Pony Magazine – March 2026

Summary

PONY magazine Issue 940 (on sale 4 February-3 March 2026, £4.49) celebrates extreme horse sports – horseback archery and St Moritz-born snow polo – before getting practical with BHS coach Nina Gill's final polework challenge and a vital-signs guide that puts a healthy pony's temperature at 37.5-38.5°C.

Issue 940 of PONY magazine (4 February-3 March 2026, £4.49) leads with two extreme horse sports. The horseback archery feature explains why dropping the reins entirely builds trust, and points UK beginners to bhaa.org.uk, while SNOW WAY traces snow polo to a 1985 tournament on frozen Lake St Moritz – bright-orange ball, 50cm-thick ice and all. Polly, the magazine's mascot pony, also fronts the flatwork pages with a pony's-eye schooling guide.

The training pages carry real coaching weight. BHS Senior Coach Nina Gill ends her three-part polework series with a Turning Triangle layout that graduates from walk to a small jump, Flying Solo turns hacking alone into the CHARTS checklist (charged phone, high-vis, aware, route, tracker, sensible), and the care section runs from a ten-step guide to picking out feet through Meg Elphick's seven-step herd-introduction plan to vital-signs numbers – 37.5-38.5°C, 28-44 beats per minute – worth pinning up in the tack room.

Regulars fill the back half: an interview with farrier and TikTok creator Sam Dracott ahead of the National Equine Show at Birmingham's NEC, news of five Dartmoor conservation grazers arriving at Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire, an 18-point first-aid quiz, fiction starring Mara and the retired pony Bramble, plus stationery picks from LeMieux and ponymag.com in Cute and Cool.

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Content Guide

▸ Cover Story: Extreme Horse Sports

p.6 · Horseback archery

PONY spotlights horseback archery, an ancient warfare skill now a fast-growing UK sport. Riders drop the reins entirely and shoot at targets from the saddle – the basic side-on shot comes first, with twisting over-the-back shots reserved for experts. Centres supply ponies you can learn on, so you can try it without owning one; find a club at bhaa.org.uk. The article stresses slow, trust-building training since both hands leave the reins, so treat it as a long-term project for a nappy or spooky pony rather than a first outing.

p.25 · SNOW WAY

Snow polo primer tracing the game to its 1985 debut on frozen Lake St Moritz, Switzerland, with tournaments now held in the USA, Italy, Austria, France and China. Facts kids can quote: matches use a bright-orange ball, the lake ice must be 50cm thick to play, pitches run roughly 80m x 200m, and ponies wear extra studs in each shoe to grip. Rules covered include ride-offs, right-hand-only mallets and the -2-to-10 handicap system where weaker teams get extra goals. Use it as a two-page intro before watching a match clip together.

▸ Riding & Training

p.8 · Polework in Progress

BHS Senior Coach Nina Gill closes her three-part polework series with a triangle layout progressing from walk turns to a small jump. Exercise one, the Turning Triangle, builds suppleness through turn-on-the-haunches; exercise two adds straightness poles ridden on both reins; exercise three raises poles between wings into a little fence. Each comes with a Problem Solver – ride corners almost to a halt if you drift – and spacing of one canter stride (about 2.7m), adjustable to your pony's stride. Have an adult on hand to re-space poles once jumping begins.

p.15 · Flying Solo

A hacking-alone safety feature built around the CHARTS acronym: Charged phone, High-vis, Aware, Route planned, Tracker, Sensible. Practical touches include silencing your phone so it cannot spook your pony, downloading What3Words to give a precise three-word location, and setting a GPS tracker that alerts contacts if it detects a fall. It flags that many yards ban solo hacking until you are 14 or 16. Before a first solo hack, tell an adult your route and expected return time, and stick to routes you already know.

p.20 · Fabulous Flatwork

Polly the PONY mag pony narrates a schooling-session checklist in the pony's own voice: plan movements before mounting, warm up longer after standing in, keep aids simple, build in break times and finish on a good note. Standout advice includes reading your pony's daily energy and shortening the session when he is flat, and rewarding effort – a wither scratch for some, vocal praise for others – even when the movement goes wrong. Repeat every exercise evenly on both reins so your pony stays straight and even.

