2020 | April

Welcome to the April issue of Horsemanship Journal

None of us could have envisioned the events that have unfolded globally, and the impact they would have both nationally, and to us as individuals. It seems trite to continue on in a merry tone, but I am a firm believer that the creative arts, such as music, theatre, literature or in this case, a copy of our magazine, are vitally important in keeping the human spirit alive. We will continue to produce the magazine for as long as possible, and we will also be bringing to you amazing content via both our Horsemanship Hub and our monthly Horsemanship Hour webinar. We want to show you that we are a community, and we can and will support you and your horse as much as we can in these curious times.

As always, this issue is full of enlightening and supportive articles from our regular authors. Ross Cooper brings you a savvy fitness plan that we can all look forward to using, and Hannah Walton gives us some practical pole work advice to put a ‘spring’ in our step. Phillippa Christie brings us part 2 of her age appropriate training series, and some hot new topics are covered, such as cognitive behavioural coaching by our new author Helen O’Hanlon. We are also pleased to welcome Justin Colquhoun back this issue, as he discusses the age-old question ‘why does your horse do that for you, and not me?’

I’ll leave you by saying… please all stay safe, stay home, and let’s look after one another.

Until Tomorrow,

Kate 

Welcome to the April issue of Western Horse UK

So, the world as we knew it changed in unimaginable ways since our last issue. I hope that you are staying safe and sane in these difficult times.

For the most part, I have limited my exposure to social media, but you only have to spend a few seconds to see that the equine world is doing its best to interpret the advice. Those interpretations vary from ride, don't ride, hack, don't hack, etc. Whether you choose to continue ridden work or take this time to focus on groundwork and your equine partnership, we have articles to help you.

Brandon McAuslan looks at reducing risk, and how we keep our horses sane and healthy when we cannot ride them.  Kate McLaughlin talks about what this means for us all as horse owners. "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." I love this quote from Ben Longwell, and in this issue Ben talks about 'Shortcuts' and why they won't get you to where you want to be.

For our part, we will continue to produce the print magazine for as long as our printers are allowed to work, but we have an online back-up plan if that changes. We will also be bringing to you fantastic content via both our Horsemanship Hub and our monthly Horsemanship Hour webinar.

Finally, I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to the Western Horse UK community, to our printers who continue to work, our designer Sharon, and all our authors who despite being busy adjusting their own businesses still made the time to write for us, and of course, our subscribers.

Be kind, be safe

Theresa