William Fox-Pitt’s Head Groom
Behind every great event rider, there’s a team — and at the heart of William Fox-Pitt’s operation for around three decades has been his head groom, Jackie Potts.
Jackie didn’t take the traditional route into the horse world. She started riding at age ten, when a friend asked her along to a riding school for company. She spent her early career in an office job before making the leap to professional grooming at 25. After stints training with Chris Bartle, working at Haddon Stud with Chris Hewlett, and spending time with Di Lampard, Jackie answered an advert in Horse & Hound magazine for a temporary groom to cover a week at Fox-Pitt’s yard. She never left.
Based at Wood Lane Stables in Dorset, Jackie has managed every aspect of the yard, from day-to-day horse care and training support to veterinary management. Her career highlights are remarkable: she has groomed at four Olympic Games, four FEI World Equestrian Games, and eight European Championships, alongside countless international events.
Her expertise has been formally recognised at the highest level. She won the BEF Groom of the Year Award in 2006 and, in 2014, was crowned FEI Best Groom at the FEI Awards Gala in Baku. William Fox-Pitt has consistently credited Jackie as central to his success, praising her deep empathy with horses, her ability to motivate the yard team, and her generous sharing of knowledge with fellow grooms.
Jackie has always championed professionalism in grooming, viewing it as a serious career rather than just a job — and her extraordinary tenure at the top of the sport proves it.Here she explains what TalkLameness means to her
