Jenny Pitman
Born on 11th of June 1946
Jenny Pitman is a former horse trainer turned author. In 1983 she became the first female horse trainer to train a Grand National winner when her horse Corbiere won the most prized race in the UK horse racing calendar.
As a female horse trainer Jenny had a struggle to make her way to the top. It was a world where women were almost unheard of and certainly, for many of the existing establishment, unwelcome.
Jenny grew up on a farm in Leicestershire and at the age of 15 she left home to work in a stable. Here she met jockey Richard Pitman and married him while just 19 years of age. She received her licence to train horses in 1975. Her marriage was unfortunately quite short-lived and she was left with two sons and some degree of financial difficulty after the divorce in 1977. However, Jenny's determined character drove her on and in 1984 she became the first woman to train a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner; another of the United Kingdom's most prestigious horse races.
Jenny has always been known for her kindness to her horses and her refusal to push them on before they are ready. She insists that, despite what some equine psychologists may say, the horses know they are racing and are excited by it. She even claims that her Grand National winner Corbiere gets particularly excited when it arrives at the Aintree course.
In 1998 she was awarded the OBE for her services to horse racing and retired from training horses in 1999.
Since retiring Jenny has written five best-selling novels which follow the life of a fictional horse trainer named Jan Hardy; On the Edge, Double Deal, The Dilemma, The Vendetta and The Inheritance. She also wrote another novel called Glorious Uncertainty in 1984 and her autobiography in 1998.
Links:
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/leicestershire/39810 Biography
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