The Horse & Hound team is proud to unveil a “new-look” magazine with this week’s issue (dated Thursday, 23 April).
The weekly magazine, which was founded in 1884, is usually based around major equestrian sporting events throughout the busy spring and summer months, with previews and reports in eventing, dressage, showjumping and showing making up much of its paging.
With the coronavirus pandemic cancelling or postponing events from Badminton Horse Trials and Royal Windsor Horse Show to the Olympics and the Grand National, the team have been working round the clock to bring readers a re-imagined magazine, which is packed with a range of features, offering readers both useful advice and enjoyable escapism from the current situation.
“Like everyone and every business affected by the impact of the coronavirus lockdown measures, Horse & Hound has had to adapt its working practices, to evolve,” said Editor-in-Chief Sarah Jenkins. “Now would ordinarily be the time we are ramping up our report coverage as the event calendars really get going with championships on the horizon. The Horse & Hound team loves nothing more than getting its teeth into previewing and reporting an event like Badminton, or the World Cup final.
“Instead, with all sport cancelled, we were faced with an opportunity to develop a completely different content plan, bringing readers a whole new-look magazine packed with series firsts to provide longer reads and escapism for readers during this unprecedented time. Readers have already given feedback that they are loving the nostalgia of our ‘Legends of the Sport’ series, which kick-started with a look back at David Broome’s life and career, in our 16 April issue.
“We are hoping for a similar response to our new rider Q&A, offering five minutes of light relief with one of our sports’ greats, and our ‘We can’t wait to see’ series, for which our journalists find out more about a horse they, as the title suggests, are really looking forward to watching in competition again once this time has passed.
“We are also taking the chance to offer our readers useful advice on areas they can work on to improve performance without riding. We started a mindset training series with Charlie Unwin – a specialist in human performance and psychology – in the 9 April issue, which will run for six weeks, offering great ways to tune up your competition mentality.
“We have also invited some of those equestrian and riding charities who we have good relationships with to write a guest comment each week explaining how life has changed for their organisations during the coronavirus pandemic, how they are adapting and how donations are being used to have a lasting impact at this time.”
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Sarah also highlighted the popular elements of the magazine that will remain constant during these uncertain times: “In addition to all these new series, our award-winning news team will continue to keep readers up to date with all that matters to the equestrian world, our esteemed columnists bring their exclusive opinions and insight into this time in our lives, and we keep up all your regular essential vet content and those weekly features you already know and love. I truly hope readers enjoy all our new journalism and look forward to hearing your thoughts.”
To enjoy these new features you can try a free digital download of the magazine, enjoy 6 issues posted to you for just £6 or join Horse & Hound Plus today to read many of the magazine articles online, as well as enjoying an ad-free experience of the whole website.
