Profi le

LOCKDOWN GAVE NIKKI BARKER TIME TO REFLECT AND MAKE EXCITING PLANS FOR HER GRAND PRIX HORSE DURABLE, WHO IS PROVING HIMSELF AS A SIRE AS WELL AS IN THE ARENA. BARBARA YOUNG REPORTS.

Like everyone else, it’s been a challenging year for Grand Prix rider/trainer Nikki Barker, who began 2020 on a high, making a successful debut at Grand Prix level in January with uber-talented stallion Durable, before Covid-19 put plans on hold.

However, as a self-confessed ‘highly motivated and ambitious rider’, Nikki, who rose swiftly through the dressage ranks after being talent spotted as a child and earning places on Pony and Junior teams, says she refused to let the pandemic overshadow her positivity and vision for international success.

Instead Nikki has been using her time at home in Newmarket wisely, combining targeted training with a few outings to High rofi le shows to keep her hand in.

LEFT: NIKKI BARKER HAS COMBINED TARGETED TRAINING AND SELECTED OUTINGS FOR THE STALLION DURABLE, WHO HAS ESTABLISHED HIMSELF AT GRAND PRIX THIS YEAR.

ABOVE: NIKKI AND DURABLE (DANNY) ENJOY A GALLOP ON THE BEACH WITH HUSBAND WILL AND DAN ICARUS (REUBEN).

“At the start of the year, we wobbled around our first Grand rix which was full of tiny mistakes, but the work felt surprisingly easy for ‘ anny’, says Nikki, who co-owns him with iv Greave and is justifiably proud of what lies ahead for the exciting 1 .2hh Spielberg stallion, winner of the Superflex Inter I Freestyle Gold title at last year’s NAF Five Star Winter Championships. anny was fantastic at Bury Farm High rofile show the end of August this year and won both Grand rix classes with some fabulous comments. It’s so exciting to be back at that level.

Nikki, who married vet Will Barker, a partner at Newmarket quine Hospital in their local village church in 201 , runs her 1 box yard with help from her ‘brilliant’ head girl acey owdall.

It’s a peaceful setting down a no-through road with 20 acres of neatly fenced paddocks, horse walker plus indoor and outdoor schools.

Over the past months, life carried on pretty much as normal riding and training, with a considerable amount of gin and ros drinking says Nikki. Three members of my team moved in as we shut the yard, and acey did a fabulous job organising everything and keeping everyone motivated. It gave me plenty of thinking time and I decided to downsi e the number of horses, so I could spend more time with the ones that I believe have the skill to reach the highest levels. It was a bit of a erry Maguire moment – less is more with the focus on quality not quantity and I have certainly felt the horses benefit from that. Generally, they have been on a vertical learning curve ever since and come on in leaps and bounds. We now have 12 horses at home, plus the broodmares and young stock, which has more or less halved our numbers.

The couple found their idyllic four-bedroom refurbished farmhouse by chance when Will

spotted it in the Newmarket Journal and immediately sent a text to Nikki, “Wouldn’t this be our dream!”.

By the time Will got home from work, Nikki had phoned the agent and arranged a viewing and as she says, the rest is history.

“We are both pretty driven and ambitious with our work, but our home life has always been very easy and laid back,” she says. “Will is fantastic – he never criticises me for spending weekends away competing, teaching or training and is basically my number one fan. Ever since we’ve been together, we’ve always allowed each other plenty of freedom. Spending time together just requires a bit of planning!”

Will spends the majority of his time in the equine hospital, but is defi nitely in charge of her horses at home, “although the aim is not to need him very often!” “He’s a fantastic vet and a great sounding board if ever I’m worried about anything. Will still rides regularly and I believe that his years of experience and riding ability give him an empathetic edge in his veterinary work.”

ABOVE: NIKKI WITH YOUNGSTERS MAC AND DANNY’S COLT FOAL WILLIAM (OUT OF PASOA). LEFT: DURABLE (DANNY) IS DESCRIBED AS ‘PART LABRADOR, PART UNICORN’.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

Horses have always been a big part of Nikki’s life and after returning from Junior training in Germany with Christilot Boylen and Udo Lange, she continued to juggle studies alongside sporting ambitions.

