H&H deputy news editor’s review of the year
Living in the Royal London Borough of Greenwich, 2012 has been a real year to remember!
One of my highlights of 2012 took place in early February, when the King’s Troop moved to its new barracks in Woolwich — just a couple of miles down the road from our flat.
I covered their first day at the barracks for H&H and since then I have seen them a number of times exercising locally. It’s a truly emotional sight to see a string of 40 horses riding two abreast through the London suburbs!
Then Greenwich was catapulted in the spotlight during July and August for the Olympics and Paralympics.
Although I didn’t get to watch much actually in the park — tickets were like gold dust — I loved living in an Olympic borough and spotting the horsey types in London for their day out.
Many a cycle home through Deptford and Lewisham was enlivened by spotting the Joules and Dubarry-wearers and helping lost country-folk find the nearest train station.
One of the biggest perks of my job to date came in August when I was sent to Western Australia to try my hand at cattle ranching for an H&H travel feature.
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Swapping late summer for winter was a bit confusing — I think I was the only person not wearing gloves and a scarf in Perth — and I had no idea what time of day it was for the first week, but the trip was amazing, a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (see the feature in H&H 29 November).
And now I’ve just had my first day’s hunting of the new season and am gearing up for Olympia.
I can’t wait to find out what 2013 brings!
Charlotte
Horse & Hound celebrates an incredible 12 months for the equestrian world in our 2012 Review of the Year magazine (6 December, 2012). Grab your copy from your local stockist or buy a digital issue online now.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.