Top-quality management

IT is fantastic to have Tokyo Olympic eventing team gold medallist Laura Collett writing in this week’s issue about her day with the Beaufort one very wet Saturday in January (p44).

There are some lovely surprises in her copy, not least that a rider we see tackling the greatest of five-star tracks says she questioned her sanity and felt a few nerves when driving to the meet. As we’ve heard so many times regarding different horses, the eventer she rode, Moonlight Charmer, who Dickie Waygood suggested would benefit from hunting, has indeed done so, and is now thinking for himself, rather than relying on Laura’s extensive expertise.

Also in this week’s issue, our vet expert investigates why hydrotherapy is becoming a more and more popular activity for those looking to improve a horse’s fitness, not merely for rehab, given the low impact on limbs (p22). It’s incredible, really, that we have got to this stage in managing and producing horses that top riders will now think nothing of sending a horse for this regular workout.

And on the theme of top management and care, journalist Polly Bryan caught up with super-groom Alan Davies, who has been responsible for Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin’s horses for many years, for part of this grooms’ special. Not only heralded as one of the very best in the business, Alan tells a wonderful anecdote to boot (feature, p16), and is a journalist’s dream to interview – despite his protestations that he’s had to learn to talk to the media given the fame his role has brought. Sarah Jenkins Editor-in-Chief