Clare Bailey

Clare is married to Kim.  As well as looking after their son Archie, she rides out every day and plays an important part in making Thorndale Farm the special place it is. She’s really enjoying their new life in Gloucestershire having grown up within 10 miles of Cheltenham, so coming to Thorndale is like coming home. 

Clare owns Oshkosh, who despite being on the small side (Archie's first pony perhaps?!) has shown good form in bumpers. Clare has now added Nobby to her string; although unofficially named Nobby is unlikely to see a racecourse for a while, being big and backward.

Mat Nicholls

Mat started out in racing working for Nigel Twiston-Davies (TTF) and after six years having moved up the ranks, Mat spent a further six years as Head Lad to Tom George. Last season he joined Carl Llewellyn as his number 2 but was lured back to the Cotswolds.

Away from racing Mat is an avid Nottingham Forest supporter and if the racing is not on you can guarantee he'll be watching his team!

Lou Cox

Lou is our Travelling Head Lass and started with Kim in August 2005.  Lou has worked in racing ever since leaving college including seven years with Robin Dickin. Lou has always worked on the travelling side which she describes as the best bit about the job as it gets her out and about and seeing people. 

Originally from Moreton-in-Marsh, Lou obviously knows the area well and says it’s like she’s never been away.  She’s loving the facilities at Thorndale which she says are in a different league, King of Gothland is her favourite horse she rides. When she is not driving the box Lou does a bit of Ski Diving as a hobby; can be dangerous as we all know!

Liam Higgins

Liam is better known as ‘Higgs’ and comes from Ireland. He originally worked there for the famous PP Hogan and rode in point to points for him. Higgs started working for Kim in 1980 when he first started training and was based in East Ilsley.

Bar an 18 month spell with Jimmy Neville in Wales, he has been with Kim ever since. As well as riding out, he breaks in all the young horses and is in charge of looking after the wonderful new gallop. Longshanks and Lucky Luk are his favourites horses.

Higgs was shortlisted for the Stable and Stud Staff Awards 2007, where he was runner-up in the Special Merit/Hero category.  He greatly deserves this recognition (Photo courtesy of Arnhel de Serra)

Nathan Smith

Nathan has worked for Kim since Christmas 2003 having started working in racing in 2001 with Brian McMahon.  Nathan has always just loved horses and went to the British Racing School while with Brian.  Nathan has had a few rides for Kim to date since he took out his conditional license. Nathan is now in charge of one side of the barn and helps Liam with the breaking of the youngsters.

He is hoping to ride in Conditional jockeys races this season, depending on whether the owners are happy with him.  Nathan loves everything about the job and says living in Thorndale Farm is great. .

Erin Pope

Erin was brought up in Lambourn and having been surrounded by horses, she started in racing six years ago with Brian Meehan and then went on to work in a private yard near Newbury.

She moved to Gloucestershire nine months ago and most recently worked for Willesley Equine Clinic near Tetbury as a student veterinary nurse.

Christopher Ellis

Christopher grew up in The Middle East and started off in Show Jumping.  Having gained a National Diploma he then went to the Northern Racing College in September 2006 to learn more about racing.  He started with Michael Jarvis in racing and then spent a year with Ferdy Murphy, where he was a barn leader.

Last winter he worked in a point to point yard where he had his first ride at Mollington; something he enjoyed enormously but at 6 foot 2 he is not the make or the shape to follow that career  Christopher has joined  us at Thorndale Farm as an assistant .

Ellie Church

Ellie having left school this summer joined the NRC in August and starting working at Thorndale in November 2007. Ellie has always loved horses and started riding as a youngster.

Having spent time doing work experience with Ferdy Murphy, Ellie was bitten by the racing bug and decided a career in racing was right for her.  Maybe one day she will be able to achieve her life long ambition to ride in a race.  Her favourite horse in the yard is Metal Detector.

