Robert Walker takes the reins at Horse & Hound this week to guest edit the showing special.
Robert is one of the country’s leading show producers, with multi championship titles to his name, including at Royal Windsor, Royal International and Horse of the Year Show in 2015.
His special issue is on sale from Thursday 17 March.
Robert teamed up with the H&H team to put together the issue, which offers exclusive insight into issues affecting the showing world.
“I’ve really enjoyed guest-editing H&H,” said Robert. “Seeing my ideas come together on the page has been a fascinating process. I’m honoured that I was asked to do it.”
Robert’s features include:
- Where have all the hunters gone? Sizing up the worrying trend of fewer top quality hunters being bred in the UK and Ireland, and why less are appearing in the show ring.
- Are riders hiding in intermediate classes? Robert feels more intermediates could compete against — and beat — adults in horse classes, but many are afraid to do so. H&H investigates what more could be done to encourage the step up.
- Then versus now — how do winners in bygone years compare to today? Hunters, cobs, show ponies and hacks are just four of the class types in the spotlight.
- Access All Areas with Sarah Parker — look behind the scenes at the yard that produced last year’s HOYS supreme pony, Sarum Rembrandt, and the gruelling daily routine that gets this leading natives producer top results.
“It has been great fun working with Robert,” said H&H’s showing editor Aimi Clark. “He had lots of ideas and throughout the process we’ve been bouncing emails back and forth, plus speaking regularly on the phone, so that Robert can oversee the progress of each feature.
“I’m happy and proud of what we’ve produced, and he is too — I hope readers enjoy this special issue.”
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Kicking off tomorrow, a series of showing features will appear on Horseandhound.co.uk ahead of Robert’s magazine issue going on sale this Thursday.
They include a two-part Q&A with Robert (look out for it on Tuesday, 15 March and Wednesday, 16 March), which five horses Robert would most like to ride in the show ring (on Tuesday, 15 March) and his search for his daughter’s first lead-rein pony (to be published on Thursday, 17 March).
A picture gallery of Sarah Parker’s yard and a video interview with her will also be published this week, on Thursday, 17 March and Friday, 18 March respectively.
This year’s other guest-edited specials are:
- Dressage (24 March), guest-edited by Laura Tomlinson
- Showjumping (31 March), guest-edited by Geoff Billington
- Eventing (was published on 3 March), guest-edited by Sam Griffiths
