“I’ve always been an old soul,” says Ioli Mytilineou. “My mum says that I’ve never been a kid; I skipped that stage.”
This might sound a bit serious, but it’s paying dividends now. Ioli came close to a fairy-tale championship debut at the Europeans in 2021 and was top 20 at the worlds last year. Moreover, being wise beyond her years is how Ioli wants to play it.
“Everything is a balance, but I’m trying to live like a 25-year-old with the knowledge of a 35-year-old,” she says. “As they get older people say, ‘I wish I knew that when I was younger.’ I don’t want those regrets, so I’m trying to gather as much knowledge as I can and apply it.”
And yet, she retains a childlike exhilaration at the jet-set glamour of the international showjumping circuit.
“I turn up at every show two days before everyone else, sometimes when they are still setting up,” she says. “It’s still so exciting, the cities we get to see – I would never have been to these places without this sport.”
Ioli and I are sitting ringside at the Doha GCT, where she will later win a 1.55m class on L’Artiste De Toxandra and finish fifth in the 1.60m grand prix with Levis De Muze – the horse she describes as “changing my whole perspective on the sport and how I want to do it”.
These two are really Ioli’s first five-star campaigners. As much as she burst into the international limelight at the 2021 Europeans, she has been steadily climbing up since moving from Greece to Belgium seven years ago.
Greece is not a major equestrian force. A handful of Greek riders pop up in the Olympics now and again, including Ioli’s English-born mother, Hannah, who showjumped at Athens 2004. Ioli’s father, a shipping magnate, “competed for fun” up to 1.30m.
“I am probably born into the most equestrian family in Greece,” says Ioli. “Most kids were on horses, but because Mum was English, she has that mentality of kids having ponies so she bought me a little pony, Maya, whom I’d jump in all the horse classes, and just put an extra stride in all the distances. I was only 10 and it felt like we were jumping mountains, but it was probably 1.20m.”
A career in showjumping was almost inevitable. But for that to bear fruit, Ioli would have to emigrate.
“I loved growing up in Greece, but as an adult I don’t miss it,” she says. “Many of my friends stayed, but it was never in my mind as a life plan. I knew that if I was going to be a showjumper, Greece is too far away, and doesn’t have the level or the horses.”
Ioli headed to Belgium, aged 18, to be temporarily based with Emma McIntosh, who knew her mother. But Ioli’s first taste of expat life on the circuit was tough. She’d barely competed internationally, bar representing Greece in the European youth championships, and the reality of sitting at the foot of the ladder in the epicentre of global showjumping hit hard.
“It was nice, but lonely,” said Ioli. “Mum brought her horses over too and helped me settle in, but maybe made it harder to make friends as I didn’t feel the need to branch out socially – Mum is very sociable! It didn’t go badly, but not as well as I wanted it to.
“In Greece the sport is small, so in a speed class if you take one stride out, you win. In Belgium, however, every class is so competitive and I thought, ‘What if I can’t do it? I don’t have any other option.’”
Ioli had been a studious schoolgirl, and so switched her attention to academics, applying to read psychology at King’s College, London.
“I did it for three weeks,” she says. “I was planning to fly back and forth to my horses, but I went to compete at Oliva and never returned to uni. I had so many sleepless nights about withdrawing, because although I knew my mum would be thrilled as horses are her passion too, my dad is a hardworking businessman so I thought he’d be happy I’d chosen to study, but he was so easy.
“From the minute I’d closed that door, I was determined to make riding work. I didn’t want to be the type of person that keeps starting something and stopping. Now I couldn’t be happier I’ve made that decision.”
Back in Belgium, she joined Abdel Saïd’s yard with a renewed sense of purpose: “I was determined to have fun, because I was lacking that when I first moved and it felt like a chore,” she says. “I forgot the reason I was riding – because I love it. Now I have my own base in Belgium and a trainer – Sean Crooks – who reminds me of this every day. Whenever I get into a rut, he says, ‘Remember why you do this, you chose it because you wanted to.’”
Ioli’s fleeting flirtation with a psychology degree is fitting. She is exceptionally analytical in her approach to her riding, her own and her horses’ mindsets and in the articulate, measured way she talks.
Ioli admits that she has a nervous temperament. Fed up with under-achieving at youth championships, she decided to approach her first senior Europeans, with Levis, with a different attitude.
“I tend to get weak from nerves, I go soft in my legs and arms and feel faint,” she says. “Every time I did championships as a kid, I messed up and I got a little bit sick of it. The only thing I could try was not getting nervous, but that’s easier said than done.
