Jane Holderness-Roddam (né Bullen) is a sister of Michael Bullen who competed in eventing at two Olympic Games (1960/64), and also the sister of Jenny Loriston-Clarke who competed in dressage at four Olympic Games (1972, 1976, 1984, 1988). On leaving Westwing School, at Thornbury [near Bristol], Jane Bullen went on to train as a nurse at Middlesex Hospital, and was nicknamed the “Galloping Nurse”. She achieved sporting fame as a 20-year-old in 1968 by winning the Badminton Horse Trials on her horse Our Nobby, the day after working a night shift as a nurse. That was followed by her selection for the Olympics in Mexico the same year. There, she became the first woman to compete for Great Britain in the Olympic three-day event, and she helped win a team gold medal to become the first woman from any country to win an eventing gold medal. She also won the 1976 Burghley Horse Trials, a team gold at the 1977 European Championships, and again won at Badminton in 1978.
After her retirement from competition, Holderness-Roddam remained involved in the sport, and has been chairman of British Eventing, as well as serving as chairman of Riding for the Disabled Association. She and her husband Tim Holderness-Roddam own the highly successful West Kington Stud, stallion centre and competition yard, just 10 miles north of Bath and 4 miles south of Badminton in North Wiltshire. She was awarded a CBE for services to equestrian sport in the Queen’s birthday honours list of June 2004 and received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of the West of England in November 2004 in recognition of her contribution to equestrian sport and to the promotion of related education and training. In May 2009 she also received the British Horse Society Queen’s Award for Equestrianism.
Great Britain