Got a great idea for a feature?

[Horse Girl]

Hey HEy - I like your idea about horsey books to read i think thats a great idea! Also about how to tell horses personality by its face great ideas keep them cominbg!

[luv2ride]

How about coming back from a break.

We've all had falls or holidays which meant we took a while off riding. But I know that for me getting in the saddle is a lot harder than it seems. Especially if you've had a bad fall. I'm going back riding on satuarday, I havnt ridden since October. I'm really neervous, scared that the horse will act up again. Confidence doesnt always last forever. It would be nice to see something about nerves for getting back in the saddle. But I know theres a lot of bits on confidence xx

[klb]

Probably not the best feature, but alot of people are still unaware of how much is going on... maybe a full following for a neglate case, whats involved, the people, the routines, veterainy/farrier care, feeding managerment... right through to court

I recently went to view a horse, once there i noticed the pictures i was sent were very out of date, This horse was skin and bone.
I was so sicken i done the wrong thing, i brought him. Next morning i contacted the RSPCA, and vet/farrier. He was rated a body scoring of 1 (vet said that was kind) i had him weighed being 450 kg (he is a 2yrs next month shire horse) 25% underweight. I have had him for 5/6 days. he had been beaten at some point as you cant pat him only stoke, and has sores on his legs.
The rspca haven taken pictures and are putting a case against the owner (though i will be involved as i 'brought' him).. im feeding 3 hourly, hand grazing couple times aday...i never knew how much time/conmiment/people involved and planning went on behide the scenes and i give all welfare centres credit.

If all goes well, i believe the case will be heard around aug.

[charoo]

What about a feature around the New Forest Pony, and alike that come in on pony drifts, with the main focus of the life of the new forest pony and their first steps into a world with humans and fence posts. Last year we took a colt from the forest, or the sales should i say, and my god wasn't it a challenge. Plus, there was little to help us, everyone had articles and books about how to help train a problem horse, but not one that was literally wild and the only contact they'd had with humans were being pushed into a pen, and living relatively wild for the first 6-2 years of their life.
I think it would make a very brilliant read, especially considering the foaling season is upon us and the pony drifts have started. Not many people know about the life of a new forest pony other than 'theyre on the new forest' and the pony drifts, being round up on horse back, vet checks for the mares, stallion passings, some of which are fully backed and ridden ponies. Our own little western adventure like the mustangs.

The bond i have with my colt is unbelievable, i am so much closer to him that any of my others. From placing a brush on the end of a broom handle over the stable door, to his first contact with humans, his first 'stroke' and kiss etc.

[IrishCob]

Have you ever written about stable bullying?

Ok, I'm not sure if "stable bullying" is the exact right word – I'm Finnish, you see. But anyway, what I'm talking about is bullying similar to what happens at schools etc. but, in this case, happens at the stables. It has been a hot topic of discussion among horsey people and media here in Finland. I don't know how big a problem it is in the UK but I could imagine that since bullying at school is a universal phenomenon, so is bullying in the horse world.

There has been a campaign, Kivat Tallit (=Pleasant Stables) in my country to raise awareness of this horrible phenomenon, yards around the country are working together to root it out and some horse magazines have been writing about it. Reading these features, including real-life stories of people who have been victims of stable bullying, really made me understand for the first time what a big and horrible problem this is. What especially shocked me was that children and adolescents aren't the only ones who bully each other, nor are they the cruellest – it made me feel really sick to read how cruel people who call themselves "adults" can be to each other. Many people have stopped riding altogether because they couldn't stand being bullied anymore and didn't know what to do about it. I think that's really sad, because in my opinion – and probably the H&R Team and all the other readers agree with me – riding is the best hobby in the world and one shouldn't have to quit for a reason like that.

So, what I would like to read from H&R is a feature on bullying at stables: how to recognize the many different ways of bullying, what to do if you see someone getting bullied or if you are bullied yourself, to remind people that SEEING someone getting bullied and not DOING anything about it makes them no better than the actual bully.

That was a long piece of text, but as you can see I was really devastated to find out about the true nature of stable bullying!

[sabine2005]

I would be interested to see, how much horses are changing during the years.

So take 10 Foals and discuss the positive and negativ aspects of these horses.

watch and compare them again the next 5 years at a certain time of the year.

what has changed during this time ?

has the ugly duckling improved ? is the young beauty queen still a beauty queen ? has the ugly duckling changed into a beautyfull horse ?

That would be an interesting long time feature.

[Rosie9915]

Hi i think it would be great to have a feature on maybe schooling your horse but on roads and hacks... I do not have access to an arena so find it difficult when bored out hacking would be great to ave some fun stuff to do out hacking
Niamh

[admin]

Thank you all for the great idea's, keep 'em coming and we pass them all to the Editor-in-Chief.

[NayNay]

I think you should have a quiz page, and mabey some horse jokes, pictures and letters from members and some horse riding academy reviews I think horse and rider is great as it is but here are just some ideas.

[Nicki84]

Hiya, as a newbie to British Eventing and British Showjumping, I'm preparing to start this year and it's going to be a whole new world! I'd love some tips on what to expect, what I would need to take with me on the day etc, maybe even feature a day in the life of someone competing at affiliated level.
Also, I'd love to hear what the top riders do with their horses to prepare - so for example, what does a normal week look like for an event horse or showjumper for instance? I would appreciate some training tips to make sure my preparation and training each week is ticking the right boxes. In fact not noecessarily even top riders - I'd like to hear how the other amateur riders like myself manage to fit in correct training around their day jobs too, and what their horses can expect to do in a week. It would make a great feature if you could have both and compare...