Betty Howett

I can only talk about Betty’s return to Porlock, after she left Potomac.
From the first time I met Betty she was always very kind to me, offering advice and useful hints whenever I was riding, when she came down to Porlock Vale Equitation Centre to ride her own horse.

Betty very quickly built up her own clientele in the South West and then built her own outside dressage arena.
Once she was established as a dressage instructor Betty then began buying and selling horses, and encouraged me to work with her, by buying horses that she had seen whilst out teaching. These horses I then schooled on for a few weeks or months and then Betty would help me to sell them.

This really helped me to progress as a rider, but the real transformation came when Betty encouraged me to organise a trip to her good friend Nuno Oliveira in Portugal. Whilst in the USA Betty had organised many clinics for Nuno, and had absorbed many of his teaching philosophies. Interestingly Rosie Cockerton was one of the members of the group, along with another friend Tessa Counsell, and of course Betty. That week was the most formative week of my life, completely transforming my riding and teaching.

So, I have many reasons to remember Betty as a friend and mentor.

Betty carried on teaching up until two weeks before she died, and there must be thousands of people both in the U.K. and the U.S.A. who will miss her very much.

Peter Cook