From the Horse’s Mouth

PUBLISHER’S LETTER

With Fiona Todd

Hello again – and can you believe it’s nearly Christmas? Time flies by so quickly that there’s never any to waste, so without further ado, let’s dive into this amazing issue.

Our Spotlight is on the inspirational Aaron Hadlow. When Rebecca Ashton spoke with Aaron, she discovered that although he holds down a full time job, he’s also won the World Cup Pacific League – now, that takes lots of determination as well as hard work.

Someone else who knows the meaning of dedication is Heather Currie, one of our Equestrian Hub mentors, who shares her thoughts on what’s changed in dressage in our Ask an Expert feature.

While on the topic of mentors, we’d like you to meet two lucky Equestrian Hub Magazine readers, Kristle Cross and Naomi Vanderweg who have just won a fabulous mentoring prize. Congratulations to you both! We hope that this will give your equestrian dreams exactly the right boost. We also introduce two more of our mentors, lifelong equestrian Warwick Schiller and elite Australian dressage rider and trainer David Shoobridge.

We all know how good it feels to stretch our bodies, but it’s just as good for our horses as is it for us, as Leny Beahan explains in the first of a fascinating twopart series. Then Christine Armishaw tells us why you should rise to the trot from your feet not your seat, and National A Level dressage judge and trainer Nicole Tough gives us the low down on what it means to have an independent seat.

As you know, we love to go globetrotting with Mathilde Gregoire, and in this issue she offers some hot travel tips, but we also find out what’s involved when you pop your pony on a plane as Rebecca Nadge chats with IRT’s very knowledgeable Managing Director Chris Burke.

On the health and wellbeing front, Rachel Roan caught up with Dr Calum Paltridge to find out more about kissing spine; KER’s Director of Nutrition Technology David Nash dives deep into sugars and why you should monitor the carbohydrate levels in your horse’s diet; and Jamie Hocking speaks to veterinary anaesthetist Dr Anthony Nicholson about his highly specialised work.

We have a super Training Tips for you with Kentaur Australia’s Lucy Galovicova, an expert on bringing a mare back under saddle after foaling, and Olympian Amanda Ross chats with Tara Madgwick about her love affair with her beautiful dapple grey OTT Thoroughbred Romeo F.

How’s your budget looking these days? If you’d love a shiny new set of jumps but really can’t afford ready-made, our take on DIY jump building should give you enough ideas to get off to a flying start. And for a solid dose of inspiration of another kind, turn to our story on Dr Pam Karner who, just shy of 70 years old, won this year’s lightweight division of the 160 kilometre Tom Quilty Gold Cup - and that was after completing two of what are probably the world’s toughest horse races!

On the equipment front, Jessica Morton investigates COMTEK’s wireless communication system, technology designed to let you hear your coach loud and clear; Suzy Jarratt brings us up to speed with some of the basic items you’ll need for lunging; and we review the Prestige Lucky Idol dressage saddle.

Our featured breed this month is the Marwari, famous for their unusual but perfectly curved ears, and we let fashion go to our heads with our pick of quality helmets. Dr Rebecca Powers, an equine vet specialising in dentistry, answers 20 Questions, and rising dressage star Jessica Dertell is our Young Rider. Finally, we indulge our fantasies with yet another fabulous equestrian property.

So relax, put your feet up, pour a glass of your favorite beverage and enjoy - you’ve earned it!

Cheers,