▸ Pony Care

p.24 · Feel Confident: Picking Out Feet

A step-by-step confidence guide to the daily hoof-picking routine, numbering all ten steps from running a hand down the leg to placing the hoof back down. It tackles the two commonest worries head-on: lean your bodyweight into the pony's shoulder if she will not lift her foot, and hold the foot quietly until he stops fidgeting. Safety rules are firm – sturdy boots, never kneel or stand directly behind, and pick heel-to-toe around the frog. Nervous beginners should start with an adult nearby and let practice build confidence.

p.42 · Rug Ready

Rug-type explainer covering turnout, stable, fly, cooler and exercise rugs, with the filling system decoded: grammes work like duvet tog, and most ponies never need more than 250g of fill. The check worth adopting today is slipping a hand under the rug – if the coat feels clammy rather than warm, drop to a lighter weight. Exercise rugs can be high-vis for hacking, and coolers wick sweat after hard work. Use it as a decoder before buying anything new this season.

p.44 · Happy Herds

Meg Elphick sets out a seven-step plan for introducing a pony to a new herd: learn your pony's field personality, consult the yard manager, ride out together first, turn out as neighbours over a fence, then merge with one sensible companion leading the way. The keep-watching step is stressed hardest, since trouble can take days to surface. A ready-made cheat sheet lists bestie signs (mutual grooming, grazing close) against red flags (kicking, charging, pinned ears) – copy it onto the tack-room noticeboard and ask an adult to help separate any squabbling pair.

p.48 · Check-Up Time

Reference guide to a pony's vital signs with hard numbers: temperature 37.5-38.5°C, resting heart rate 28-44 beats per minute, and 8-16 breaths per minute at rest. It teaches technique – count for 30 seconds and double, stand beside rather than behind the hindquarters for temperature, and press a gum until it blanches to time capillary refill at one to two seconds. The habit to start now: take the temperature at the same time daily for two weeks to learn your pony's personal normal. Any eye problem is flagged as an always-call-the-vet emergency.

p.50 · Think Fast

An 18-point first-aid quiz testing whether readers know a puncture wound needs the vet, which signs point to laminitis and what ringworm actually is, with answers explained and scores tiered from call-the-vet to first-aid superstar. It pairs naturally with the vital-signs guide two pages earlier – learn that first, then use this to test recall. Worth keeping as a Pony Club-style revision sheet before a D-test, or as a wet-day quiz for the yard's younger riders.

▸ Regulars & Fun

p.37 · PONY Squad

The news round-up leads with five Dartmoor ponies – three mares and two geldings – arriving at Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire to graze thistles across four new wood-pasture fields, a conservation story built on a rare native breed. Regulars fill the rest: 5 Fast Facts on pony eyes (they take about 20 minutes to adjust from bright to dark), the film and book club reading Olivia Tuffin's The Secrets of Wild Hill: Lottie's Dream, and reader riding confessions rated on the cringe-meter. A good ten-minute browse with one genuinely uplifting story.

p.53 · Meet Sam Dracott

Q&A with registered farrier and TikTok creator Sam Dracott, a former 2* junior eventer now appearing at the National Equine Show at Birmingham's NEC (28 February-1 March 2026). His one tip worth acting on: never stretch the shoeing cycle, because overdue trims place extra strain on a pony's limbs. He also recalls auditioning for Horse&Country's All Stars Academy TV series the day after his horse Milo arrived. A short, readable window onto a career many pony-mad kids never consider.

p.55 · Falling

This issue's fiction follows Mara into the woods at Fernbrook stables, where retired bay pony Bramble lies cast with a hind leg trapped through a hole beneath the leaf litter. Mara's response models real emergency behaviour – staying low at his head, talking quietly to keep him calm, and phoning the yard office rather than dragging him free – before the vet and grooms take over. Read it straight after the Think Fast quiz; it dramatises exactly why knowing when to call for help matters.

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Editor's Take

The care section is the best thing here. Picking Out Feet (p24), the vital-signs guide (p48) and the first-aid quiz (p50) form a genuine progression with hard numbers a motivated ten-year-old can act on today, and Meg Elphick's herd-introduction plan is practical enough for adults to borrow. The cover features are the weakest link: horseback archery and snow polo arrive as fun-fact lists – St Moritz 1985, orange balls, 50cm of ice – with almost no how-would-I-actually-try-this detail. Ad and self-promo density is high too; Dengie, Animalintex, Carr & Day & Martin and the Harlow merchandise pages eat real estate between features. Aimed squarely at pony-mad 8-to-13-year-olds, it works best as a monthly care manual with a sports theme bolted on – parents of riding-school kids get the most value.

Strengths
• Care features give daily-use numbers: 37.5-38.5°C temperature, 28-44bpm pulse, 250g rug-fill ceiling
• Nina Gill's polework finale scales every exercise from walk to jumping
• Sam Dracott interview opens a real career path in farriery

Weaknesses
• Extreme-sports cover features stay at fun-fact level with no try-it guidance
• Advertorial pages for Harlow merch and PONY Live crowd the middle sections

Verdict: Recommended — Practical, number-rich care features outweigh the thin cover features and heavy merchandising for young readers.