Innehållsförteckning för Issue 487 från Your Horse

Fifteen Thoroughbreds were rescued by World Horse Welfare from a Devon farm, where they had been left following an eviction. The landowner signed the horses over to the charity, thanks to the Control of Horses Act. Many were not used to being handled, but their round-up and relocation to two of the charity’s centres was straightforward. “They were all on the cusp, they were all lean. We didn’t want them to drop any more weight,” said World Horse Welfare field officer Jon Phipps. “If we didn’t remove them before deep winter, we would have had a serious welfare issue.” Each horse has been assessed and will be rehabilitated, in preparation for hopefully finding new homes.…

Zoe Kiff is a mother-of-one who founded Honest Riders. She keeps her horse at livery, and competes in dressage. About my job... I’m the founder and director of eco-conscious equestrian brand Honest Riders, which I created in 2017 when I realised that there was nowhere to buy cruelty-free, natural horsecare and sustainably-produced clothing. I had ideas floating around in my head for years, but it was only after I moved to the south coast and started a marketing consultancy that I had the headspace to be able to take the leap and do something about it. Finally, encouraged by my amazing husband, Tom, I created Honest Riders. What it involves... My daily life is so varied. One minute I’m designing a new product, the next I’m ordering and paying for…

Bubbles proves the point; he’s a little champion. Sasha Hughes I have a part-Clydesdale, she’s a phenomenal jumper. Bonnie Bimble My big guy enjoys jumping and dressage — although we are only just starting out in both. Karen Young Dylan went to the Petplan Equine Area Festival Championships and came fourth — he loves to dance. Rebecca Gilbert Clydesdales are just awesome. Beckie Latham It’s not so surprising that Shire horses have made it to grand prix level dressage. They were once the prized mounts for armored knights when what are now high school dressage moves were taught to be used in battle. Fiona Willstead My six-year-old Belgian Draft loves learning dressage and other new things, as well as some jumping. Kaleigh Rose Chappell They can jump too! Here’s my…

MEET THE TRAINER ROBYN CHERRY is yard manager at Tyre Hill Equestrian in Worcestershire. She began working on a racing yard aged 14 and has gone on to run her own yard, and to manage others of all sizes — including 300-horse equestrian centres. She holds the RDA equivalent of a BHSAI, and specialises in rehabilitating horses post-intensive care and post-injury. SOMETIMES THERE JUST aren’t enough hours in the day to ride more than one horse. Especially at this time of year, when the light fades fast but you still have more than one equine needing exercise. In this situation, being able to take both out at the same time — riding one and leading the other — is invaluable. If you’ve ever been to a polo match, you’ll notice…

MEET THE TRAINER NIKKI BARKER is an international dressage rider and trainer who’s based near Newmarket. She’s sponsored by Knowles Equestrian and Spillers, find her on Facebook at Nikki Barker Dressage. MEET THE RIDER & HORSE JESSICA KNOWLES has owned the lovely Indy (show name Lago Ironica) for four years. A PRE Andalusian, the nine-year-old mare competes at elementary level dressage and Jessica describes her as “very quirky”. WE NEVER SAID riding horses was easy. If you want to succeed at dressage, you’ll need a little power under the bonnet — but that power has to be channelled into all the right places. And sometimes your horse may have his own ideas as to where his talents best lie… At this time of year, when it’s colder, there’s less time…

WOULDN’T IT BE lovely if there were more hours in a day? Or at least lighter hours for longer in winter, rather than the endless trudge of having to muck out in the dark, fetch horses in from the field wearing a head torch and schooling under spotlights even though it’s only 5pm. Unfortunately, we don’t have a magic wand to make this happen. But as fellow horse owners, it got the team at Your Horse HQ thinking — what do we do to save time on the yard, probably without even realising it? We put our heads together and shared our ideas — and now we’re sharing them with you too. After all, at this time of year every second counts and if you can shave off a few…

MEET THE EXPERT JACK CLIMO Dip WCF is a farrier based in Worcestershire. Jack qualified in November 2019 from Warwickshire College and returned home to Worcestershire to set up his own farriery business. He shoes all shapes and sizes of horses and ponies, from leisure horses to three-day eventers. IS THERE ANYTHING more annoying than when you get your horse in from the field to ride only to find he’s lost a shoe? Not only does it mean your ride is immediately put on the back burner, but you then have the problem of getting your farrier out ASAP to put it back on, and what to do with the shoe-less hoof in the meantime. So what can owners do to prevent it from happening? “When a horse loses a…

