Lionel Dunning’s life is horses and riding.  He has ridden show jumpers successfully at the highest level both nationally and internationally for over forty-five years.  He schools horses, taking novices all the way to the top and realising the true potential of young horses of all levels; something for which Lionel has an unrivalled reputation as a leading trainer.

 

Lionel’s first stable jockey became a British Olympic rider and is now American team rider, Tim Grubb.  He advises on horses for riders, taking pride in matching horse and rider in order to create a winning combination.  He builds show jumping courses that can help and train an inexperienced horse and rider or a course that can test the best in the world. Lionel is an FEI course builder.

 

Lionel holds show jumping clinics both in the United Kingdom and overseas, helping over 250 riders per year including many Nations Cup and Olympic riders who have successfully represented their countries.  He has show jumped in television commercials, has written books about show jumping and has had books written about him.

 

This success has come about through hard work, dedication and the never-ending support of his wife, Pam, who has matched Lionel’s success in the international show jumping arena. When Lionel married Pam she was the leader of the Verv Clicot  Point-to-Point Championship. In less than one year, Lionel trained her to international level as a show jumper, where she rode on the British Team until 1985, becoming one of the three leading lady riders in the world.

 

The highlights of the Dunnings’ success range from county shows, Wembley, Olympia and Hickstead to Grand Prix and Nations Cups throughout the world, where they became the leading man and wife show jumping couple in the world.

 

Building a career and a reputation to the highest level would be enough for most people, but Lionel has done it all three times.

In 1975 Lionel suffered a bad fall from a horse and was clinically dead for four minutes.  His severe head injuries left him semi-conscious for seven months. However, Lionel is not one to take things ‘lying down’ and despite the opinion that he would never ride horses again, he returned to the saddle in 1976 and although still suffering from his injuries,  rapidly rose to become a top ten international show jumper once again.  

 

During Lionel’s enforced year away from show jumping his wife, Pam, took up the reins with what was to become Lionel’s best known horse, Jungle Bunny, turning it into a top level horse.  Lionel and Jungle Bunny subsequently became a top European and UK money winning combination.

 

Lionel competed in many British Nations Cup teams over ten years and is still the only rider to have jumped four double clear rounds on a British bred horse in this competition.  Then, in 1984 a second bombshell was to fall on the Dunnings. Lionel’s sponsors wanted their horses to compete in the Olympic games, and as Lionel was a professional he was not at that time allowed to compete at the Olympics, so lost his horses.

 

So Lionel began to build another string of top horses until an out of control police car collided with the lorry containing his five horses, killing four of them.

 

Lionel began yet again to build a team of top horses.  It is a wonderful reflection of his talents and eye for a horse that in 1985 he returned to top level competition at the CSIO in Portugal and went on to achieve another Nations Cup win.  Lionel was instrumental in giving the team victory with a new horse Spirit of Lee.

 

Pam’s own show jumping career was not without its own problems.  She broke her leg at the Kent county show and was told she would never ride again.  However, like her husband, Pam was not ready to give up.  After finding a rather wild and inexperienced horse called Roscoe, from Australia, Pam brought him on.  They won the coveted Hickstead Gold Medal, an annual award presented to the most consistent rider during the year.  (This is an award that Lionel has also won.)  Pam was the most successful and well-known female international rider at that time and her career should have been crowned by success in the World Championships, but while warming up at Hickstead for the championships in Dublin, her famous horse Roscoe tragically slipped and broke a leg.

 

Bringing things right up to date, Lionel concentrates on teaching, training and schooling.  His many clinics are always a success.  At a clinic Lionel will train any interested rider who wants to learn, whatever their age or level of skill.  He constantly advises and improves event riders, established show jumpers, amateur or professional riders, and riders who wish to increase their pleasure in riding for fun.

 

Riders trained by Lionel who have achieved notable success include his son Robert who competed aged 8 on the English Team on Jays Grey, at 16 on the Junior European Team on Into Space and at 17 on Grafton Magna, although Robert no longer rides since he is concentrating on breeding a herd of Lincoln Red cattle. Other riders of note are Simon Nicholson, now a well known event trainer; Debbie Saffell, winner of the Christie Beaufort Junior Championships at Wembley; Steven Young, Winner of the Individual Junior Gold Medal at Mill Street in 1989; Vicky Young, Junior Silver Medal winner in Rome; Adrian Speight, stable jockey to Lionel for 5 years and winner of the Grand Prix at Bourg en Brest; Australian Stuart Mitchell, winner of the Peking Grand Prix after one year’s training with Lionel and of course the current World Champion, Dermot Lennon.

 

In 1993 Lionel’s yard recorded 143 British ShowJumping Association wins and began 1994 with 7 wins at Arena UK’s New Year show. In 1997, just before he retired,  his yard recorded 151 first places in BSJA and FEI competitions.  More recently, Lionel has been working abroad as a top level trainer at a number of establishments in the Middle East. In the 1998/1999 season Lionel was the trainer to the Rishpon Jockey Club, where his students won every major class in Israel.  However, because of great pressure from the riders he became freelance for the 1999/2000 season, and he trained in all the important stables throughout the country.

 

At the beginning of the 1999/2000 season in Palestine his riders won both major classes. The next success was an international challenge – the FEI Samsung Showjumping Challenge - in which he managed to pull off a first with a young boy called Guy Keseros and was also second with Uri Borstein. This was run over 6 two-round competitions and his two riders were clear in all 6 competitions.  His next win was the Grand Prix with his old boss Adi Lebowitz.

 

The next win was the Derby, which he won with Uri Borstein, who was first and second, with the only clear round for first and a time fault for second place.  This was followed by success in the Northern Championship, won by Ifta Dorsky who was also second on an ex-Michael Whitaker horse.

 

In the next big competition in the north of Israel, Lionel jumped into another book of records by winning all nine classes with his riders.   In the last week at a very big show in The Park, his riders were first and second in the junior; first, second, fourth and fifth in the 1.40m class; first and second in the young riders class, and first, second, third and fourth in the Grand Prix.

 

Lionel’s pedigree has been proven over and over again, right up to the present day, and what Lionel does not know about horses and riding just is not worth knowing.  So, whether you are a top-level competitor or a raw novice there can be little doubt that under Lionel’s instruction you can only improve your abilities, your pleasure and your chances of success.  Lionel has written two books, one entitled Riding School, which has been very successful in America and the Middle East and an autobiography entitled Dead Lucky.