22 Jul 2008
STOP PRESS!! Horse Hero is "Website of the Week" in The Sunday Times 27th July. They rate 4 * (out of 5) and describe the site as "Paradise for horse lovers!"
Planning, planning, planning! The sun is shining and it finally feeling like summer. Sadly, however, the Horse Hero team in inside slaving away over some very hot computers but excited about a new tranche of Biogs and Blogs we are planning for the coming months. These include a wider range of disciplines such as Polo, Mounted Games, Horse Ball, Vaulting and Western riding - sports that most of us know little about but would like to know more - we hope?!
Olympic fever. Some blogs are taking on an increasingly Olympic feel as a number of Horse Hero rider-bloggers are either in quarantine or will be going into quarantine shortly. These include Laura Bechtolsheimer (GBR dressage), Vittoria Panizzon (Italian eventer), Simon Laurens (GBR para' dressage) plus reserves Sophie Wells (GBR para' dressage) and Annabel Wigley (NZ eventer).
The best is yet to come! The Horse Hero squad training video diary series continues with Laura B, Harry Meade and Louisa Brassey under the tuition of Fiona Price. New videos are now on the site (including Laura B bridling Harry Meade, see picture below) and next week, an absolutely 'wet-yourself-laughing' episode will be posted. We will send a short trailer in the next few days...
Just in time...If you are quick to post an entry in the Forum, you may be the lucky winner of the prize for the best July entry. Also, the Straw Poll is steaming ahead on the 'icy' subject of keeping your horses legs cool. Cast your vote!
NEW VIDEOS
Packing & Loading: This is a timely video with Laura Bechtolsheimer and her groom Carole. Laura shows us her essential competition equipment and demonstrates loading with her 6-year-old gelding Dan. She'll be packing up and off to Hong Kong any day now!
Rider Fitness with Jon Pitts, Part 1: Jon Pitts is fitness trainer to Team GBR riders. In this video (picture below) he shows how improving pelvic balance can give your performance the winning edge, and uses Laura B, Annabel Wigley and Louisa Brassey as Guinea Pigs!
Veterinary & Fitness Out Takes: A few amusing clips from our veterinary filming day, including some pieces from the Jon Pitts rider fitness session we shot at lunchtime!
MORE BIOGS: Eventing hero and triple Olpymic gold medallist, Matt Ryan (picture below), now has a Biog on Horse Hero. Having suffered dissappointment at failing to secure Australain Olympic selection (following a run of good form), Matt is thinking about becoming a British national and putting himself forward for selection in the UK! A thread has been started on this thorny issue in the Forum. Join in and express your views.
Other new Biogs have now been posted for dressage rider, Natalie Allen, GBR fitness coach (humans not horses), Jon Pitts and Scottish event rider Olivia Haddow (who completed her first Badminton on her coloured pony superstar Patris Filius, this year!
BLOGGING MADNESS! Louisa Brassey (up and coming event rider and Horse Hero presenter), makes her blog debut on the site and it looks like fun! "I spent half an hour trying to coax 600kilos of reluctant horse into the small plastic temporary stable, the only way in the end was for him to follow one of Lucy Wiegersma's horse into it!", she says.
Other blogs continue to entertain, amuse and inform. According to Wayne Garrick, "His legs were getting higher but his belly dipped over the fences, like a fat woman doing the can, can, can't!" Lottie Prentice prays, "Please don't let me make a fool out of myself, not there, not on live TV!" Laura Bechtolsheimer admints to being a regular human being after all, "I normally watch Neighbours with my mum at lunchtime and Home & Away when I come in in the evening. Jon has no idea the chaos he causes by scheduling a run in the middle of it all!" Lucy Graham, Horse Hero Marketing Manager has a life outside work, "I yelled at him to stop and, in true cowboy fashion, he did a sliding stop but hit his head on the fence - muppet!"
(Laura bridling Harry!) (New Pelvic Balance video) (Matt Ryan Biog page)
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