Blog

Teaching the rules of acceptable behaviour will help keep you – and everyone who deals with your horse – safe, writes Carolyn Henderson

Imagine that two friends have each asked you to spend a day with them. One is great fun and you enjoy her company, but she doesn’t always listen to others’ point...

With horses, the best-laid plans can go awry – which is why you need to include a little leeway. Even then, you can’t avoid occasional disappointment; I bet you’ve had times when a horse seems to carefully remove his shoe on the morning of a competition. That’s disappointing enough, so I can only im...

The highly celebrated and award winning Hood Show Team has announced an exciting new partnership for the 2018 Show Season, as they become Brand Ambassadors of Feedmark. Allister, Anne and their son Oliver Hood are leading producers in the Equestrian Showing World. To date, they have produced no less...

We should never stop feeding our appetites for knowledge, writes CAROLYN HENDERSON

The more time you spend with horses, the more you realise that you never stop learning about them. Learning goes through stages. You start off like a sponge, soaking up anything and everything. Then you get to know...

Some horses are already in hard work at this time of year, but for many owners, the winter is a time for your horse to take it a bit easy. Now the nights are starting to draw out, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, and lots of us are starting to think about increasing work load to get hors...

We are delighted to have won the coveted title of SEIB Retailer of the Year 2018 in the Online/Mail Order Retailer category at The British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA) Business Awards. The highly sought-after retail award received nominations from more than 1,000 individuals for over 150 comp...

Eventing star Mary King’s tribute to her Mum, Gillian Thomson, will have pulled at the heartstrings of every horse owner. Mrs Thomson, who died early in January, wasn’t just the epitome of a not-particularly-horsey parent who encouraged her daughter to chase her dreams. She was a shining light, and ...

Customer: My horse won’t lose weight, even though I have put him on a diet.

The vet has said it’s going to be bad for his health if he doesn’t lose a bit soon - please help!

What do you do about an overweight horse?  

 

Olivia: I’m sure that we can help you. Can you tell me a bit ab...

As a New Year ball/excuse for a really good party proved, many horsey people can turn themselves out as well as they turn out their horses. I’m used to seeing many of the guests with slicked-back hair and riding hats, and must admit that at first glance, I didn’t recognise a couple of people I know quite well.

We are now in the depth of winter, and lush summer paddocks have long disappeared. Instead, many horses are stabled for numerous hours of the day, and turned out on sparse winter paddocks. Your horse’s feeding regime may need to be altered to keep them healthy through these winter conditions, so here are four of the most basic, but also the most important things to consider.

The terrible fire in a multi-storey car part next to Liverpool International Horse Show’s venue has made international headlines. But for most of us, the most important part of the story is not the fire itself, but the fact that all the horses there were evacuated safely. It could have been so different, and proves that in times of crisis, horse people find courage.

Do you make New Year resolutions? Or does the very thought just make you feel guilty before you start? Let’s be realistic – most of us aren’t going to suddenly improve our dressage scores by 50% or find that we perform much better over 1.20m courses than we do over 80cm ones. If you do, please share the secret below. Immediately.