Jonty Evans
 Jonty Evans at Badminton Horse Trials (2007) | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 October 1971 Burton-on-Trent, England |
Jonty Evans (born 4 October 1971) is an Irish eventing rider.[1]
Personal life[]
Evans grew up near Trefriw, in the Conwy valley in North Wales. He is married with two children by different women, and lived near Cheltenham in the Cotswolds, where he had a yard. He now lives near Minsterworth, Gloucs, where he also rents a yard. It is thought the move took place due to the major downsizing of operations ot save money.
Eventing career[]
Evans has been competing internationally in eventing for more than twenty years. Although brought up in Wales, Evans represents Ireland, thanks to his grandfather having been born in Northern Ireland, allowing him to hold an Irish passport.
Evans competed at the 2005 European Eventing Championships where he was placed 7th in team eventing and 40th in individual eventing competition. In 2015, he helped lead the Irish team to the nation's first ever Irish FEI Eventing Nations' Cup victory in the Boekelo Nations' Cup.[2]
Evans was selected to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro with his Irish Sport Horse Cooley Rorkes Drift.[3] This was Evans first time to make the Olympic team. The Irish team finished eighth in the three-day eventing competition, but Evans qualified for the individual eventing final. He finished ninth in the individual eventing competition.
In 2017 the owner of Cooley Rorkes Drift (Art) decided to sell him - which meant Jonty would have lost the horse. So Jonty set up a crowdfunding initiative to buy him. It was a massive success and on 9 August 2017 Jonty bought Cooley Rorkes Drift with the help of £500,000 raised by crowdfunding.
On 3 June 2018, during the cross-country portion of the Tattersalls event in Ireland, Evans suffered a serious brain injury from a fall.[4]
On 12th June 2019, Horse and Hound[5] announced that Evans had launched yet another crowdfunding campaign,[6] this time seeking circa £100,000 in "development costs", for a film about the story of 'Jonty and Art'. These costs being controversially high for development of the concept which is, in effect, a documentary. The campaign ended on 6th August 2019, raising only £3569. Evans was listed on the crowdfunding page, alongside Jan Birley as "Executive Producer". Noteworthily this executive team have no obvious background in major productions.
Controversies[]
On 31 December 2020 the Low Pay Commission of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy revealed that "Mr Jonathan Evans, trading as Jonty Evans Equestrian Activities, Gloucester, failed to pay £5,008.16 to 5 workers"[7]
References[]
- ^ "Jonty Evans". fei.org. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
- ^ "Ireland has historic win in Boekelo Nations' Cup". Horse Sport Ireland. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
- ^ "Horse Sport Ireland announce Eventing Team for Rio Olympics". Horse Sport Ireland. 9 June 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
- ^ "Jonty Evans suffered 'a significant brain injury' in Tattersalls fall". 11 June 2018.
- ^ Jones, Eleanor (2019-06-12). "Jonty and Art: the film — a 'story of love and determination'". Horse & Hound. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ^ "Fund to develop the Jonty & Art film sales package". Crowdfunder UK. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ^ "Rogue employers named and shamed for failing to pay minimum wage". Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. 31 December 2020.
  | This biographical article related to Irish equestrianism is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by . |
- Living people
- 1971 births
- Irish male equestrians
- Equestrians at the 2016 Summer Olympics
- Olympic equestrians of Ireland
- Irish equestrian biography stubs