Our Contributors

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Candida Baker

As editor of HorseVibes, two of Candida’s regular contributions are the profile story, and her Horse Listener column. “I loved learning about clicker training from Georgia Bruce and Susi May,” she says, “and interviewing the Horseback Vet, Rob Jackson, about his body-release techniques was fascinating.”

Leisa Hofstetter

Leisa Hofstetter is an Equine Nutritionist and founder of Hof Equine. She has a Bachelor of Equine Science, specialising in nutrition. Leisa lives on the Far North Coast of NSW. “Living in the sub-tropics has been a great process for familiarising myself with the particular feed requirements of horses in this climate,” she says.

Louise Blampied

Louise Blampied has spent her whole career working with horses; from mountain trekking in Australia and Canada, chasing cows on stations in remote North Queensland to making custom saddlery, farriering, and trail riding in Byron Bay. “But nothing quite beats my experience of rescuing an abandoned Brumby foal,” she says.

Amanda Mac

UK-born Amanda Mac has had two life-long love affairs: one with horses, and the other with words. “When I wasn’t dreaming of riding I had my nose firmly glued in a book – about horses, of course,” she laughs. Now she combines both passions as HorseVibes Deputy Editor. Her feature story this month is ‘Giving your horses the boot’.

Charlie Brister

This issue saw our usually supercool columnist Charlie Brister, overcome with an attack of nerves. “I was lucky enough to attend a clinic with the legendary horseman Buck Brannaman. Without a cowboy hat it was pretty easy to pick me from the field of riders but that didn’t change the quality of the instruction,” he says.

Jo Mckinnon

Jo Mckinnon is a multi-award winning horse racing and equestrian broadcaster and documentary maker. Jo is a former top-level show rider, who has competed all over Australia with her hacks. “As someone who has been a racing commentator for many years I love the positive life after racing stories,” she says.

Jane Camens

Our resident feature writer came to horse ownership late in life. Coming back to her early love of horses, she found it’s not all a bed of roses. “I’ve compiled a list of potential pitfalls for would-be horse owners in this issue,” says Jane, whose second story is on beautiful autumn rides to celebrate the end of this long hot summer.

N. G. Quinlan aka ‘Q’

N.G. Quinlan, otherwise known as ‘Q’, is a writer, musician and poet who lives in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. He has been contributing to HorseVibes magazine since August 2019. “I love researching The Horse in History,” he says, “the horses are amazing, and Staff Sgt Reckless was no exception.”

Justine Curatolo is the President of Heritage Brumby Advocates Australia, an organisation dedicated to advocating for the Australian Heritage Brumby. “I’m passionate about horse welfare,” says Justine, this month’s Tackbox writer, who is also a founding member of the Australian Equine Unification Scheme, dedicated to horse welfare. Karen Viggers is a Canberra-based veterinarian and bestselling author. She is passionate about Australian stories and landscapes, and the bond between people and animals. “I was lucky enough to meet Elyne Mitchell, author of The Silver Brumby, when I was younger,” she says, “I was devastated to hear of the loss of the homestead.”