CONFESSIONS OF A #HACK1000MILES CHALLENGER… THINGS HAVE CHANGED since I last wrote, because I am sadly no longer riding Apache. I’ve enjoyed writing about our progress and sharing how my confidence grew as I got to grips with his spooking. However, I was never truly happy riding him and so, when my sister took on an ex-racehorse and offered me the ride on him a few days a week, I grabbed the opportunity. Now I know what you’re thinking. On paper, a full Thoroughbred fresh off the track versus an experienced Irish Sport Horse. For someone who is riding again after a five-year break surely there’s no comparison — choose the latter! But ever since I was lucky enough to have my own ex-racehorse as a teenager, I have had…

MEET THE TRAINER At just 14, YAZMIN PINCHEN qualified for the Children on Horses World Final in Mexico, which cemented her ambition to jump at the top. Since then, she’s jumped the Global Champions Tour circuit and has competed for Great Britain at five-star level on Nations Cup teams. Yazmin also trains Titanium Z, a Tangelo stallion owned by singer and former One Direction star, Liam Payne. INDOOR ARENAS ARE a saviour when it comes to winter competing. Once inside, however, space is tighter, fences seem bigger and the atmosphere can be challenging. If your confidence jumping indoors needs a boost, showjumper Yazmin Pinchen has the answer. “I must say, I sometimes dread competing in an indoor arena — especially on a youngster!” she says. “Regular venue hire is the…

MEET THE EXPERT DONNA CASE BSc (Hons) is an experienced, fully insured independent equine nutritionist who runs her consultancy The Horse Feed Guru out of Newmarket, working both nationally and internationally. She works with a variety of horses and ponies from competition horses to retired veterans. Visit thehorsefeedguru.com FORAGE IS THE foundation of your horse’s diet and can be fresh in the form of grass, or preserved in the form of hay and haylage. It should form the largest source of nutrition including energy (calories), fibre, protein and a certain amount of vitamins and minerals. If we think about how horses evolved as trickle-feeders, they have an innate need to chew for 16-18 hours a day. When the horse eats grass, hay or haylage, he has to chew for longer…

“WOULD I PURCHASE a horse with a sarcoid again? Yes,” states Anna Ernsting, who bought her Irish Draught gelding Bouncer with a banded sarcoid in July 2018. But there is a caveat — she would only complete the purchase if she felt confident that the sarcoid would respond to treatment, and the price of the horse reflected the issue. “Bouncer was such a lovely stamp and perfect for what I wanted, so I took a punt on him,” she says. “The sarcoid dropped off and healed but three months later, three more appeared in the same site, and then a month later another appeared in a different place. “Having previously had a pony with sarcoids which the vets eventually managed to remove with radiotherapy, I was not prepared to use…

COLD HANDS CAN make yard chores tricky and painful. Wearing gloves is the obvious solution, but it can be hard to find the right ones, which you don’t have to take off to do some jobs. To help you find a pair of gloves that will protect your hands from the elements whatever winter tasks you’re doing, our team of testers have put nine pairs through their paces. Each pair has been used for yard work over the past 10 weeks. Our testers assessed the gloves for fit, warmth, whether it was easy to do all their yard chores wearing the gloves, and how comfortable they are to wear. Finally, the price of the gloves was considered and, taking into account their comments, they decided whether they would buy another…

How did your blog begin? I’d say by accident — in that it was completely off the cuff. We were at one of my daughter’s first competitions, three or four years ago. I went along for support, and it was awful because there was nothing to do and it rained torrentially for two days. On the second day her first entry was at 8.30am and the second was 5.30pm. We had the entire day to kill, sat in this tiny, rented trailer. I was so miserable and bored. By the tenth cup of tea, I had nothing else to do so I started moaning about it on Facebook. I then forgot all about it, until at some point in the New Year I was moaning about something at home, and…

ROAD SAFETY Changes proposed for the Highway Code Proposed changes to the Highway Code could improve safety on the roads for horse riders. When Your Horse went to press, the review needed to go through parliament before the amendments could be officially implemented. Changes include identifying a ‘Hierarchy of Road Users’, which places those most at risk in the event of a collision at the top of the hierarchy. Horse riders and drivers of horse-drawn vehicles were placed in the same category as cyclists, below pedestrians. It also recommends that vehicles should pass horses at speeds under 10mph and allow at least two metres of space; drivers should wait behind and not overtake if it is unsafe or not possible to meet these clearances, and they should not sound their…

