As Heath Ryan points out, we are nearing the pointy end of team selection for the Paris Olympics. His running leaderboards have been on the money so far. But he says there is still room for some upsets given a serious setback for Shane Rose and some neck-and-neck races in dressage. Stay tuned, he warns in Ryan’s Rave. 

Our cover story features an exciting new contender for the Dressage team in Jemma Herran. Based at Hof Kasselmann in Germany, Jemma and her Rhinelander gelding Saphira Royal won their first international at the Global Dressage Festival CDI3* in Wellington, Florida. Jemma tells Adele Severs the festival is “a great way to attend a number of shows in a row… and it allows you to develop in an accelerated way”. She’s not kidding. The young Queenslander has now fulfilled her MERs for Paris and is well on the way to meeting the rest of the criteria. 

Two-time Olympian Lyndal Oatley is also on a Parisian flight path with her Hanoverian mare, Dante’s Herzchen, and Dutch Warmblood, Elvive. In an interview with Roger Fitzhardinge, Lyndal jokes that ‘Herzi’ shows so much promise that “If Charlotte Dujardin is trying to get me to have another baby to steal her, you know you have something special!” 

Show jumping star Edwina Tops-Alexander has been fine-tuning her campaign with Fellow Castlefield and Corelli De Mies in Doha. Dawn Gibson-Fawcett reports that Edwina hopes to improve on her top-10 individual finishes in the 2008 and 2016 Games: “I would like to finish better than that, to be honest!” Jessica Grant casts her astute eye over all the contenders for the Jumping team, while Adele checks in with under-the-radar candidate James Arkins, who is working the Sunshine Tour in Spain. 

In Training, Kerry Mack concludes her two-part series on equine welfare with how equestrians can earn their “social licence”, while Roger Fitzhardinge demystifies what judges look for in the walk pirouette. 

In Health, we explore the new horse-centric rug range developed by Leader Equine, while Dr Maxine Brain assesses the implications of the move to limit the use of tendon bandaging. And with concussion the most frequent cause of hospitalisation for riders, we bring you a Special Feature on how to choose the safest helmet and who does the most rigorous testing. 

In our burgeoning Lifestyle section, we go French: We celebrate 100 years of leading French transport specialists THEAULT as they step up their presence in Australia; and Suzy Jarratt teases Joaquin Phoenix’s leading role in Ridley Scott’s epic Napoleon movie while highlighting how the dramatic horseback battle scenes were made.     

And for the escapists among us – and what rider isn’t? – Adele reports on two Aussie adventurers who found themselves being tested to their limits on the 500-kilometre Gaucho Derby in Patagonia. Not for the faint-hearted! 

Happy reading and riding!