Horse Hound – 31 December 2025

Summary

Horse & Hound's 31 December 2025 year-end issue crowns Pau five-star winner Jarillo and Tim Price as cover stars, devotes seven pages to rider mental health, and sends Ben Maher's Olympic champion Explosion W into retirement at the London International horse show.

This New Year edition of Horse & Hound pivots from competition toward reflection. Editor Sarah Jenkins opens with a resolutions letter, while the cover feature profiles Pau five-star winner Jarillo, ridden by Tim Price, after his first CCI5* victory. Ben Maher's Olympic partner Explosion W retires to a sell-out London crowd, and the '12 to watch in 2026' list names Harry Horton, Sam Ecroyd, Tom Wachman and Heidi Cooper among the discipline picks. It reads like an awards night turned into print.

Two heavyweight cover-led features anchor the issue: 'It's OK to not be OK' treats rider mental health seriously, with elite rider Mollie Summerland disclosing hospital admissions and psychologist Charlie Unwin explaining the 4-7-8 breath technique. Jodie Haywood's near-fatal sedative accident on her own yard offers a stark human-veterinary crossover. The 'Habits of a lifetime' piece gathers William Fox-Pitt, Gareth Hughes and habit psychologist Dr Heather McKee for actionable routine-building advice grounded in Atomic Habits maths.

London International reports span Tom Wachman's breakthrough grand prix win, Max Kühner's World Cup leg, and the farewell for Explosion W. John Whitaker's column calls out a tight World Cup time allowed and the FEI's six-bar rule. News coverage tracks the carriage-driving permit row at Forestry England and Redwings' 174,000-signature fireworks petition, scheduled for a 19 January parliamentary debate.

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Content Guide

▸ Cover Story

p.18 · In the spotlight: Pau winner Jarillo, ridden by Tim Price

Tim Price's Pau five-star winner Jarillo – spotted as a six-year-old at Wellington, horse-shy yet class-looking – headlines the cover. Martha Terry interviews Price, groom Rosie Thomas and Pau ground jury president Christina Klingspor. They dissect why a spooky, attention-loving horse with four white socks excels across all three phases. Klingspor rates him the best horse she saw on the day and flags the World Championships at Aachen. Readers pick up the cues of a horse who saves his best for competition days and what 'being a security blanket' actually means for horse-shy eventers.

p.26 · It's OK to not be OK

Mental health moves from sidebar to centrepiece across seven pages. Oscar Williams interviews Mollie Summerland (Luhmühlen winner), grand prix dressage rider Nicola Bell, PhD researcher Megan Lane and psychologist Charlie Unwin. Findings land hard: nearly half of dual-career equestrians surveyed experience burnout, well above the 5-10% typical in other sports. The 4-7-8 breath technique and a clear 'sometimes the most powerful choice is to stay on the ground' message give readers usable tools. The piece reframes rider mental load as horsemanship, not weakness.

p.10 · Warning on use of sedation after owner poisoned

Bethan Simons' account of livery yard owner Jodie Haywood's accidental acepromazine ingestion reads like a public-health bulletin. Pulling syringe caps with her teeth while racing to finish before a nearby firework display, Haywood ended up hospitalised with hallucinations and uncontrollable shaking. Side-bar guidance lists what ACP does to humans: drowsiness, seizures, cardiac arrest. The takeaway is simple but often ignored: wear gloves, never pull syringe caps with teeth, treat packaging warnings as gospel. The article turns a freak accident into a yard-safety protocol.

▸ News

p.4 · The menace of fireworks and calls for change

Becky Murray's investigation ties the New Year timing directly to horse-owner Joanna Barnett's mare Tallulah, killed near Surrey on 31 December 2022. Redwings' Keep Horses in Mind petition has gathered 174,000 signatures, surpassing the 100,000 threshold for a parliamentary debate set for 19 January. Sarah Owen MP explains her private member's bill and her frustrations with F1-F4 categorisation. Practical value comes from the Scotland control-zones angle: a workable model the rest of the UK may yet follow. Readers also learn which petitions to support locally.

p.6 · Magical horse who changed the sport retires to ovation

Ben Maher's lap-of-honour farewell for Olympic champion Explosion W at the London International gets full-page treatment. Co-owners Charlotte Rossetter and Pamela Wright join Maher in paying tribute to the horse who 'touched so many lives' and won 16 CSI5* grands prix. The retirement ceremony is documented in detail: the elves' guard of honour, the garland listing major wins, and 6,000 glow sticks distributed to the sell-out crowd. Practical note for readers: Explosion's career arc shows what late-developed talent can do with patient owners and groom Cormac Kenny's consistent handling.

p.8 · Carriage drivers' frustration at issues accessing woodlands

Lucy Elder's report on Forestry England's permit row is a quiet, infuriating read. Drivers like Alison Finlay, who paid £90 a year for Thetford Forest access, have been frozen out since 2021 with no explanation. The British Driving Society's Sarah Bellow highlights the inequity: walkers, cyclists and riders go free while drivers face questionnaires about spare parts and first-aid kits. Forestry England's response is bureaucratic-speak. Practical question for readers: if Forestry England reopens the consultation, drivers need to write now with logs of every refused renewal.

