Once the undisputed enfant terrible of show jumping, Nick Skelton has long put his wild days behind him.
Boozy hi jinks, sexual shenanigans, punch ups with rivals, he was guilty of the lot in his time, his antics often eclipsing those of Jilly Cooper’s fictional bounders.
‘I’m too old for all that,’ he sighs. ‘They were fun times but I’m 67 now.’
Age was never previously a barrier, though. Not for this old stager, the superstar horseman who broke his neck in a horrifying fall and was told he would never ride again – only to jump back in the saddle and win Olympic gold at the age of 58.
We’re discussing a documentary feature film about his colourful life and career – Big Star: The Nick Skelton Story – while sitting in a gazebo overlooking the arena at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, the stage where he took his final bow in 2017, when, to cheers and tears, steed at his side, he raised his arm aloft as these words rang out over the public address system: ‘The greatest show jumper the world has ever seen!’
It is little surprise that a Hollywood producer came calling. One wonders why it took so long. ‘It’s been in the making for the past seven years, Covid got in the way,’ Skelton explains.
Like others of its ilk – an obvious comparison is Senna, a film about the life of Brazilian motor racing champion Ayrton Senna – the final result is a compelling story that demands of its audience no previous knowledge of, or interest in, the sport in question.
A bit like a Jilly Cooper bonkbuster then. Well, not exactly. For one thing, comparisons between Skelton and her anti-hero Rupert Campbell-Black, the upper class show jumper who seduces his way around the countryside in fictional Rutshire, only go so far.
The son of a chemist, Skelton projects unpretentious ordinariness. His Warwickshire burr, unchanged despite years of hobnobbing with royals, somehow makes the outstanding sporting achievements he recounts seem even more dazzling. He lists the injuries he suffered. I lose count. It seems he broke almost as many bones as equestrian records. As someone in the film notes: ‘He has more titanium in his body than a Space Shuttle.’
Today, wearing a cap and body warmer, he has the air of a man who’s popped round to quote for a patio. Indeed, if he wasn’t a professional show jumper he says he’d have been a builder.
No, he’s certainly no Campbell-Black, the blue-blooded cad who, in the opening scene of Disney’s adaptation of Rivals reaffirms his membership of the mile-high club as Concorde hits Mach 1.
Skelton is an earthy soul, too, but determinedly down to earth. In his autobiography, Gold, he recalls the racy delights of the county show circuit: ‘There would be beer everywhere, farmers in their wellies and a few birds about.’
On one occasion ‘one of the lads pulled a bird who showed donkeys. They went off behind the hot-dog van to do whatever came natural to them and while they were at it the van packed up and drove off, leaving him with his backside going up and down…and everyone cheering him on!’
More redolent of Jilly Cooper novel was the time, much later, when his first wife locked him out of their Mauritius hotel room and threw his clothes into the Indian Ocean after discovering he was having an affair with the wife of a Swiss equestrian rider.
Skelton tells me the sport has changed immeasurably in recent years and has ‘got a lot more serious because of the huge prize money and sponsorship. The sponsors want their pound of flesh.’
With a hint of regret, he says of today’s show jumpers: ‘You’re more likely to find them in the gym than the bar.’
The film – the Big Star in the title is the wonder horse who helped Skelton win gold – goes on general release at cinemas across the country next month. ‘It feels really humbling,’ says Skelton.
‘It’s great for the sport and I hope it will inspire others and make them realise, that its not just horse and rider, that there’s a lot that goes on behind the scene.’
And not just grooming, training and mucking out. As a fellow competitor notes of Skelton and his British teammates: ‘Those guys together, they’d get themselves into trouble.’
Skelton’s partner for the past 19 years, US show jumper Laura Kraut, adds: ‘They were just fun, you’d meet them in the bar and they had this uncanny ability to stay up all night then show up at eight o’clock next morning and go and win.’
After graduating from the beery county shows, Skelton continued to ride hard and play hard. Once, an all-night drinking binge in Dublin earned him a dressing down from the manager of the Great Britain team, who threatened to report him to the stewards if his behaviour did not improve.
During the course of a riotous night, Skelton had gone from the bar at a horse show to the Embassy, then to a party and, still clad in his boots and breeches from the previous day, back to the showground where he was due to compete later that day. ‘We used to celebrate, of course we did, we were good at that,’ laughs Skelton.
Midway into the film, which includes contributions from mainly horsey folk, Bruce Springsteen and his singer-songwriter wife Patti Scialfa make an incongruous appearance. It turns out Skelton is a friend and coaches their daughter Jessica, an Olympic silver medallist. ‘Nick is a rock star, only he rides a horse instead of carrying a guitar around,’ says Patti.
It is her husband who, of all the film’s contributors, best articulates Skelton’s iron will power and determination. Springsteen says: ‘You’ve got to have a hot fire in the furnace in order to take you where you want to go. Nick has that, he’s one of those guys… it’s almost as if he wills his wins.’
If Skelton’s career had ended in 2000 when he suffered what was believed to be a career-ending neck injury, he would still be considered one of the sports all-time greats. But against the odds, he achieved so much more, including Olympic gold medals at London 2012 and in Rio four years later.
In a fall at a show in Cheshire, he broke his C1 vertebra in two places and snapped a ligament which tore away a piece of his spine.
Months in a metal neck brace followed and he was advised by surgeons to give up riding or risk a fatal injury.
Reluctantly, he retired from the sport in 2001 but to the amazement of many, the following year he was told by a German specialist that the bones in his neck had healed beyond expectations so he returned to the saddle – and competing at the very top.
It allowed him to continue a career that has spanned four decades and seen him win five World Championship medals and nine European medals as well as holding the British record for jumping the highest fence ever cleared over 7ft 7in in 1979.
Does he miss competing? ‘No, not really. I achieved everything I wanted to achieve.’ These days he trains young riders and horses and keeps a keen eye on the careers of his partner Laura and sons Harry, a champion jockey and Dan, a top trainer.
He says: ‘Just the other day I was coming out of a reception at Windsor Castle and of the security guy’s said, ‘You’re Dan Skelton’s father, aren’t you?’. I thought that was quite funny.’
* Big Star: The Story of Nick Skelton will be in cinemas from June 6. For cinema locations, visit www.nickskeltonmovie.com