A sporting life is just the job for this all-rounder

As a child, Clare Balding ‘assaulted’ the queen with a sausage, but this year she was the TV queen of the Olympics, writes Sue Leonard

WHEN I was a teenager, my father came home one day with Mill Reef’s horseshoe. A doctor, his practice served many of the racehorse trainers around Kingsclere in Hampshire, including that of Ian Balding. That shoe had pride of place for years, but I lost it during a house move. I tell all this to Clare Balding, when we meet in Dublin.

“But that’s terrible!” she says. “The woman who lost Mill Reef’s horseshoe!”

Mill Reef was a hero in Clare’s household. Mention 1971, and her father remembers it as the year Mill Reef won the Derby. It’s escaped his mind that his first child was born that year. There’s a picture in Clare’s memoirs of her at 18 months old, perched precariously on the horse’s back. And there’s a statute of Mill Reef in the racing yard, now run by Clare’s younger brother, Andrew.

The star of her book, though, has to be her father. Charismatic, belligerent and eccentric, verging on bonkers, when Ian Balding appears on a page, you wait for something dire, or funny, to happen.

He was responsible for Clare’s broken collarbone. He let a stable lad lead her home on a Shetland pony — and nobody noticed that she’d fallen off a few fields before. Clare was two. Offering to make her hot chocolate, he boiled the milk in the kettle.

It was a glorious childhood. Clare and Andrew spent their days outside, in total freedom.

“We were very naughty,” she says. “It was a bit like Enid Blyton. We made our own entertainment, because you do when you live in the middle of nowhere. Once we started riding we were able to be out, alone, for hours every day. I was galloping around, jumping fences.”

Clare’s stern grandmother lived close by, but she never, quite, approved of her granddaughter. As for the Queen (whose horses were trained by Ian Balding) she’d appear twice a year to watch her horses perform on the gallops. And sometimes, the family forgot to warn the children.

One day, charging in for breakfast in mucky jodhpurs, Clare noticed the Queen, and felt it was ‘too late’ to curtsey. So saying, ‘Oh, sausages! Yummy!’ she started making a sausage sandwich.

“And yes. I did shoot a sausage at the Queen,” Clare laughs. “And I did try to kill Princess Anne,” she adds, referring to an incident, when, as an amateur jockey, Clare accidentally cut across the princess. She seems to have been forgiven.

“Well, I hope so. I come across Princess Anne at various charities, like Riding for Disabled. And I interview Zara Phillips, and see her a lot. She’s great.” And the Queen? “Well, obviously I see her at Ascot. And next year I’ll be doing a documentary about the Queen and her horses. We start filming that in January.”

Clare loved writing her book, and it shows. It’s beautifully paced, and the construction — basing each chapter around a particular animal — works well.

“I was influenced, hugely, by Dawn French’s book, Dear Fatty. That was structured by using letters. It was that, combined with meeting Gerald Durrell’s widow, asking if I could borrow from his title, My Family and Other Animals. She said using animals would work. It means you are not just writing about yourself. And it lets you show a softer side.”

It adds poignancy too. As a new wife, Clare’s mum discovered Boxer dogs. The first, Candy, was so loyal, that she once jumped from an upstairs window because she feared the baby Clare was being abducted. When she died, during her first visit to kennels, the family were truly heartbroken.

At ten, Clare went to Downe House as a boarder. She had a rocky start — rejected because she didn’t dress, or speak like everyone else. An effort to conform led to her suspension for theft, and it was a surprise to everyone when she eventually excelled, became head girl, and ended up at Cambridge University, where she read English.

“I think for all of us, we make whatever we can of our environment. We work out how to be independent and not part of the gang.”

Clare’s glowing career as a racing and sports presenter was crowned this summer, when she led coverage of the London Olympic Games, and the Paralympics.

“Wasn’t it amazing?” she says. “And I think it’s made us all better, more confident people who believe in what we can do.

“One of the things the Olympics is strong on is its portrayal of women who were allowed to be competitive, and strong, and ambitious, and all those things that can be used against women as criticism. Katie Taylor did it for Ireland. I was there when she won her medal, seeing big strong men chanting ‘Ka-tie, Ka-tie’. Her gender was irrelevant, she was the best boxer and was going to win. She will be such an inspiration to a whole generation of girls.”

The best television for Clare is when unexpected things happen.

“That’s what I’m paid for,” she says. “If I go into a programme and they say, ‘you can rip the running order up’, I am just thrilled.”

She’s a bit addled when we meet though, because her plane was late, skewing her schedule. Worse, her case has gone missing. And it contains her outfit for a TV appearance, and her thyroid medication. (Thankfully, by the end of our interview, the case has been located.)

The future looks rosy. Clare is to head up Channel Four’s racing coverage, whilst still presenting sport on BBC. She’s to host a Sunday morning show on BBC Radio Two, and present an entertainment show on BBC TV called Britain’s Brightest.

Her career, though, has not been without some bumps. In 2009, she got herself into hot water after suggesting that Liam Treadwell, winner of the Grand National, should spend his winnings on getting his teeth fixed. At the time, she’d been diagnosed with cancer, and was facing surgery on her thyroid gland.

“It was a tough time, but Liam wasn’t offended, and he got offers for free dental treatment. A year later he said, ‘no harm done’ and beamed a perfect smile. But it was a mistake. I made people feel awkward. I was trying to be smart, and one of the boys. And I’ve learned from it.”

Life is good. Clare lives happily with her partner Alice Arnold, and their Tibetan Terrier, Archie. She sees her nephews and niece constantly. “They even came to Ascot to watch Frankel. They are Frankel mad!”

And, at last, she’s made her father proud. “He’s so funny about the book,” she says. “He came to my first talk in a theatre in Windsor, which was sold out. I said, ‘My father is here this evening’ and everybody clapped. He loved it! And he asked a question at the end.

“He read the book and made a couple of factual corrections. But then he wrote at the end, ‘Brilliant!’ And he put a kiss beside it. That’s the nicest review I’ve had.”

* My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding is published by Viking at €13.99. Kindle: €14.99.