Anna Beck has been around horses all of her life as her Mother Gerda Weston was a successful Show Jumper before she was born and also ran a riding school and livery yard. Anna had her first pony at the age of two and by the age of six was rugging up her Mother’s 16.2 horses by standing on a bucket!
Due to lack of finances Anna and her Mother would always purchase problem ponies and would work tirelessly on re-schooling them and transforming them into top class show jumping ponies. As a Junior Anna competed these ponies to the highest level including the Horse of the Year Show at Wembley, Hickstead and representing her County. Once Anna had left school and had entered into the senior ranks she went to live with Graham and Tina Fletcher. Tina taught Anna when she was on ponies and after Tina and Graham had got chatting to Gerda at a local show it was decided that Anna would go to ride and train with them. Anna ended up cancelling all college plans and moved in with them the next day! Anna gained fantastic experience from them and learnt so much from riding and competing their horses.
However, in order for her to make a name for herself she decided to leave Graham and Tina’s yard to help with her Mothers passion of breeding and producing the ultimate Show Jumper and accepted a job in an office to help finance her sport. Anna and her Mother went about developing a breeding programme and invested in a brood mare Gretna, who had jumped for Italy in her younger years and was looking for a quieter life. Gretna, who is double branded and who also received a gold medal at her mare grading has been responsible for breeding seven outstanding youngsters for us which Anna has had the pleasure of producing through the grades and eventually selling if their talent was obviously suited to another discipline, two of which were sold to Germany for Dressage. However, Gretna’s progeny have now produced their own offspring and hopefully one of these will make it all the way to the top.
For a while Anna was based in Guernsey for 3 years where she worked for Close Trustees Guernsey Limited (part of the Close Brothers Group) and then for Deutsche Bank. Anna would fly back to Southampton every weekend for competitions and had also been known to fly back for the day when there was a specific midweek show and nearly all of her holiday was used up for the 3 day and 4 day shows held during the summer months. However, with Anna’s string of Show Jumpers ever increasing in size and talent Anna made the decision at the end of 2006 to move back to the UK to assist her Mother with the running of the family business Kievel Tiling and Granite Limited which undertakes Tiling, Granite and Marble fabrication and installation and who are also Anna’s main sponsors. This move has proved invaluable and enables Anna to ride and train up to 7 horses a day as well as attending shows during the week providing she is not needed in the office!
Anna’s team of horses consists of some very exciting talented novices most of which have been imported from Holland as well as her Grade A “It’s Mine” a 13 year old chestnut stallion who was purchased in February 2005 from Derek Morton and Geoff Glazzard for her to compete in the big competitions whilst continuing to produce the novice horses. “Its Mine” also known as “Robbie” is one of only seventeen Silver Elite Stallions in the United Kingdom and will stand at stud this year. Anna has formed a special partnership with the little Stallion and together they have had great success including entering the top 250 Rider Rankings. Anna has many ambitions for 2008 which are mainly focused on the young horses and getting them qualified for the many age and novices classes that there are around the country and ultimately aiming to qualify them for Horse of the Year Show.
Due to lack of finances Anna and her Mother would always purchase problem ponies and would work tirelessly on re-schooling them and transforming them into top class show jumping ponies. As a Junior Anna competed these ponies to the highest level including the Horse of the Year Show at Wembley, Hickstead and representing her County. Once Anna had left school and had entered into the senior ranks she went to live with Graham and Tina Fletcher. Tina taught Anna when she was on ponies and after Tina and Graham had got chatting to Gerda at a local show it was decided that Anna would go to ride and train with them. Anna ended up cancelling all college plans and moved in with them the next day! Anna gained fantastic experience from them and learnt so much from riding and competing their horses.
However, in order for her to make a name for herself she decided to leave Graham and Tina’s yard to help with her Mothers passion of breeding and producing the ultimate Show Jumper and accepted a job in an office to help finance her sport. Anna and her Mother went about developing a breeding programme and invested in a brood mare Gretna, who had jumped for Italy in her younger years and was looking for a quieter life. Gretna, who is double branded and who also received a gold medal at her mare grading has been responsible for breeding seven outstanding youngsters for us which Anna has had the pleasure of producing through the grades and eventually selling if their talent was obviously suited to another discipline, two of which were sold to Germany for Dressage. However, Gretna’s progeny have now produced their own offspring and hopefully one of these will make it all the way to the top.
For a while Anna was based in Guernsey for 3 years where she worked for Close Trustees Guernsey Limited (part of the Close Brothers Group) and then for Deutsche Bank. Anna would fly back to Southampton every weekend for competitions and had also been known to fly back for the day when there was a specific midweek show and nearly all of her holiday was used up for the 3 day and 4 day shows held during the summer months. However, with Anna’s string of Show Jumpers ever increasing in size and talent Anna made the decision at the end of 2006 to move back to the UK to assist her Mother with the running of the family business Kievel Tiling and Granite Limited which undertakes Tiling, Granite and Marble fabrication and installation and who are also Anna’s main sponsors. This move has proved invaluable and enables Anna to ride and train up to 7 horses a day as well as attending shows during the week providing she is not needed in the office!
Anna’s team of horses consists of some very exciting talented novices most of which have been imported from Holland as well as her Grade A “It’s Mine” a 13 year old chestnut stallion who was purchased in February 2005 from Derek Morton and Geoff Glazzard for her to compete in the big competitions whilst continuing to produce the novice horses. “Its Mine” also known as “Robbie” is one of only seventeen Silver Elite Stallions in the United Kingdom and will stand at stud this year. Anna has formed a special partnership with the little Stallion and together they have had great success including entering the top 250 Rider Rankings. Anna has many ambitions for 2008 which are mainly focused on the young horses and getting them qualified for the many age and novices classes that there are around the country and ultimately aiming to qualify them for Horse of the Year Show.