their adventures in the stables and the idyllic Hampshire Downs. From the protective Candy to the pot-bellied Valkyrie and the frisky Hattie, each horse and each dog had their own character and their own special part to play. The running family joke was that "women ain't people". Clare has to prove them wrong, to make her voice heard - but first she had to make sure she had something to say"--… (more)
User reviews
Clare comes from a family to whom animals were an integral part of life (her father is a famous horse trainer) and Clare reflects this in her autobiography by making one of the many animals she loved growing up a focus of each chapter. It sounds gimmicky but it works really well and details of her life growing up at home, school and university came out of those chapters quite naturally. Sometimes sad, often very funny and always interesting this was an absolute pleasure to read.