Welcome to The Equine Times!

To all our subscribers, I extend a warm welcome to my new venture The Equine Times, an online magazine platform and website which I hope will meet the needs of equestrians in North-east Scotland from the Highlands and Islands to Perthshire initially.

With this, our first magazine available in January 2026 to subscribers, I hope to fulfil the requirement for news, features, advice and interesting articles alongside dates for upcoming shows and training events.

We will publish results for every horse lover you can think of – from the grass roots of five-year-olds attending their first lessons or pony days at riding schools to the top riders and trainers in Scotland, and everything in-between.

All of you are my target audience – from those just learning about ponies to the Olympic hopefuls – the riders in Pony Club and Riding Club and members of The British Horse Society, British Dressage, British Eventing and British Showjumping, right through to showing, side-saddle, western or driving enthusiasts.

The Equine Times is open to suggestions for features on our up-and-coming riders and those who have gained qualifications for regional and national events – we look forward to receiving letters, your event results and hearing all about your achievements throughout the year.

Our vet and farrier pages will cover well-known or not so well-known ailments by a qualified vet and farrier from our subscription area – this month it is Bennachie Equine Vets’ specialist Mairi Sinclair on ‘Understanding and managing common winter skin conditions in horses’ and the farrier page has suggestions from remedial farrier William McWilliam DipWcf on ‘Managing your horse’s feet through the winter months’. Equine dentist Alice Hughes will provide invaluable advice on our horses' teeth with her article on 'Healthy Mouth, Happy Horse: An Owner's Guide to Equine Dental Care Today', while expert bit and bridle fitter Julie Lyon of Ikkos Equestrian will write abour 'Rethinking the Bit: Comfort and Communication'.

My aim is not to be filled with adverts – we will have some advertising features and small business equestrian adverts to help with revenue – but no annoying pop-ups and our main advertising will mostly be the advertising features and classifieds, all related to equestrianism.

We will kick off (excuse the pun!) with our first star interview this month, ‘The BIG Interview’ featuring well-known event rider and producer of horses, Caitlin Padfield, on her hopes for the season and especially her aim to compete a string of horses at Scone International Horse Trials 2026.

Our ‘big’ summer equine events will, of course, be reporting on how our readers in our coverage area get on at The Royal Highland Show and Scone International Horse Trials, but there will also be extensive coverage of showing extravaganzas, the Granite City showjumping event at Bogenraith Equestrian and horse racing at Perth Races.

Our other features include ‘My Favourite Things …’ this month revealing more about NMW Riding Academy proprietor Rachael Doubleday, and an insight into ‘A Day in the Life Of …’ with Aberdeenshire-based rider and producer Louise Morrison.

Another feature will be ‘Breed of the Month’ – starting with the fabulous British native pony breeds and, in the interests of fairness, this will run alphabetically, starting with Connemaras, and once the pony breeds are covered, it will be the turn of the British native horses, such as Clydedales and Cleveland Bays.

I will need some help with this from you readers as I plan to feature your horse or pony in the pictures that will accompany the breed description. The first one, on the Connemara, has Libby Murray’s Mollie and Lauren Woods’ Mia, both lovely examples of grey Connie mares.

But I am now looking for Dales ponies for February 2026 and Eriskay and Exmoor for future editions. Please get in touch with The Equine Times at editor@equinetimes.co.uk or kirstenmbinnie@outlook.com

We have already organised sponsorship of an unaffiliated dressage league this summer and are supporting some classes for Pony Club too. And we plan to hold some competitions readers can enter to win equipment and clothing.

In the meantime, £1 entries can still be made on Paypal to kirstenmbinnie@outlook.com to name the Le Mieux roan pony toy, a great gift for any age. Just go to Paypal and remember to leave your guess for his name and make your £1 payment. It is £1 per guess so you can take part as many times as you want. The competition will raise funds for the hard-working riding school ponies at NMW Riding Academy, Keithall, Inverurie, and Hayfield Equestrian Centre, Aberdeen.

I hope you will be able to give me feedback on subjects you wish me to cover in the magazine and keep me up to date with your successes and, of course, your results from competitions, be they in-house riding school events or championship shows. Please send your results to me at  editor@equinetimes.co.uk

You can take out the £2.50 monthly subscription to the magazine by direct debit (less than a cup of coffee!) or as a one-year (£30) subscription by heading to our website www.equinetimes.co.uk

And remember, we now have classified adverts on our website too, so get your unwanted or unused gear on the site for a very small fee. You can also advertise horses and horse transport for sale.

Please also look out for The Equine Times’s trailer at some of the winter shows (weather permitting) where you can take out your subscription using our QR code. I also hope to have a mascot soon – look out for news on this! – available for a meet and greet at the horsebox too.

In the meantime, Happy Horsing …

Kirsten Binnie

Founder and Editor, The Equine Times

Founder and Editor Kirsten Binnie and her horse Bertie. Photographed by Gemma Kynoch Photography