IT’S EASY TO slip into doing the bare minimum over the winter — but by doing so, you’re missing out on valuable time to prepare yourself and your horse for the better weather and longer days that spring will shortly bring. You’re also losing out on a few more miles to add to your #Hack1000Miles challenge. So how do you get motivated to put in the work now to enjoy the rewards later? Self-confessed “professional amateur” Adam Harvey juggles a full-time job as a chartered surveyor alongside competing two event horses up to three-star level. Both have had a winter holiday, so he needs to bring them back into work and get them out hacking in order to build up their fitness for the season ahead. It is a bit…

LOTTIE FRY’S FIRST memories involve being in an arena, as do her most recent recollections, and countless others in between. Despite spending a large proportion of her life in rectangles measuring 20x60m or less, commencing when she was a baby when her mother, Laura, would park her pram in an arena corner, Lottie has managed to branch out beyond the boards and become something of a global success. Elfin and elegant, Lottie popped up frequently on sand surfaces at key dressage contests last year, at various points on the planet — not least the Tokyo Olympics and European Championships in Hagen, Germany. Wherever she went, the size disparity between the 25-year-old and her imposing black stallion Everdale was as noteworthy as the impressive scores they netted. There was the 76.854%…

MEET THE TRAINER CHARLIE UNWIN is a former modern pentathlon national champion, who competed at world championship level. Believing applied psychology to be a fundamental factor in his achievements, he gained an MSc in sport & exercise psychology and has since worked with clients including top riders, football and rugby players, Olympic athletes and the royal household. Charlie also applies the principles of human performance and psychology in business. Visit performancelegacy.com CONFIDENCE IS A word that we use a lot. Your horse, of course, gets confidence from you. But where does confidence actually come from? The core of confidence is about being confident in yourself. Do you back yourself? It’s funny because we don’t often think about this — nothing forces us to reflect. What are the stories you tell…

“It takes years – not weeks or months – to produce a well-trained reliable riding horse, but unfortunately it has become commonplace to do the bare minimum” MEET THE TRAINER ROSS COOPER of Rosca Horsemanship is a British Horseman, UKCC Coach, holistic therapist and equine behaviour consultant. He provides training and ridden coaching, specialising in bitless training, young horses, foundation groundwork and behavioural issues. He’s available for teaching in the UK and EU. Visit rosscooperofficial. co.uk or find Ross Cooper Horsemanship on Facebook. WE ALL HAVE taken exams, right? When we have, what do we do? For most of us, we revise, we learn, and we prepare. We do this on more than one occasion for the same test; the more we practise, the better we get, and the more…

MEET THE EXPERT KYLE TINDALL READ BVSc MRCVS has worked for Durham Equine Practice since 2017. He qualified at the University of Liverpool and completed an externship at Rossdales Equine Hospital in Newmarket, and twice worked as a steward for the British Equine Veterinary Association Conference. He is interested in all aspects of first opinion equine practice. kyle.tindall-read@durhamequine.co.uk VET notes WHAT YOU’LL LEARN: • What causes heat and swelling • How to recognise the signs • Ways they are treated HEAT AND SWELLING on your horse’s legs are relatively common, and there are several possible causes. It may be something as simple as fluid build-up from standing in his stable for prolonged periods or could be more serious, such as a tendon injury. If you notice that your horse has…

Email your question to yh.ed@yourhorse.co.uk Simple solutions for horse owners Meet this month’s panel of experts Winter riding Harri Green is an event rider and equestrian Pilates tutor. Follow her on Facebook @Core Performance Pilates. Herbal remedies Dena Schwartz is an aromatherapist, reflexologist, Reiki healer and zoopharmacognosist, visit theholisticapproach.co.uk Legal advice Jacqui Dark runs Equine Law UK and is experienced in horse ownership, competition, breeding and livery management, see equinelawuk.co.uk Vet care Arnie Agnew is founding partner of Agnew Equine Ltd, an independent ambulatory equine vet practice serving Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, see horsevets.co.uk GOT A PROBLEM? Need an answer? We’ll know someone who can help Welcome to our Ask The Experts section. Over the next nine pages we help to solve your horsey problems, with help from trusted professionals.…

Share nicely Q My daughter is looking to enter into a share agreement, but I have no experience of this arrangement. Are there any pitfalls of which I should be aware? Carol White, Lanarkshire JacQui says: My experience of the most common disagreements between sharers is where one isn’t fulfilling their side of the agreement or, alternatively, one wants to ride or care for the horse more than they’re entitled to under the share agreement. These disagreements tend to happen when sharers do not have a written agreement in place — so it’s hugely important to have one. It should fully detail exactly what each sharer is entitled to do with the horse in terms of handling, ridden work and stable care; when each sharer should be attending and caring…