Career
Her sister Hannah also represents Great Britain in vaulting. Team
Eccles first began vaulting at the age of eight. Her neighbours were vaulters and invited her to "come and try".
She vaulted with that club for one year and was then invited to join the Scottish Equestrian Vaulting team
Vaulting as a reserve for most of the year, Eccles traveled with the team to the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Rome in 1998. In 1999, she became a team flyer and was part of the official team chosen to represent Great Britain at the European Championships.
As she became older she also became a "prop" or "base", but remained part of the team As part of the Scottish Equestrian Vaulting Team, she represented Great Britain every year up to and including 2007 (excl 2001 due to foot and mouth).
They placed 4th at the European Championships in 2005, and 5th at WEG in 2006.
Individual
During her team career Eccles was also competing in Individual events, and in 2004 was selected as one of the Individual females to represent Great Britain. lieutenant was her first individual championships and she placed 19th as the youngest in her class. She was again selected for the next three years, placing 13th in Europe in 2005.
10th at WEG in 2006.
And 4th in Europe in 2007. After 2007, Joanne was faced with the choice of pursuing either individual or team events, as she was too old to compete in both. She eventually decided to continue in individual events, and came 5th at the World Championships that year.
She retained her title at the World Equestrian Games in Caen in 2014.
Joanne Eccles takes the Gold Medal at the World Championships 2012 vaulting on WH.Bentley lunged by John Ecclesiastical Wee County Vaulters
In 2001, Joanne"s father, John Eccles, brought his own horse to train for the art of vaulting, and the Eccles"s started their own club, the Wee County Vaulters.
lieutenant began with only 3 vaulters, one horse, and John both lungeing and coaching the team In past years, the number has grown to 26 vaulters, two national horses, one international horse and several coaches, including Joanne.
