January 2025 issue
IN THE SADDLE
20 16 ways to transform your dressage scores Get set for success!
26 5 secrets to moving up a level Feel confident over bigger fences
30 Home schooling Ingrid Klimke’s cavaletti course plans to refine your skills
40 Try something new... Everything you need to know about TREC
46 Solid skills How to hone your crosscountry skills this winter
MIND MATTERS
52 Dear diary Journalling can boost your mindset and riding performance
58 Motivation matters Nine ways to keep your spirits high during the colder months
ASK A VET
68 Stay one jump ahead Vet Nuno Siqueira discusses common showjumping injuries
ASK THE EXPERTS
76 Management know-how
78 Mind matters
80 Ask a vet
82 Horsey shopping
84 In the saddle
86 In brief
MANAGEMENT KNOW-HOW
88 Management 101 Keep your horse stimulated with long-reining
94 Straight from the horse’s mouth 15 things you need to know about teeth
98 Winter health & wellbeing Techniques to release tension
104 Feeding A–Z Get clued up with our jargon-busting guide
HORSEY SHOPPING
112 Storage solutions Check out our yard organisation tips
114 Christmas gift guide We have all the inspo you need
124 Tried and tested Trimmers to polish your horse’s appearance
126 This month we love... Footwear, hats, rugs and feed!
Cover stories
by Jon Stroud
January 2025
From groundwork exercises to jumping inspiration, follow our experts’ advice for a happy, confident horse. Plus, stay motivated and organised this winter.
IN THIS ISSUE
8 Winter wonderland Enjoy the great outdoors with your horse
14 Horseworld hub News, views and what you’ve been up to this month
18 Horseworld science Discover the latest research in the equine industry
48 Win! A year’s supply of Baileys feed!
50 Subscribe to H&R Get every issue delivered straight to your door
64 What was that you said? Do you speak the horsey lingo?
108 Paws for thought Could you offer a home to a dog in need?
122 Perfect prizes Amazing goodies for you and your horse
127 Dream horsey homes Find your ideal equestrian property
129 Next month A sneak peek at the February issue
130 My life with horses Instagrammer Rhiannon talks us through her week
Photo
to transform your dressage scores 16ways
Take your horse’s training to a whole new level with our top tips and advice
Stay in balance
Horses need to work forward and stay in front of your leg, but be careful not to ride so forward that your horse loses balance. 1 2
Praise vocally
Okay, we know you’re not allowed to talk to your horse in a test situation but there’s nothing to stop you having a conversation with him during training sessions. Use the voice to praise him for any effort he makes, telling him how great he is. It’s better to praise with the voice than the hand as that way, you don’t lose your contact with the reins.
Creating a happy, trusting relationship with your horse is paramount to producing good quality dressage tests that will see you gain higher marks in this discipline.
Whether you dream of riding your first Intro test one day or are working your way up the levels, our training tips will help you on your journey and develop your horse into a more supple, balanced and willing athlete.
Photos: Jon Stroud
Teach leg acceptance
If you have a hot horse you’ll probably find he over-reacts to your leg aids, but he needs to learn to accept the leg. A good way to improve this is by using some leg-yield steps. Ride a couple of steps one way, then the other, repeating until your horse slows down and becomes more balanced. With time, this teaches your sensitive horse to better accept the leg and not to get quicker when you apply it. Remember, the hotter your horse is, the more you need to touch him with the leg, whereas lazier horses need to learn to work with less leg.
Home
schooling
Refine your cross-country skills in the arena with Ingrid Klimke’s cavaletti course plan
Cross-country is at the heart of eventing and was created as a test of all-round athletic prowess and controlled boldness. Adaptability and rideability are essential, which is why it’s so useful to work on cross-country skills in the school because it allows me to finetune every aid and improve that crucial communication with my horse.
Exercise one: the warm-up
The goal: Committed, pre-planned lines –essential for cross-country riding.
Set it up
You’ll need eight cavaletti or raised poles, set to 15cm or so, in two sets of four on opposite sides of a 15m circle, following its curve. One set will be 1.2m apart at the central point of each pole, while the other 2.5m apart.
