Showing results by narrator "Clare Balding"

As well as being one of Britain's best-loved presenters, Clare Balding is also a best-selling author. She joins Elise Italiaander in the Audible Studios to talk about her highlights from the 2016 Olympics and her new book for children, The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop.

Tilly Redbrow doesn't just love horses - she lives, breathes and dreams them too. Ever since she rescued Magic Spirit, Silver Shoe Farm has become her second home. Tilly has a special affinity with horses and at Silver Shoe, she's learning all the time, about riding, training, and caring for them. It's her idea of heaven! Tilly spends all her spare time at Silver Shoe Farm, where she's discovering more about horses than she ever thought possible.

Clare Balding grew up in a rather unusual household. As her father is a champion trainer, she shared her life with more than 100 thoroughbred racehorses, mares, foals, and ponies, as well as an ever-present pack of boxers and lurchers. As a toddler she would happily ride the legendary Mill Reef and take breakfast with the Queen. She and her younger brother came very low down the pecking order. Left to their own devices, they had to learn life’s toughest lessons through the animals, and through their adventures in the stables.

Puffin presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop, written and read by Clare Balding. Charlie Bass is a horse-mad nine-year-old who dreams of owning her own pony. So when her eccentric parents announce that they are going to buy a racehorse, Charlie is thrilled. The horse they buy, Noble Warrior, looks the part: strong, fit and healthy. There's just one problem - he won't gallop.

Clare Balding looks back at the time the Olympic Games came to London in 1948. Three years after the end of the Second World War, Britain was still gripped by austerity. Rationing was still in force, severe bomb damage was still much in evidence, and no new sports facilities could be built. Visiting athletes were put up in schools and RAF camps. Yet the Games were a resounding success and actually made a profit.

Life is slowly getting back to normal for Charlie after her reluctant racehorse, Noble Warrior, won the Derby and saved her family from financial ruin. But drama soon returns to Folly Farm when thieves break into the farmyard in the dead of night and kidnap Noble Warrior! With the police baffled and no trace of the prizewinning thoroughbred to be found, Charlie launches her own investigation but is soon distracted by trouble closer to home.

In this 30-part narrative history series, with the help of the academic team from the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University, Clare looks at the unique and vital role sport has played, and continues to play, in our national life.

In Clare Balding's family, walking just took too long - she galloped through the countryside and she galloped through life. Then, in 1999, Clare took a call from a BBC producer looking for a presenter for a new radio series. "Do you walk?" she asked. "Well, I walk the dog...." That series, Ramblings, is still going strong - and Clare's caught the walking bug. Now she wants her family to share some of that pleasure. Her and her brother Andrew are determined to conquer the Wayfarer's Walk, a 71-mile route. What could possibly go wrong?

It's nearly Christmas and everyone at Silver Shoe Farm is excited about the Olympia horse show - especially Tilly. It's a chance to see some of the top show jumpers in the world, as well as some wonderful displays. But her enthusiasm is overshadowed when her favourite horse, Magic Spirit, gets ill and needs every possible attention. Then, at Olympia a chance encounter with Samson, a highly-strung stallion, means Tilly's special gift with horses is not only in demand at home, but at the show too!

Tilly is an adopted child with a passion for ponies. The only clue to her past is a bracelet made of plaited horse hair. But when Tilly helps to rescue Magic Spirit, a rescue horse who has been so badly treated by humans that he won't let anyone close, everything changes. She's invited to Silver Shoe Farm to help with Magic Spirit's recovery, and Tilly's special affinity with horses is clear to everyone.

Tilly spends every spare minute at Silver Shoe Farm getting to know Magic Spirit and discovering more about her special gift with horses. But she longs for a pony of her own, and often helps her friends Cally and Mia take care of their pony, Rosie. Then Cally has some news and though it takes everyone by surprise, Tilly realises that sometimes good things happen when you least expect.