Not an easy ride

But the 50-acre estate near Milton-under-Wychwood that is home to international dressage champion Emile Faurie, also doubles as headquarters of a charity using horse riding to turn around the lives of youngsters.

The Emile Faurie Foundation was born almost two years ago, after Emile became concerned that riding lessons are so expensive as to be out of reach for the less well-off.

“Most riding schools pay commercial rates on their buildings and face a choice of either going bust, or having to charge so much for riding lessons that under-privileged kids cannot afford it,” he pointed out.

He was inspired by seeing how working with horses had helped rehabilitate youngsters with behavioural problems.

“I have seen how horses save people’s lives and I knew I had to do something to help,” he explained.

The foundation raises money for inner-city riding schools to allow them to give lessons to children that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to experience them.

“Some of these children have never been in contact with any live animal, not even a dog or a cat,” Emile explained.

“It is about giving these children a chance to ride, because I know how much it meant to me to have that amazing feeling of being with a horse,” he added.

Despite the fact that he has reached the top in one of the most elite sports in the world, Emile does not come from a privileged background.

He grew up in the suburbs of Cape Town city in South Africa and did not sit on a horse until he was 15.

“The opportunities to ride were not there — my parents simply could not afford it,” he recalled.

“The trigger was when my mother and father took my sister and me to watch old movies in the local church hall.

“They happened to be showing a Western and I watched those cowboys riding and knew I wanted to learn how to do that,” he added.

He pursued his ambition by “pestering my mother for riding lessons” and gradually improved his skills.

“Being quite an insular child, it was horses who became my companions before I started to form friendships,” he added.

“When I was at school I had a dream of riding in the Olympic Games, although people laughed.”

The turning point came when he moved to the UK in 1980 and spent three years as a working pupil with a leading dressage rider.

As his talent blossomed, he began to be in demand by owners wanting him to ride or train their horses.

Along the way he put his natural good looks to use, modelling for press and television advertisements to finance his costly ambition.

“I did it purely for the money and always thought I looked hideous in photographs,” he shrugged.

He went on to represent Great Britain at two Olympic Games, three world equestrian competitions and three European championships.

Riding his horse Virtu, he won individual bronze and team silver medals at the 1993 European championships.

The pair were also British champions in 1993 and 1994 and a decade later, Emile achieved team bronze in the 2003 European competitions on Rascher Hopes.

“Virtu was always a special horse and winning the individual bronze with him was my proudest career moment,” he remembered.

After Virtu retired in 1995, he lived at the farm with Emile until he died at the grand old age of 28.

“That was a couple of years ago but I still miss him. He was my best mate,” he said.

Emile has a natural affinity with animals, as I witnessed when the photographer took pictures of him with his horse, Lusingando.

Gando, as he is known, was unsettled by strong winds that day and was snorting and bucking but Emile appeared completely unperturbed.

He is completely bonkers,” Emile said, “but a real natural. I have high hopes for him.”

Later, while we chatted in his stylish but comfortable farmhouse kitchen, one of his two lurchers, Macie Gray, sat in his lap while he absentmindedly stroked her ears.

As his other dog padded in, he smiled at her saying: “This is Tiff, my other princess. I am lucky because I live with two of the greatest beauties on earth.”

Emile wakes at 6.50am each morning, is on horseback by 7am and rides until 1pm, putting as many as eight different horses through their paces in one morning.

“When I am alone with my horses, I can concentrate hard,” he pointed out.

As a coach at national and international level, his afternoons tend to be taken up with teaching other top dressage riders.

There are 28 horses stabled at the farm, most of which belong to riders who train with him.

Since he has been there, Emile has added Olympic-sized indoor and outdoor schooling arenas where he “seems to spend most of my life”.

The state-of-the-art indoor centre sits happily alongside the traditional Cotswold stone farm buildings.

“I love the way the old parts look so higgledy piggeldy, it is fantastic,” he said.

“I wanted to keep its Cotswold charm. It was my dream to have something that was aesthetically pleasing as well as practical for training purposes,” he added.

To start off the fund raising, Emile filmed a demonstration of dressage to live music, a DVD of which is on sale. He also gives lecture-demonstrations.

Other funds are via donations, an auction of promises and even a Strictly Come Dressage competition.

The money raised helps fund riding schools in London, Glasgow and Manchester and there are plans to extend the scheme to Cardiff, Hull, Newcastle and Liverpool.

Secondary schools in some of the poorest areas can send groups of children to stables each week to learn to ride and care for horses.

Emile explained how young people’s lives can be transformed as a result: “One youngster was very unruly and almost dangerous. He grew up in an environment were he had never been taught discipline.

“He was not scared of his teachers, or of police. But when given a horse to hold, he was out of his depth.

“For the first time he was actually afraid of something and that was the initial step to his rehabilitation,” he added.

Emile also talked about up-and-coming dressage hopeful Sam Martin, who overcame a difficult start in life after learning to ride on a donkey in London 20 years ago.

“Now Sam earns his living through horses, teaching people to ride — and his ambition is to qualify for the 2012 Olympics,” he said.

None of this surprises Emile because he knows the powerful effect that being around horses can have.

“Horses have never been just a career for me, they have become my whole existence,” he said.

“Some days I feel they stole my life away. Others, I know they have given me everything.”