A former convict has revealed how he turned his life around on the run – in the posh world of horses.
Jay Johnson did a bunk from an open prison while serving a five-year sentence over a pub fight.
During a decade as a fugitive he became an unlikely star in well-heeled equestrian circles.
The one-time care home kid built up a career as a showjumper and horse psychologist.
And since being caught and returned to prison to finish his sentence he has reinvented himself as a “horse fixer” who saves dangerous animals from being put down.
Jay, 44, has now come clean about his past and even graces the rarefied pages of the latest edition of country pursuits magazine Horse & Hound.
He said: “What happened may seem funny but I lost 11 years of my life.
“I had no passport, no driving licence, no bank account. I was in limbo.
“I didn’t really worry about getting a tap on the shoulder – someone who was on the run wouldn’t be a professional showjumper, would they?”
Jay was jailed for wounding with intent at Chester Crown Court in March 2002, under his birth name of John Barlow.
He absconded from Sudbury open prison, Derbys, in 2004 and called himself Jay Johnson, using his foster parents’ surname.
He was finally recaptured in 2015 when he visited a retail park to meet his daughter for the first time and was caught out by a police number plate recognition system.
After serving the rest of his sentence, he embarked on a new career training horses which have been written off as too dangerous to work with.
Jay said of his original crime: “I take full responsibility, I was out with a friend and we got into a fight outside a pub.
“I was sticking up for him but it was me who ended up in prison.
“I went on day release but knew I’d been out for too long. I thought I’d get in trouble if I went back, so I just carried on.
“It was a crazy decision. I should have turned myself in, then things might have been different.”
Jay had already been familiar with horses through being fostered in 1984 by livery yard owners Lynn and Colin Johnson.
He recalled: “It was brilliant, although I was still bullied for riding horses. But I owe my life to horses and I owe everything to my foster parents.”
Jay, who lives near Whitchurch, Cheshire, now travels the country in his role as a fixer and TV producers are in talks about a possible documentary.
He added: “I love what I do now, saving a dangerous horse from the bullet.
“I want to tell children in care or foster homes you can achieve your dreams.
“You may think you’re living an awful life but you can come out the other side.”