Equestrian Life's May magazine is out now!

Welcome to the 100th edition of Equestrian Life magazine! It’s an achievement we are delighted to celebrate with you as we continue to bring you the very best of all things equestrian from around Australia and the world.

It’s a milestone that couldn’t have been achieved without your faith in us and supporting quality equine journalism. We take our hats off to the foresight of the dressage enthusiast and eminent publisher Robert McKay AM, who, in 2011 reinvigorated a dormant title and created the multi-media EQ Life we have today. The dynamic Australian-owned Propel Group Pty Ltd took over the reins last year, and is proud to continue to grow our readership in our wonderful equestrian community and to lead the way in quality publishing, live streaming and reporting across all formats.   

This being an Olympic year, all eyes are on who makes the cut for the national equestrian team for Paris. With just weeks to go, Heath Ryan’s leaderboard update this issue is exciting reading for who’s in the running in eventing and dressage. While he says the field appears settled, he warns that the sleepers are about to make their moves.

David Middleton’s big win on WEC In The Money at Adelaide International CCI5*L was so outstanding that Heath makes an exception to his Top 10 Eventing Leaderboard and slots them in at No. 11! You never know what the selectors are thinking! David speaks at length to Adele Severs about his delight in not only winning on his own homebred gelding – but revisiting the Adelaide victory dais 24 years after his five-star victory there.

In Dressage, Jayden Brown is keeping his cool in his bid for Paris contention. In a one-on-one interview with Roger Fitzhardinge, he sings the praises not only of training under Carl Hester, but of the foresight of Terry Snow and the Willinga Park team in basing him and the horses in the UK for their campaign.

Back home, Bridget Murphy brings us up to speed on the equally competitive field for Paris 2024 Paralympic selection after the second last Australian-based CPEDI qualifier, the Leader Equine Dressage Spectacular at Boneo Park.

We also take you behind the scenes at one of the most popular country shows, Dressage in the Bush as staged by the Young Dressage Association; and we check in on the post racing career of 11-year-old OTT, In The Fast Lane. ‘Rocket’, as he is now known, never looks back!

In Training, we have two treats: Kerry Mack continues to pose the big questions on what gives us the right to own horses in her stimulating series on equine welfare; and Dan Steers explains his concept of building a willing partnership between horse and human as we revisit his views on horsemanship.

In Health, our inhouse vet Dr Maxine Brain takes us through the pros and cons of X-rays as part of a pre-purchase examination. Innovative Australian supplement maker AXLR8 Equine Therapeutics reveals what we really should look for in the ingredients list in dietary supplements. And equestrian architect leaders Equitecture challenge how we house our horses as they approach it from a horse’s perspective. Yet another Australian innovation is Scoot Boot, and in this issue we discover why the ‘barefoot’ hoof boot is taking over in the jumping world.

Finally in Lifestyle, we introduce Money Place, horse-friendly financiers... someone who understands us! And yes, as always, movie buff Suzy Jarratt takes us along for the ride with Jackie Chan in Ride On, his latest action-comedy where the horse is equally the hero!

Happy riding!

Your EQ Life Team

Start reading the May issue here.