There are few people who can lay claim to Superman getting down on bended knee and proposing. But on May 3, British showjumper Ellen Whitaker joined a select band when boyfriend Henry Cavill popped the question two days before his 28th birthday.
Actor Cavill was previously better known for the roles he missed out on – in the Harry Potter and Twilight film series – before being cast as the Man of Steel in the next Superman film, which will hit the screens next year.
But the future Mrs Superman is not about to give away whether the proposal, which took place in a Hollywood hotel room, matched the romanticism of the film world’s most famous location.
When asked about the proposal, Whitaker says almost apologetically: “I’d rather not talk about it. But it feels good and I’m very happy.”
Whitaker, though, isa not particularly enamoured by the celebrity lifestyle. Growing up amid her horse-mad clan, all she has ever known is an equine world in what was effectively the royal family of showjumping.
At just 25, she is already a European medallist having won bronze in 2007 and was set to represent Team GB at the Beijing Olympics when her leading horse, Locarno 62, suffered a leg infection. “I remember he was going really well and then he just broke down with his injury,” she adds.
“But it makes me all the more determined to qualify for 2012.”
Those horses include Locarno but also the up-and-coming Ocalado, who Whitaker is with in Calgary, Canada, where she is training and competing for six weeks. The extra-tough level of competition over there is one of the reasons why Whitaker has chosen to miss this week’s Derby Meeting at Hickstead, so she can better prepare for next year’s Olympics.
Ellen Whitaker at the Hickstead Derby Meet 2008. Photo: Stephen-Bartholomew-Photography.co.uk
In terms of competition, she is on the longlist for Team GB in London but it will be tough to make the five-person team that will represent her country at Greenwich Park next year.
Among her rivals are her two uncles and she is immensely pragmatic in her approach to Olympic qualification.
“It’s very, very difficult to make it but I can only do my best,” she says. “If that’s not enough to beat the people in England, then that’s not enough for a medal anyway.”
On the surface, Whitaker is softly spoken but it hides a determination which one can only assume was drilled into her by her famous family.
Winning medals is important but more key is just spending time with her immensely valuable horses, which are worth as much as £1 million apiece.
“I’ll always have something to do with horses, they’re just beautiful and I love working with them,” she says. “But it’s extremely challenging when you’re riding. Working with animals means that nothing is ever certain so trying to execute your plan, to make it work is so nervewracking and anything can go wrong even on your best day.”
Understandably, things don’t always go to plan in the showjumping world. There are falls and Whitaker has had her fair share, particularly this year where she has encountered more than her usual quota of stumbles.
Whitaker is clearly brave. As well as being renowned for her quick, agile riding style, she also has an impressive pedigree in the puissance, when horse and rider tackle gravity-defyingly high fences in competition.
The next few weeks could prove integral in her Olympic ambitions. She describes the trip to Canada as one that, in the case of Ocolado, “makes him or breaks him” in bidding for 2012 glory.
This time last year, the Games looked an impossible dream for Whitaker after a public row with performance manager Rob Hoekstra, the pair refusing back down on their stance over her competition schedule. But with that row out of the way, the golden girl of British showjumping has every chance of living up to that tag next year.