How to ride it: These cavaletti are set on standard trot and canter pole distances, and, while that might sound easy, it’s an advanced test of your ability to ride a line and your horse’s readiness to follow those instructions. If you drift off centre, you’ll change the distance between them, making the exercise much tricker.
Ingrid Klimke has represented Germany in eventing at five Olympics. She was European Eventing Champion in 2017 and 2019, and, in 2022, made her German dressage team debut at the World Championships.
Begin by establishing a positive working trot and circling around the outside of the poles, using them as a visual aid to ride the shape. Then, move on to adding the trot cavaletti, letting your horse use his head and neck. He should have an inside bend that matches the size of the circle, and this exercise will help you learn to ride from your inside leg to your hand without drifting to the inside.
Once comfortable with this in trot, pick up canter, sit in your saddle and ride the wider-spaced set, avoiding the trot poles.
Finally, put the two sets together, riding transitions between trot and canter at the midpoint between both sets. The quality of your transitions will be key – sink into your saddle and ask with the softest aids, so you don’t fling your horse into canter and jeopardise his balance.
Deardiary...
Journalling is a simple way to boost your mindset and riding. Alison Buttery explains how to go about it
EXPERT
Alison Buttery is a certified mindset and confidence coach, a BHS APC senior coach and an experienced rider, who specialises in helping riders overcome their nerves. She’s also the founder of The Everyday Equestrian.
Journalling, or writing a diary, has long been recognised as a powerful tool for improving mental health and boosting confidence. Not only does it provide a record for future reference, but when you write down or record your thoughts and feelings, you engage your brain in a way that helps you process emotions and reduce anxiety.
Journalling can be particularly beneficial when it comes to riding. By regularly documenting your experiences, you’re giving yourself a safe space to reflect on your performance, your mindset and confidence but without any judgement.
DID YOU KNOW?
Neuroscience has shown that expressive writing can activate the brain’s problemsolving regions and diminish the influence of the stress response.
By regularly documenting your experiences, you’re giving yourself a safe space to reflect on your performance
Photos: Adam Fanthorpe, Jon Stroud, CatwalkPhotos/shutterstock.com. With thanks to VetPartners and Liphook Equine Hospital for their help with this feature, liphookequinehospital.co.uk,
Stay one ahead jump
If you’re a keen showjumper, vet Nuno Siqueira has advice on the type of injuries to look out for in your horse
EXPERT
Nuno Siqueira MRCVS has a special interest in equine sports medicine and is an FEI-permitted treating vet.
We’re all familiar with the different equestrian disciplines and, just as with human athletes and their sports, the types of stresses that these put on the equine body vary. The result is that horses are more prone to specific types of injury according to the activity they engage in. By understanding and recognising this, you can minimise the risk of damage to your horse and act quickly and effectively if things appear to be going wrong. This month, we look at showjumpers.
MANAGEMENT 101:
Non-ridden horses
Part three: On the right lines
Long-reining is excellent physical and mental exercise for any horse. Fizz Tickridge-Marshall gets you started
Fizz Tickridge-Marshall has had a varied career, from Equine Therapy Centre Manager at Hartpury College to stints working for Jonjo O’Neill and Carl Hester. She now runs a livery yard in Herefordshire. EXPERT
Ever thought of doing some nonridden exercise with your horse? Even if he has retired from work under saddle, you can still keep his brain active and body mobilised, and long-reining is a perfect way of doing this.
Challenging perceptions
For many, making the decision to retire a horse from being ridden means an end to any form of work or exercise. But it doesn’t have to be like that – non-ridden exercise is a great option to keep him moving. Work without a rider can come in different forms and includes exercise in hand, such as leading over poles, in-hand stretches, lungeing and long-reining.
Each has its merits for older horses, while in-hand stretches are good for any horse. Work over poles can be incorporated into both lungeing and long-reining, as well as in-hand, and even though – due to the nature of working in circles on a soft surface – lungeing is not appropriate for all older horses, long-reining has a wider catchment in terms of its suitability. ➤
