Jason Smith was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He grew up along with his two older brothers on a small farm with its own stable yard in Ayrshire near Glasgow and his passion for horses started from a very young age.
In the early years he was happy to follow in the footsteps of his brother Mark, who had been given the opportunity to train with Ted and Liz Edgar and their daughter Marie, and it was not long before Jason and his 12 2 hand pony also became regular visitors at Rio Grande. “Not only did we learn so much but we also had good fun. I have really great memories of the time I spent at Rio Grande.”
- At 12 years old Jason made the transition from ponies to horses and by the age of 16 years he had already achieved numerous placings at national and international GP level and competed on Junior Nations Cup teams for Team GBR.
- At the same age, after finishing his High School exams, Jason moved to Pfungstadt, Germany to the stable of Dietmar Gugler. The planned 3 months training session led to Jason working in the professional stable for nearly 2 years. During this time Dietmar was the German Chef d Equipe and Team Trainer for Juniors and Young Riders and Jason moved up to jumping consistently both nationally and internationally at 150cm level. Jason was selected to compete for Great Britain at the Junior European Championships in Prague (2008) where the team won a Gold Medal.
- In 2008 Jason moved from Germany to the stable of Pius Schwizer in Oensingen, Switzerland. As a young and ambitious rider it was a great opportunity to be able work and train with one of the best riders in the world.
- Jason continued to compete successfully both nationally and internationally and was part of Team GBR ‘s Bronze Medal winning team at the Young Rider European Championships in Comporta in 2011.
- Through Pius in 2012 Jason started to work for Kevin and Andrea Sigrist-Murphy in Root, Switzerland. He competed throughout Europe for their stable, Horse Management, for nearly 3 years.
- In 2015 Jason took the next step in his career and started his own business. Together with his girlfriend Julia he founded the JS Sport Horses GmbH. Since summer 2016 they have been based in Schlierbach (Switzerland) at the stable of Raphael and Martina Stöckli.
