Lee Honeysett's Journey to Badminton

Lee Honeysett has waited a long time to be on the other side of the fence at Badminton, this year will be his first time working at the event as a groom for Rosie Bradley-Hole (nee Fry) and her mare, Romantic.

Let’s find out about Lee’s journey to #supergroom. It all started when Lee left school at 16 years old, dreaming of a career as an event rider.

Thinking he would work his way up in an event yard he tried to pull a 'fast one' when his non-horsey dad suggested he apply for a job, working for a showjumper…..

“I had always dreamed of being an event rider, so when my father saw a job advertised for a showjumping groom (which I never wanted to do); he didn’t understand that it wasn’t the yard I wanted to be in! He gave me the number and demanded I apply for the job as he didn’t want me ‘hanging around’ all summer.

I took the number and told him I had called, but the position had been filled. I thought that would be the end of it and I could find an event yard to fulfill my dream! 

Little did I know my father had telehponed the showjumping yard and, without me knowing, got me an interview with Barry Fox. The next thing I knew, I was being packed off to his yard!!

I started as travelling groom, but because I had previously been eventing, I was allowed to jump some of the horses at shows, and after some time I started to work with, and ride the stallions.

On my days off I would compete my own eventer, which I kept at the yard. Back then we only had one day off a fortnight - I learnt a lot from that job; hard work and dedication.

I then went to work for Dan Jocelyn. I spent three good years with Dan. I remember picking up his top horse, Silence, from the airport. He had come over from New Zealand as a novice horse at the time, and I think within a season he was advanced.

With Dan I got to go to my first major three-day event, which was at Punchestown with a horse called Teleman. We shared a lift with David Green. I was nervous!

Dan liked his horses to have long manes and my plaiting wasn’t the best at the time and I wanted him to look as good as all the horses there. Thankfully Vaughan Jefferies head girl helped me all week! I remember the parties were amazing, and I loved every minute of it, but I still very much wanted to be a rider.

Luckily for me, one of Dan’s owners wanted to send him a lovely grey mare called Another Rose, but she was too small for Dan, so I got the ride on her. I took her up to intermediate level. She was amazing, but unfortunately, she had a fall with me because she was so bold. She was bred to race by Town and Country, so cross country was always amazing, but a little scary. In the fall she fractured part of her leg, but she made a full recovery and we had hoped it would slow her down, but it didn’t! She went on to do dressage because we didn’t want to risk her again. By this time, I had a young family on the way, so I had to make a decision to either follow my dream or step up and support my family, so that’s what I did, family won!

We moved to Somerset where I started working for the Fry family, where I helped to turn Ruben, an amazing hunting pony, into an eventer. Later moved to the yard of Charlotte Townshend which was full of hunters and racehorses. Quickly encouraging Charlotte’s daughter, Melissa, into eventing and up to 4* events meant my eventing need was satisfied until Melissa retired her eventers and moved away.

At this point, I naturally transitioned to a freelance groom by helping friends at events. My exciting journey led me to work for Rosie Bradley-Hole (nee Fry), Hector Payne, Kirsty Chabert and Izzy Taylor.

I’m very lucky that I still get to compete myself, and currently have a lovely eight-year-old, so being freelance means I fit my grooming around competing him as well.”

Thanks for telling us about your journey to being a #supergroom Lee, we are super excited to catch up with you later in the week at Badminton.

We wish Lee, Rosie and Romantic the very best of luck this week.

Watch this space for more updates from Lee and other tales from Badminton, later this week. 

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Posted: 07.05.2024