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New Year training inspiration, fireworks, and more things the horse world is talking about

Horse & Hound’s daily debrief, brought to you every weekday
Lucy Elder Lucy Elder

    • Training inspiration

    Kick off 2025 with training inspiration from Harry Meade. In the second part of this exclusive series, Harry shares how he uses cavaletti to improve adjustability in a horse’s canter, and also to perfect flying changes. “When horses do flying changes over a pole on the ground, they are often late behind – the front legs change over the pole while the hindlegs are planting down on the take-off spot, then they also change lead over the pole, but this is technically a late change. Instead, the hindlegs must change lead before the pole, while the front legs are over the pole,” says Harry. “Giving a more demonstrative aid can cause a horse to accelerate in the change, so I like to use cavaletti to help as the horses don’t overreact to the clearer leg aid by accelerating, but by jumping a more expressive change. The cavaletti mean that they get used to the aids, without running or tightening because there is a small fence to negotiate, so it is easier to stay in a rhythm.”

    Discover more and see a diagram of the exercises

    Fireworks

    Equine charity Redwings is calling on horse owners to share their experiences and opinions of fireworks via an online survey, as the Government considers a bid to change the law. MP Sarah Owen’s private member’s bill, which calls for updates to firework legislation, will have its second reading in the Commons on 17 January. A meeting of representatives of the Fireworks Working Group, which includes Redwings, is scheduled for February. Redwings campaigns and policy manager Helen Whitelegg said: “We want to hear from people with as wide a variety of experience and opinions on the subject as possible, so that robust and representative insights can be collected and shared with parliamentarians, policy-makers and others.”

    Find out more about the survey

    Happy birthday to a legend

    H&H takes a look at the stellar career of 14-time CCI5* winner William Fox-Pitt as he celebrates his 56th birthday today (2 January). From his six Burghley victories and two Badminton wins to five Olympic appearances and countless senior championship medals, we round up some of his career highlights.

    Read more on this story

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    Lucy Elder
    Lucy Elder

    H&H senior news writer
    Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.
    Lucy Elder

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