▸ Sport Reports

p.42 · Q jumper hits the front

Tom Wachman's grand prix win gets the Bethan Simons treatment, with Max Kühner pipping Donald Whitaker in the World Cup and John Whitaker finishing best Brit in fourth. Useful context: Kim Emmen rounded out the jump-off and Victor Bettendorf took the leading-rider prize on three wins, a second, a fourth and an eighth. The piece maps exactly how Wachman's turn-back plan with trainer Cian O'Connor shaved 1.05 seconds off Kara Chad's leading pace. Readers leave with a clearer picture of what shapes a winning jump-off on tight London courses.

p.54 · Special Cecil claims supreme glory

Katy Marriott-Payne's record fourth BSPS Heritage supreme title with home-bred Dartmoor Salcombe Starehole Bay is the headline. The producer-since-birth narrative, plus owner Felicity Thompson's recovery from a 2022 accident and Cecil's retirement plans with mares waiting in the field, gives real emotional weight. Bethan Simons also documents first-timer Harriet Lawton's best-of-breed win with Nutt's River Dance and Maisie Kerry-Oates' junior title. The showing angle: producers reveal the year-round preparation behind a five-minute championship round.

▸ Features

p.30 · Habits of a lifetime

Luz Wolocombe interviews William Fox-Pitt, Gareth Hughes and habit psychologist Dr Heather McKee, whose client list includes Starbucks and Lululemon. The actionable thesis: 1% daily improvement compounds 37-fold in a year. Fox-Pitt's 'always prepare for the worst' mantra and Hughes' machine-like consistency in tack-organisation earn close attention. The takeaway box at the end – make habits satisfying, remove friction, expect imperfection – gives readers a 10-minute template. It is the rare horsey self-help feature with citable habit science and named elite practitioners.

p.34 · 12 to watch in 2026

Pippa Roome and Oscar Williams' twelve-name survey spans eventing (Harry Horton, Sam Ecroyd), dressage (Sophie Taylor, Rob Barker), para dressage (Laura Scott), showing (Heidi Cooper, Hunter Macdonald) and showjumping (Tom Wachman). Each profile links a 2025 result to a 2026 target: Wachman's first five-star Longines leg and Aga Khan, Horton's Luhmühlen five-star debut. The standout detail is Ecroyd's recovery from 57 skull fractures after a 2021 rotational fall. Readers leave with concrete names to follow on the 2026 results pages.

▸ Opinion

p.14 · The icing on the cake

John Whitaker's end-of-year column punches above the usual columnist weight. He dissects Alan Wade's 'too tight' World Cup time allowed, defends pulling up Unick Du Francport after two fences to save him for the grand prix, and questions the new FEI six-bar rule that put three retirees equal first. He celebrates nephew Donald Whitaker's runner-up finish and the 70-year age gap between himself and the eventual winner. Practical insight: time-allowance design directly shapes whether a class has five or 12 in the jump-off.

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Editor's Take

The 31 December 2025 issue leans hard into reflection: editor Sarah Jenkins' resolutions letter, a 12-name list of riders to watch in 2026, and a mental-health feature that names hospital admissions rather than skirting them. Jarillo's profile and Ben Maher's Explosion W farewell carry the emotional weight, while Tom Wachman's grand prix breakthrough gives the issue genuine sporting momentum. Ad density around the supplements and senior-care pages is the trade-off readers pay for the depth elsewhere; the Equi-Phage and CushCare features fragment editorial flow. Photography is strong on the Jarillo spread and the Wachman jump-off, weaker on the small-news portraits. It is a year-end issue aimed squarely at the dedicated British equestrian reader who follows riders across seasons, not at the casual newsstand buyer.

Strengths
• Mental health gets elite-rider testimony, not platitudes.
• Jarillo cover feature demystifies horse-shy eventers in plain terms.
• London International reporting combines results with named rider insight.

Weaknesses
• Heavy supplement and senior-feed ad density fragments editorial flow.
• Showjumping reports run long on quotes, short on course maps.

Verdict: Recommended — A reflective year-end issue with strong cover features, outweighed by ad clutter.