Lynsey Slade

Lynsey first started riding when she was twelve years old.  Having completed her A Levels Lynsey decided that university was not for her and visited Jeremy Noseda's yard in Newmarket.  She was advised that she would have to complete a course at The British Racing School if she wanted to work in a racing yard.

Lynsey's love for horses and speed, make working with racehorses the ideal occupation.

Mary Llewellyn

Mary has joined us from the Northern Racing College having spent twelve weeks there.  Mary has been around horses all her life and spent weekends helping her step father look after ex racehorses; this gave her an interest in racing from an early age.

Mary enjoys life a Thorndale and is not missing her home town of Cardiff too much.

Ollie Garner

Ollie is from Cirencester.  Having just finished his A Levels at Farmers School, Fairford Ollie worked for us at Thorndale during his Gap Year.  Now at The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Ollie rides out a couple of mornings a week and helps out when needed. Ollie very much hopes to have a ride or two in point to points over the winter; his brother is an amateur for Ginger McCain Jnr.

He has previously worked for his father during holidays who runs a very efficient  Horse Ambulance Service around the country's racecourses.

Alice Reader

Alice has come to ride out for us having spent four years with Tom George as his travelling head girl.  Alice combines her time riding out at Thorndale with transporting horses to race meetings for various trainers.

Alice lives near Stroud keeps her own horse Burwood Breeze (an ex racehorse) and is enjoying retraining him and hopes she will be able to compete him over the summer and point-to-point him over the winter.

Ben Way

Ben like Ollie has come to ride out for us having started his first year at The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.  Ben has ridden in point-to-points for the last three seasons and has a strong team of point-to-pointers at home for the forthcoming season.

Ben is also a keen Eventer and was part of the Warwickshire Pony Club team at this years Pony Club Championships.

Sandie Wilkinson

Sandie has always been involved in racing having been brought up around horses.  She worked for Kim originally when he first started training at East Isley in 1983.  She then left because her husband started training but later went back to Kim in 2003 when he’d moved to Preston Capes, close to where she was then living. 

Sandie’s main role is to look after the finances and carry out book keeping but when it’s all hands on deck, Sandie is always there to help!

Kerry Maxwell

Kerry originally from Ireland has been brought up in the racing world and has ridden horses all of her life.  Before starting at Thorndale Farm she spent four and half years working for Tom George. 

Whilst working for Kim she is also a freelance photographer specialising in portraiture and property photography.

Jason Maguire

Originally from Ireland, Jason came to England 7 years ago having spent a couple of years there as an Apprentice to Joanna Morgan on the flat.    He switched to Jumps in England and was until recently stable jockey to Tom George.

Jason was recommended to Kim by JP and has regularly schooled and worked horses at Thorndale Farm.

Jason has ridden nearly 200 winners since arriving in England and his biggest win came on Galileo at Cheltenham when he won the Royal and Sun Alliance Novices' Hurdle.  

Graham Potts

Graham is a Partner in a 12 man The Three Counties Equine Hospital practice where he has worked since 1990. Prior to that, he worked in an equine practice in Sydney, Australia and in Warwickshire. Graham spends roughly 50% of his time with National Hunt horses, while the rest is spread amongst performance horses. His particular areas of interest are soft tissue surgery, lameness investigation and equine sports medicine. A keen racing fan, Graham is a racecourse vet at three racecourses, Ludlow, Hereford and Worcester. He’s based only 30 minutes away which means he can attend to any urgent problems (hopefully there won’t be any!) promptly as well as carrying out his routine visits.

Neil Ferguson

Neil, our blacksmith, shares his work here with another blacksmith Julian Day.  They decided to split the workload between them so that they can better manage all the different jobs and if one isn't available the other one can take over.

Neil is also an event rider and is based at Foxcote just down the road where he has four event horses which he competes with at Advanced level.  As well as training yards he does a lot of work with sport horses which helps him finance his eventing along with his owners and sponsors of course!