“I played rugby until my early thirties,” Simon Hardwick, a partner with Halliwells, says. “I’m not at all sure that what I do now represents a safer selection of sport.”

Hardwick's passion is horses. His decision to take up horse riding seriously, once injuries on the rugby field had got the better of him, was easy. “My wife, Sally, has been a keen horse-woman all her life. When I met her I had a clear choice: either marry her with her horses, or not at all.”

Now the head of Halliwells’ real estate team in London, Hardwick has for many years helped Sally to run Hallingbury Hall Equestrian Centre on the doorstep of the couple’s home in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire. “When we met, Sally rode competitively and ran an equestrian centre,” Hardwick, 52, says. “We’ve moved but have always taken the centre with us. We teach children to ride, as well as novice and experienced adults, stage competitions and import competition horses from Germany. Best of all, though, is the centre’s location. It’s just outside our back door.”

Twenty years of riding have seen Hardwick gravitate mainly to cross-country riding, though he has also competed in dressage events. “Dressage is a great way to improve your general horse-riding skills,” he says, though he cautions that it’s “a bit like golf. It can be incredibly frustrating, not least because your partner is a large animal with a mind of its own. Often a strong mind, too.” A glance at Hardwick with his dressage competition horse – a 17-hand Hanoverian warmblood mare whose stable name is Miriam – proves his point.

In contrast, cross-country riding provides more by way of a pure adrenaline buzz. “At the centre we have a 20-jump course including drops and water. If you hit one of the fences, you’ll know about it, but it’s always exhilarating. I get the same feeling of excitement as I used to just before the kick-off in a rugby match.”

Hardwick studied law at Exeter University, where he enjoyed a summer job as a bus conductor. He confesses that distractions on the run between the seaside resort town of Exmouth and Exeter once caused a little embarrassment. “Put it this way – I lost the bus,” he says. But with university completed (and a few more stints on the buses under his belt), Hardwick took his Law Society finals at Lancaster Gate in London. He then began work as an articled clerk with Pellys, initially in Bishop’s Stortford and then at the firm’s Trafalgar Square office. For the past six years he has headed Halliwells’ property team in London.

“Horse riding is definitely my way of relaxing,” he says. “I ride every weekend and sometimes get home in time, in the summer, for a ride on a weekday evening. You can’t think of anything else when you’re riding. You’re immersed in the activity and so completely forget about work and any other stresses in your life.”

Given that his daughter Alex, 17, is also passionate about horses - she, like her mother, actively competes in a variety of events - it is no surprise that family holidays always entail riding. “We often take holidays in Norfolk, where we can ride along the coast,” says Hardwick, but idyllic as this sounds, it palls in comparison with another Hardwick family favourite – riding in Andalucia, in southern Spain.

“We’ve had some wonderful times riding in the mountains of Andalucia,” Hardwick explains. “You can get to places that no one else can get to. They’re too far to walk to, and inaccessible to cars. But incredibly beautiful.”

Hardwick confesses that another passion competes for his attention. “I have two major weaknesses,” he says, “cars and horses.” If asked to make a choice, which would it be? “Horses,” he says, without hesitation. Then he adds wryly: “There’d be no choice.”

For more information on Hallingbury Hall Equestrian Centre, see www.hallingburyhall.com

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