Horse and Hound Columnist

[SusieT]

Have to say I am a bit disappointed in the column at the back of H+H. It used to be more witty!
It's a bit boring and samey and the ' I'm not a bad mother really but... ' is a bit roll your eyes.

So two weeks ago she ignored her child telling her the pony was hopping lame - and apparantly hadn't noticed this herself.

This week the child falls off hunting and instead of checking he's ok/alive, is left behind and when he'catches up' is injured.... there's not helicopter parenting and there is being a bit of an eejit which is how they come across but maybe that's just me!

 

[Esme]

I knew this would be about that awful woman! I stopped paying attention to the back page after the edition sneering at new subscribers when she returned to her childhood hunt. I think the idea of the column had potential but it's been in serious decline. As you say - boring, unoriginal and she comes across as utterly dislikeable!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Ghastly woman, a real caricature of a horsey hunting mum. Sadly I have come across her type IRL. Poor kids. No idea why H&H continue with the column.

 

[Floxie]

Ugh

 

[Mule]

Oh dear. I wonder is it just satire?(hopefully)

 

[Tagoat]

Oh dear, Oh dear! Thank goodness I don't pay to read that sort of drivel.

 

[Lois Lame]

Yeah, not funny. Reminds me a bit of an awful tv show we have here called 'Funniest Home Videos'. Mostly it's full of kids falling off things, running into things and other really unfunny stuff. the kids are hurt and sad. I don't get it.

 

[DabDab]

Well isn't she a delight.

 

[vickie123]

I find her really irritating. I do love the diary of a home-made livery yard on here, perhaps that could replace it. Far more interesting, funny and relatable.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

It's not just the back page. A lot of the articles are very badly written with no spelling or grammar checking going on. It's a disgrace considering how expensive the magazine is to buy these days.

 

[JennBags]

I haven't read HHO since they tried to double my subscription a few years ago, and I'm glad I don't get it any more, what an appalling column. Doesn't exactly endear us to the rest of the world, its exactly what non-horsey people think of us.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Sounds as well advised as that kid doing the showing blog, the one who's groom walked out on her at Christmas, more power to the groom by the sounds of it.

 

[The-Bookworm]

I think we all know parents who push their kids when it comes to horses.
I'm all for encouragement but even I cringed with the sentence where the child says 'the fence is too big' and hey presto the pony stops at some point.
It's this actually made up? That she actually carried on!!
I don't have kids but if a rider falls off directly behind me I go back and check them.

 

[only_me]

That’s awful, really not good. She should have checked kid was ok.

Can’t believe she thought it was funny to write that in a nationwide magazine, I’d have been mortified and ashamed.

 

[Denbob]

I find her really irritating. I do love the diary of a home-made livery yard on here, perhaps that could replace it. Far more interesting, funny and relatable.

Seconded! She's fab!

 

[Red-1]

I must admit, when I saw this week's column I cringed.

The 'joke' about social services may not end up being such a joke!

Mother sees 10yo (?) child be thrown to the floor, breaking a tooth and thinks "heck, I'll leave him here in the countryside to sort himself out as I am having fun."

Endangerment and abandonment?

Not that I think anything will happen from it, but you can imagine if it were a school trip? Child says they don't want to to a potentially dangerous activity, is forced, injures themselves and is left behind?

 

[Ceifer]

Sounds as well advised as that kid doing the showing blog, the one who's groom walked out on her at Christmas, more power to the groom by the sounds of it.

I rarely read H&H but I do remember seeing this article and thinking exactly the same as you. They sounded spirteful and so unprofessional to write about it in a national magazine.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I rarely read H&H but I do remember seeing this article and thinking exactly the same as you. They sounded spirteful and so unprofessional to write about it in a national magazine.

tbh it was like reading something out of the 1950s and they saw fit to put it on FB (whereI saw it) where they didn't get quite the response to it I think they expected! It was a shame it ended in vitriol against the kid but surely HH must realise that very privileged part of their readership is not representative of the horsey population. The magazine is a dinosaur.

 

[Rowreach]

I lost count of the number of kids I picked up after their ghastly parents (usually mothers) abandoned them out hunting. Not just kids either, astounding how many people were happy to let someone else scrape their spouses off the floor, sometimes even accompanying them to hospital, while they just carried on with their great day ...

 

[Merrymoles]

It's massively bad PR for our sport and just lives up to the stereotype of "posh, snobby hunting types who don't give a toss about anyone or anything". Disappointing.

 

[Velcrobum]

Sounds as well advised as that kid doing the showing blog, the one who's groom walked out on her at Christmas, more power to the groom by the sounds of it.

Could anyone point me at a link please.

 

[catkin]

It's massively bad PR for our sport and just lives up to the stereotype of "posh, snobby hunting types who don't give a toss about anyone or anything". Disappointing.

Do you mean bad PR for equestrianism as a whole or hunting as a sub-set of that?

I am shocked as my whole equestrian life I have been taught that you help people in a pickle.

Hunters please, we live in a media-age, you are alienating horsey people that were 'neutral' about your sport with stuff like this and the actions of some during the flu outbreak, let alone other people who don't step into the horse community.

 

[CMcC]

Sounds as well advised as that kid doing the showing blog, the one who's groom walked out on her at Christmas, more power to the groom by the sounds of it.

Thank god, I thought it was only me! Actually I thought it was a joke when I first read it, then sadly realised it wasn’t.

 

[JFTDWS]

Who the hell wouldn't pull up when a kid falls off, to make sure they're ok? Let alone your OWN kid?

That's really dismal reading

 

[Amirah]

I can't believe she just left him. Poor little chap. It really hurts to break a tooth.

 

[stormox]

How old is this child?

 

[spugs]

What a witch!

 

[Ambers Echo]

"Perhaps I am not so hot at this parenting lark after all" Urghh. URGHHHH!

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

Sorry, YOUR child is off his pony and you carry on?!?! Words fail me.

 

[UptodateK]

I'm so glad i'm not the only one who found this pretty appalling. She's snobby and irritating at the best of times, but asking your kid 'more than once' if he was sure he wanted to go home after falling off, chipping his tooth and crying his eyes out, just because you want to continue having fun......not good.