Having studied photography at university, Nikki worked as a freelance for 10 years to help fund her horses, while also teaching and competing clients’ horses, before fi nally deciding to make dressage her priority.

It was during this time that she came across fi ve-year-old asoa, who she describes as diffi cult but blessed with an abundance of raw talent that felt unlike anything I had ever sat on”. asoa, aff ectionately known as ‘ ’, proved to be an extraordinarily talented but complicated mare, who in time took her rider to new heights in her sporting career, including as test rider at London 2012 Olympics.

“I often wish I had made the move sooner, as while my photography career set me up fi nancially, I feel there is so much to learn with the horses that an extra 10 years working at it would have been a bonus.

Although Nikki couldn’t aff ord to buy asoa when fi rst off ered for sale at 20,000, a year later her owner got in touch again and off ered Nikki the mare for just 2, 00.

“We shared many amazing memories, including competing at Olympia and on Nations Cup teams in Aachen and Rotterdam,” says Nikki. “I’d been to watch at Aachen years before and dreamt of taking her one day. Cantering down the centre line the fi rst time felt unbelievable and I can’t wait to go back again, this time with Durable.

“P has a very special place in my heart, but I don’t like to call her my horse of a lifetime because it implies there may not be another!”

Although asoa retired fi ve years ago,

ABOVE: PASOA IS STILL VERY CLOSE TO NIKKI’S HEART, AND BRED A FOAL BY DURABLE LAST YEAR.

she won’t be going anywhere. In May last year, at the age of 22, she bred a colt by Durable, called Danoa, which Nikki is already excited about.

“He is hugely special to me because of Pasoa. I’m sure I’ll see him through rosetinted glasses no matter what.”

Breeding is a relatively new venture for Nikki, who has purchased two of Durable’s progeny, seven-year-olds bred by Viv Greave.

“Viv had already used Danny as a breeding stallion before I became involved with him – he is so incredible that I desperately wanted some offspring by him.

When Nikki took over the ride, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to use Danny as a stallion as she felt the need to train and have him ‘knocking on the door of Grand rix’ first.

“I’m not a hugely knowledgeable or experienced breeder,” she explains. “There are many amazing stallions available and when you look at one spectacular moving horse after another, it’s a minefield.

Nikki explains that although she recognises people’s rationale in breeding from rising stars, she prefers a stallion to have proved itself at highest levels, both temperamentally and physically.

“The past couple of years I’ve used Danny myself and limited it to 20 mares a season so that other people can use him too. I want him as a sport horse first and foremost.

Nikki takes Danny to Clements Equine in Bury St Edmunds to collect semen.

“They have helped me learn about the breeding and collection side of things as I was a total novice and are generous with both time and knowledge. Danny is a total gentleman and is unaffected temperamentally which means I can train and compete him as normal around it.”

As well as Nikki’s two seven-year olds by Danny – Dan Icarus and Dan Ivanhoe – she also has two yearlings, three foals and four on the way next year.

“I’m completely new to the breeding game but totally loving it. It’s addictive. So far I’m proving hopeless at selling them, but will have to start next year or I will be overrun!” A SPECIAL HORSE

Nikki has huge respect and admiration for her imposing stallion who she describes as “part unicorn and part Labrador”. She regularly takes him hacking in Thetford Forest and along the beach at Holkham.

“Danny loves his turnout, spends all day in the field and has a sand turnout pen attached to the back of his stable. I leave the back door open most of the time and whatever the weather, he likes to spend most of the night outside.

“Given he is a working stallion, his temperament is even more extraordinary. He has mares stabled in the barn near him, can touch other horses in adjoining stables and has other horses in fields around him.

It was Viv Greave who found Danny in Holland as an 18 month old colt through the KWPN sales pages and he had just turned seven when Nikki became involved.

She hopes to campaign Danny both here and abroad next year. “I had hoped this would be our year of experience and factfinding at Grand rix, but this just means that with all the extra training time to consolidate the work, we shall appear next year polished and firing on all cylinders

BELOW: NIKKI HAS TWO YEARLINGS, INCLUDING DANDELION (ELLIE), THREE FOALS AND FOUR MORE ON THE WAY FROM BY DANNY.