Lisa Butcher, Model and TV presenter

Ever since I was tiny, the thing I wanted more than anything in the world was a horse. While all the girls at school were running around after boys, I was running around after horses. When I was 13, I found this horse, Lady, in the field at the bottom of our garden - she looked like a really maltreated little pony. I found out who owned her and just said: 'Can I look after her for you?' They said yes, so I took her under my wing. The one thing I really needed, of course, was a saddle, which my father bought me for my 14th birthday.

My father died last November, so all of the things he gave me have huge significance, particularly the saddle, because it was the best present anyone had ever bought me. It literally made my birthday.

My father was trying to buy Lady for me, but she ended up getting laminitis in her hooves, so she would eventually go lame. I was left with a saddle but no horse - I just gazed at it lovingly, willing a horse to appear under it. Then I started modelling so that I could afford to buy my own horse. I moved to London with my parents and I ended up buying my first horse, Zilkah.

Whenever I look at the saddle it brings back fond memories - not only of my dad, but also of probably the happiest time of my life: when you're young and you have no worries. I'd just been launched as Elle magazine's Face of '87, and the world was my oyster - it was heavenly.

· Lisa Butcher presents What Not to Wear on Thursdays at 8pm on BBC1.

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