LUCY ANN HUXTER

Lucy Ann Huxter lives with her husband, two children, and many animals on their farm in West Dorset. Her love for horses began earlier than she can remember, and as a small child, she begged her non-horsey parents to be allowed to ride. They thought it was just a phase and waited patiently for her to grow out of it – they’re still waiting. Patricia Leitch was her favourite author as a child, and when she wasn’t riding, she read the “Jinny and Shantih” books countless times. She still knows them by heart. Age 10, she helped her neighbours start, and train, their homebred filly. Being lightweight she was the ideal person for the first “sit on”, and it was only luck that through these neighbours, she ended up with her first pony on loan; a hot-headed Prince-Philip Cup pony, who went from halt to gallop and gallop to halt, turned on a sixpence, and taught Lucy how to stay on – if nothing else! After leaving school, she went from agricultural college to working in the equestrian industry, many of these jobs involving starting and training young horses. In her twenties, she was lucky enough to be offered a job at the yard of probably the most famous Event rider in the world; Lucinda Green. There her love of Eventing began, grooming for Lucinda and Canadian rider Diana Burgess who was based at Lucinda’s. Diana was the most encouraging and kind person she was ever fortunate enough to work for, and Lucinda was extremely generous with her time and knowledge, giving Lucy one-to-one tuition, and even allowing her to compete one of her horses, Lucky Secret, aka “The Grey Horse”. Lucy’s passion for writing was born from her passion for reading, and inspiration for A Matter of Trust started as early as twenty years ago, when she moved to West Dorset and met her, now husband, Fred. She gave up working in the equestrian industry when she got married, starting a business with her husband, which enabled them to buy their own farm. This allowed Lucy to take in young horses for training and eventually realise her dream of breeding her own foal. And so “Minty” was born; a now six-year-old Irish Sport horse mare, with a gregarious nature and a penchant for polo-mints.