Fiona Bigwood: Rider Profile

Like most successful professional riders, Fiona Bigwood has been riding since an early age. She started riding lessons at a local riding school at the age of 7, but her mother must have quickly thought she was already showing talent because she used all her powers of persuasion to persuade her own trainer, Marion Larrigan, to break her rule of no children and give Fiona lessons. It apparently took some time, but she eventually agreed and Fiona was starting on her dressage career.

Marion was mother of Tanya Larrigan, a highly successful competitor with, amongst other horses, her great Grand Prix horse Salute. When Salute was retired from his competitive career, Fiona, at the age of 11, was given the ride. It was an amazingly fortunate piece of luck because she could at this really young age learn the advanced dressage movements on a school master who had been classically trained. Such a start to a career could hardly be bettered.

Fiona was to fulfil her early promise, being on the 1993 Junior European team and the Young Riders European Team in 1994, 1995 and 1996.

In 1996 at the age of 21 she was the youngest ever rider to be selected for a Senior European Championship Team, In 1998 she was short listed with 2 different horses for the 1998 World Equestrian Games and in both 1999 and 2005 she was again a member of the British Team for the European Games.

She may have had a fortunate start to her life in dressage but Fiona worked very hard to develop her expertise and knowledge.

She moved first at the age of 19 to Denmark to train with and work for Hasse Hoffmann for 3 years. Her next move was to Germany to train under a further 2 different trainers. It was a very committed and thorough preparation for a life at the top of the dressage sport and by the time she left Germany she was running a yard of 52 boxes.

Now, however, she is settled in West Sussex with her partner Ander Dahl (himself a reserve for the Danish team in 2005) and their 2 children.

Trained by Ander, Fiona currently has 2 top horses: Wie Atlantica, a 17.1hh gelding by the famous Wie Weltmeyer and Don Lorrean, a 16.1hh stallion. Fiona confesses to keeping her horses for life – a really attractive quality in a world where just some times horses can seem little more than a business commodity. But then, Fiona apparently has around 10 rescue dogs at any time, which would seem to be proof of her caring qualities.

Not surprisingly, Fiona is a member of the World Class Programme, UK Sport´s scheme to develop potential medal winners in any sport, so her list of achievements is not likely to have finished.