THE WILL TO WIN SPURS GARY ON

TEN years on since our last interview, Gary Docking has reached the top echelons of carriage driving, renowned for his dedicated professionalism and achievements both as competitor and trainer.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Oct 2007, 17:25 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 03:49 BST

Today he is happily based in a new yard in Hoyle Lane, near Heyshott, where he can trot his horses down to the village shop in Graffham to buy a packet of biscuits, or take them on a four-mile loop along country lanes, hardly meeting a vehicle.

He is a council member of the British Driving Society and also the Hackney Horse Society, as well as a judge.But he still has a consuming passion for carriage driving and a will to win.

"Horses are great social levellers," he said.

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He aims to get the horses in his care as right and ready as possible, acutely aware that there is no room for complacency.

"I feel settled here and the yard speaks for itself, but you are only as good as your last rosette and as bad as your last bank statement," he said.

He still has fire in his belly and admits to waking at 5am sometimes, wondering if the tie he has packed for that day's competition matches the lining of the carriage he will be driving. "It's all still there in my blood."

And his results this season prove that he is the best in his field. He has put heart and soul into a six-year-old Dutch-bred horse named Striker and reaped rich results.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette Sussex Horse World October 24