The talented sporting sisters who are really going places

Sitting around the kitchen table with the three Milner sisters at their Wold-top stud farm, a special kind of energy is exuded.

Surrounded by an eclectic mix of canine family members, and looking out on the picture perfect hillsides, the excited threesome describe their national and international competition hopes for the year ahead.

Their familial bond is so tight, one finishes a sentence where the other leaves off.

Youngest sister Katie, 17, is the odd one out, in that her ride is mechanical – racing a Citroen Saxo in the national Junior Saloon Car Championships. “I want to win,” she says calmly of her aspirations for 2016. As she goes on to describe her sport, it becomes clear why such stoicism is so necessary to her success.

“Until last year, I was the only female competitor in the country,” she said. “At competitions, the boys tend to like the fact I’m a girl at first. Then when I beat them, they stop talking to me.”

It’s a good job she has a thick skin, as this happens quite regularly. Katie has ranked second in the country for the past three years. Despite her young age, Katie is more than capable of overcoming gender stereotypes – and has recently garnered the support of famous retired British racing driver Susie Wolff, who is campaigning for greater equality for female motorsports competitors.

Sister Laura chips in: “We’ve been brought up to believe we have every right to win on merit, so we just block everything else out and focus on the job in hand.”

Laura, 21, a Great Britain dressage rider, added: “We’re a very competitive family when it comes to our sports. My sisters and I have been raised not to be like everyone else, watching our parents succeed through sheer hard work. To compete at our level, we have to live, eat and sleep it.” Third sister Steph, 19, is a world class carriage rider ,whose events take place at Royal venues like Windsor Castle and Sandringham, watched by the likes of Prince Philip. Prince Harry has also recently got involved in the sport.

The source of the girls’ conviction becomes clear when you know their parents are horse enthusiast Tracey and former two-times British Rally Champion Jonny Milner.

A keen amateur competitor herself in her younger days, it was Tracey who bought Laura her first horse. Determined to see at least one of their brood ride on four wheels, Johnny had each of the girls driving an old car around the yard from the age of six or seven. Propped up on cushions and with blocks attached to the pedals to help her reach them, it was Katie who was finally bitten by her dad’s bug.

“He was determined to make a racing driver out of one of us,” she laughs. This is the last year Steph can compete at junior level in carriage riding, and she is determined to go out on a high by winning Gold at the World Championships in Germany in September, with Cross D Welsh Pony Josh. Having started riding on Shetland Pony Elvis on her 12th birthday, this would be her gateway to elite adult competition. Steph knows she has the capability, having clinched Gold in the ICKD World Junior Championships in 2012, and won all her club and national championships last year. She will top off her preparations by undergoing intensive training with internationally renowned Australian-born carriage rider Boyd Exell in May.

“My dream is to eventually win an adult World Championship in single pony carriage riding in the future,” she admitted. Steph’s sport involves a blend of high precision dressage-style carriage manoeuvring, and speed driving round a course featuring various obstacles. Meanwhile, Laura is the more strategic of the three, and her longer term focus is on breeding her own line of gold medal-winning dressage horses. She helps mum Tracey run the family’s South Grange Stud farm and Merlin Equestrian livery yard, as well as competing.

Last year she finished in the top 10 of every national class, as well as 6th and 8th in international competition at Le Mans, France.

“My passion is breeding and training our own horses to rise through the levels,” explains Laura. “The horses we’ll be entering this year are just babies really, and it typically takes seven to eight years to get them up the levels, so I’m in it for the long haul. If I can eventually get a home-bred horse into Team GB, that will be a dream-come-true for me.” To be in with a chance of achieving their aspirations, the girls have to be utterly committed. As I left our meeting, they were off for a collective personal training session at a local gym, and that’s a daily norm. This, and regular swimming, riding and – for Katie – driving a racing simulator on a TV in her dad’s office – are necessary to maintain their core strength, skills and mental focus. In fact, the whole family have a seven-day-a-week, 24-hours-a-day business and sport routine.

“We’ve been brought up to believe that having talent, or money, is only a small element of success – and needs to be matched by pure hard work,” added Laura. “I’ve competed against the children of European princesses and their quarter-of-a-million-pound horses, but I still believe I can win because of everything we’ve been taught. We’ve been brought up not to just have things handed to us, but to get out what we put in.”

Sharing the same passions, they spend most of their time together – including driving each other around to various competitions at weekends. Perhaps the most charming thing about the three, is their obvious love for their extensive menagerie of animals. South Grange is currently home to a growing collection of 23 horses, 40 chickens, five dogs and three cats all part of the family.

“As a family, we’re incredibly close. We spur each other on and pull each other through any hard times,” says Laura.