“So going into that first senior championship, I made a point of taking it day by day with zero expectation. I thought I’d just ride and see, and if it was too much, we’d go home. Everyone else was there wanting to win, but for me winning was so far-fetched.”
In the event, they very nearly did. They went into the third and final round in a medal position, with just an uncharacteristic stop at the bogey fence keeping them off the podium.
“If you’d told me at the start of the week that I’d finish 11th, I would have been ecstatic, and afterwards I spent the whole day crying, even though I’m not a crier; I felt so many emotions. Before that week, people were looking at my name on the list and saying, ‘Who?’
“I came out of it doing interviews and being asked for life advice. Being at the top of the sport was all I’d ever wanted, but it was bizarre how quickly it happened.”
Ioli makes a dazzling championship debut on Levis De Muze, challenging for the podium in the final round
However, her success wasn’t such a surprise for Harold Megahey, Ioli’s long-term boyfriend, and the optimistic foil to her realism.
“Ever since I’ve known him, when I was jumping two-stars, he’s been saying, ‘You’re the best female rider in the world.’ He’s a huge optimist and has really pushed me forward because if I was dating another realist, I probably couldn’t do it.”
But while Harold produces and sells horses for a living, Ioli’s methodology is developing a long-term bond with her horses – “It’s my biggest strength – that they want to do the job for me.”
“I definitely don’t think my way is right and others are wrong, it’s just how I want to do it. Of course Harold loves the horses too, but he thinks I’m a bit soft – I’d have them sleeping in my bed if they could!”
She appreciates she’s in “a very fortunate position” that she is under no financial pressure to sell. While money could buy her most horses at the peak of their powers, Ioli is passionate about the process and has produced her horses to the top level herself.
The primary motivation for this approach is Levis, known as Porky, the perfectly formed stallion she describes as “every rider’s dream”. Every plan is taken with his best interest in mind.
“I haven’t always listened to horses like this, but Porky’s made me like this. I want this horse in my life forever, not just to be the best horse for two years and be done – he doesn’t deserve that.”
Ioli rode her second string, “Beast” – L’Artiste De Toxandra’ – at last year’s World Championships
Eyebrows were raised when Ioli decided to take second-string L’Artiste (Beast) to the World Championships last summer instead of Porky, but this was typical of her process. Although nothing was superficially amiss, after the Euros Ioli felt Porky was tense in the ring, chewing through his bit, and so followed her instinct to drop him down to 1.35m for a few months to rebuild his confidence.
“People thought I was crazy and gimmicky – and 12-year-old Ioli would too – because he was still jumping well, but I knew that he wasn’t right, so I took my time and shifted the focus to Beast for the worlds. I feel the same about the Olympics. Yes, I’d love to go, but if my horses are not ready, I won’t jeopardise the rest of their careers.
“My dad always says, ‘Remember how you got your success; the person you are is how you got there,’ and this style is who I am.”
Ioli canters her European Championship ride Levis De Muze – the horse “who changed my whole perspective on the sport and how I want to do it”
Another of her rides climbing the ranks is testament to this approach. Her mother bought Casanova Hastak 18 months ago with the aim of jumping two-star grands prix, but quickly realised that he wasn’t the right horse for her, as she did not feel they were well matched.
“I said, ‘Give him a chance, work with him, get to know him,’ but Mum said, ‘You take him. He doesn’t suit me, but he might suit you.’
“She has a different mentality and approach to me. Since he is our family’s horse, I planned to try my best. From the minute I got him, I decided to make him feel like he was my best horse, whatever he’s done. Even after a couple of weeks, I could feel him getting happier. He could be a bit stallion-like, but we did some groundwork with a behaviourist and now – after a year together – I think he’s great. He needed time and love.”
Completing her five-strong string are the catlike La Perla VD Heffinck – who gave Ioli her maiden grand prix win in 2021 and “has eyes in her feet and a big, big heart” – while Seven Oaks 3 is making confident progress through rankings classes.
The lion-hearted La Perla v. Heffinck competing in the Hermes Grand Prix in Paris, in March
“They’re all so different,” she says. “My type is Levis, but I don’t want to be a one-trick pony who can only ride his type. Having the financial support I do, it would be easy to say I’ll just buy another one, but I’ve never wanted to be like that. That’s my main focus, to make each horse the best they can be.
“My horses know that for that one minute in the ring, they have to give their all for me, and I think my approach creates that. All I want is for them to have a good experience – and if that means I can’t jump a five-star grand prix for a few months, I don’t mind. I’m not here for a good time, I’m here for a long time.”
Wise words from an old soul.
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