Horse & Hound’s New Year’s resolutions
Happy New Year! Hangover permitting, today is the day you should promise to snap out of your bad horsey habits — or buck up the courage to try something new — with a New Year’s resolution.
Take a look at the Horse & Hound team’s hopes for 2014 — from taking a trailer test to spending more time with a retired horse.
My New Year’s resolution is…
To help my mother keep a careful eye on my 22-year-old ex-eventer so we notice any changes in his weight — he’s starting to look his age for the first time this winter and we need to make sure he stays well covered and happy.
Pippa Roome, eventing editor
To pass my trailer test while I am grounded (6 1/2 months pregnant, baby due start of Cheltenham week, so hoping he isn’t late). At 35 this is somewhat overdue — I have been meaning to do it for years. I was galvanised by an older friend who said something like: “For God’s sake, you’re going to be a generation of women driven around by geriatric mothers!”
Flora Watkins, news editor
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Now I’ve got myself a super little horse, my New Year’s resolution is to get out competing with British Eventing. Fingers crossed my bank balance will stretch to accommodate that.
Carol Phillips, online editor
Mine’s to spend a bit more time with my retired horse. As I’ve been able to do less and less with him, I’ve gradually reduced the number of times I go to visit. However, for various reasons over the last 2 months I’ve got up to see him a bit more regularly, sometimes only for 10 or 15min, but probably 4 or 5 times a week. The difference in his attitude is measurable. The moral? Even if you’ve only got 10min to spare, it’s worth the effort.
Jaki Bell, deputy editor
My New Year’s resolution is to not forget my 4 tests at the winter regionals. I have forgotten the test at the last 2 regional championships in a row and in the summer it cost me a qualification spot. If I do it again, my trainer Keith Robertson says he’ll disown me. And I also want to sell more horses than I buy/breed in 2014.
Alice Collins, dressage editor
Do you have a horse-related New Year’s resolution? Let us know below…
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.