EXCLUSIVE interview
As told to Rebecca Philpot. Photos: Jon Stroud, FEI/PSV J. Morel
When you think about the Hanoverian breed, it’s likely your first thoughts will fly to Germany. You’d be forgiven – it’s where the warmblood originates, but what if we looked a little closer to home? Heralding from the heart of the Three Counties and with the rolling Malvern Hills to the north, you couldn’t pick a more picturesque backdrop to frame your equestrian endeavours – and this glorious setting that Judith Davis and her Hanoverian Hawtins Stud are lucky enough to call home. Surrounded by a small team made up of herself, main competition rider Lucinda Elliott, Gijs Van Vooren who competes and produces the young horses, plus a couple of grooms, the stud has a familial feel – and it’s this close-knit community that Judith feels sets Hawtins apart from so many others. From a humble background and owing much of her earliest equestrian education to riding schools, she’d never have dreamed that one day a horse bred by the stud could have his sights set on the Olympics. “It’s what gets me out of bed in the morning,” she says. “It’s what motivates me, definitely, but I’d never envisioned it happening”. And yet, with just a matter of weeks standing between now and the big event, she finds herself in exactly this scenario.