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Olympian Carl Hester’s horse of a lifetime, horses stuck on motorway and tributes to a much-loved riding school owner – what the horseworld is talking about
Horse & Hound’s daily debrief, brought to you every weekday
Laura Collett guest edited last Thursday’s Horse & Hound magazine, and in it asked some of her favourite riders to tell readers all about their horse of a lifetime. She thought Carl Hester might pick Valegro, but no, Carl chose his Olympic team gold medal-winning partner, Uthopia, and it’s got readers thinking back to this glorious partnership…
Mary Connor, the owner of one of the UK’s oldest riding establishments, The Kennels, on the Stowe Estate, Buckinghamshire, died at home on 18 May, aged 96.
Mary and her brother Theodore dedicated their lives to the riding school. They inspired generations of children to ride and look after horses and were known for their “unfailing kindness”.
Theodore died five years ago, but Mary remained in good health and only stopped riding in recent years. She maintained her independence and had her last pony until he died three years ago at over 40 years of age, the final pony of a 400-year family history in horses.
Event rider’s five-year-old stuck for hours on motorway
Five-star event rider Will Rawlin has asked for more to be done to protect equine welfare in the event a horsebox is stuck in traffic for long periods. Will was on his way to a Burghley young event horse qualifier at Aston le Walls on 2 July when traffic came to a standstill at the M4 for three hours. It was a warm day and, although they had water and fans, five-year-old Pieterado became distressed and was thrashing around in the lorry.
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Will told H&H he rang police four times in the three hours he was stuck.
“The police were saying they’d get back to me and log my report but nothing happened. The road did open sooner than expected but just before it did, the horse had one more thrash about and managed to get his leg stuck in the haynet.”
A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police told H&H: “While we do not have a set policy in place for scenarios such as this one, our specially trained roads policing officers do judge each circumstance on a case by case basis.
“In this instance, the road was being opened shortly after the caller made contact with us for the final time. Our call takers advised the caller of this and advised them to make contact again should the situation escalate.”
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Sarah has worked at an equestrian journalist and editor since 2004 and has held the position of Horse & Hound Editor-in-Chief since 2014. She has reported for Horse & Hound from major championships including Europeans and World Equestrian Games. She has co-written books on horses and horse sport including The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horses & Ponies. She has owned and ridden horses since 1993, and worked for and trained with Olympic gold medallist event rider Leslie Law prior to going to university. While studying for a BSc at London School of Economics Sarah also worked for top British dressage rider Louise Spate.
