Online Exclusives

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Boning up on Bylaws

I’m going to be spending the next couple of days working on an online article to be published later next week on Horse-Canada.com (don’t worry, I’ll be sure to put a link here on the blog as soon as it’s up so you don’t
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Crisis Mis-Management

Two weeks after the Al Reef double fracture scandal, the FEI president has finally managed to say something, in this email today to national federations, a cut-and-paste embellishment of something sent to the many individuals and groups who have alre
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Chewed Up and Spat Out

No trip to Welly World is complete until you feel like the place has run you over like an Australian road train. It’s a kind of black magic, the way the place just demands every ounce of life out of you, from the time you arrive until you fasten yo
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Start of the Wellington Season

The winter competition season is now in full swing. Wellington is all hustle and bustle – horses and people. The quiet days of summer, when you could walk into any restaurant and get a table without a reservation are gone. So much for the weak econ
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The Silence of the Lambs

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s just as well, because the greater the scandal, the briefer the utterance we get out of the FEI. I refer of course, to the hideous image of Splitters Creek Bundy perched on his shattered fore
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Saddle Fit and Trainer Certification

I am really gratified to see how the German professional trainer’s association, the FN, and the German National Riding School have started to see the necessity of including a module on saddle fitting for their trainer certification programs. I hope
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Sometimes Riders are Bigger Than the Team

Given the catastrophic issues raging in another equestrian sport, the Kiwi eventing community are lucky that the only thing apparently exercising them at the moment is whether or not Andrew Nicholson should be reinstated on the NZ performance squad,
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Divergent Theories on Saddle Fitting

There are many opinions and theories on saddle fitting. Occasionally, we have even heard riders say “I have been using my saddle for x number of years. It fits me perfectly and fits every horse I use.” I have to really bite my tongue on that one,
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Welly: Where It’s At

The first time I came to Welly World I thought the place was bananas. But since it’s grown to become the centre of the known equestrian winter universe, those early days feel quaint in comparison. And now they have eventing too! It’s kind
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Gonna Give it Some Welly

Here I sit in Toronto airport, red eyed and bushy tailed, half way to Welly World. There isn’t any quick and easy way to get from Vancouver diagonally across the continent to Florida; hence the dreaded overnight traverse. Wake me up,  triple g