He was born in Worcester, England, and played the bulk of his first-class cricket for his native county.
The cricket writer Colin Bateman described Horton as "a versatile all-rounder who could bat anywhere in the top six and who twice took more than 100 wickets in a season with his off-spin...".
In nearly two decades of cricket, he took 825 first-class wickets in all and scored 23 centuries with the bat.
In late 1966, Horton moved to New Zealand to begin a five-year contract as the national team's coach,[2] a position he eventually held for seventeen seasons.
[3] He returned to England in 1983 to become cricket coach at the Royal Grammar School, a post he held until 1996.