In our 99th weekly episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast, H&H’s Jennifer Donald talks to top showjumper Holly Smith, who discusses what she looks for in a top horse. H&H’s Pippa Roome then catches up with H&H’s Polly Bryan to discuss last week’s NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championships. Pippa then talks to the H&H news team to discuss spinal chord injury research, data in horse sport and why we need to worry about the future of Hackneys. Finally, we’ll be hearing from bits and bitting expert Tricia Nassau-WIlliams, who talks about bridle design and what will work for your horse. We hope you’ll enjoy listening.
Episode 99 of The Horse & Hound Podcast, our popular audio service available every Thursday morning for our H&H digital subscribers, is now live.
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In our 99th weekly episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast, H&H’s Jennifer Donald talks to top showjumper Holly Smith, who discusses what she looks for in a top horse.
“I like them to jump and they’ve got to be sound to take the work and they have to be brave, scopey, careful – all horses have their faults, it’s just trying to find ones that you can work with” – Holly Smith on what she looks for in a showjumper.
H&H’s Pippa Roome then catches up with H&H’s Polly Bryan to discuss last week’s NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championships.
“It was great to be back at Hartpury with the championship’s atmosphere back to normal post-Covid” – H&H’s Polly Bryan on the Winter Dressage Championships.
Pippa then talks to the H&H news team to discuss spinal-cord injury research, data in horse sport and why we need to worry about the future of Hackneys.
“It’s jaw-dropping what has already been achieved in this research” – H&H’s news editor Eleanor Jones on research into spinal-cord injuries.
Finally, we’ll be hearing from bits and bitting expert Tricia Nassau-WIlliams, who talks about bridle design and what will work for your horse.
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“However well designed your bridle is, if it doesn’t fit your horse properly, it’s not going to serve him well or give him any greater comfort” – Tricia Nassau-Williams
We would love to hear your feedback on all our podcasts, so please do send your thoughts to pippa.roome@futurenet.com
Horse & Hound Podcast: episode 99
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Former web features editor, point-to-point editor and digital racing editor
Gemma is an experienced journalist, who was a member of H&H staff from 2014 to September 2025. She is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s has reported from numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.
