Stable & Hoof · The reference
Find the answer you came for.
Breeds, riding, daily care and the partnership. Follow a question or find something for a horse lover.
105 results
- The partnership
After racing.
Around seven thousand Thoroughbreds leave British racing each year. The first proper count of what happens next found a population larger, younger and more ordinary than the sport's arguments suggest.
- Choosing your horse
Andalusian horse
Spain's baroque horse: thick mane, arched neck, the breed that built the classical riding hall.
- Choosing your horse
Appaloosa
No two Appaloosas look the same, the spotted breed of the Pacific Northwest.
- Choosing your horse
Arabian horse
A millennium of selective breeding: refinement, fine bone, the foundation of every modern light-horse breed.
- The partnership
At what age should a horse be retired?
There is no set retirement age for a horse, and the rulebooks that regulate age set a minimum to compete rather than a maximum.
- Choosing your horse
Black horse
True black is one of the rarest coat colours in the horse, and one of the most striking things you can put on a wall.
- Choosing your horse
Choosing your horse
Breed does not decide everything, but it decides enough. What each one was bred to do, how big it gets, and what it costs to keep.
- Horse gifts
Christmas gifts for horse lovers
Christmas gifts for horse lovers that stay out of the cupboard are the ones that name the horse rather than gesture at horses as a theme. Start from a photo of the horse if you have one, or from its name if you…
- Choosing your horse
Cleveland Bay
England's oldest established breed, and one of the rarest in the world.
- Choosing your horse
Cob horse portraits and prints
The family horse for half the country, cobs do the school-master job for a generation.
- Choosing your horse
Connemara pony
Ireland's native pony: limestone-bred, often grey, often the family's eventer.
- More guides and references
Craig Fearn
I run Stable and Hoof, which makes personalised horse gifts to order. Every product on the site is made when someone places an order; nothing is warehoused. The brand exists because horse owners already have a …
- Dreaming of horses
Dreaming of horses
The questions that come before a horse does: what one costs to buy and to keep, how hands and heights work, and quite how many breeds there are to choose between.
- Choosing your horse
Dun or buckskin: what is the difference?
They look alike and they are not the same thing: dun and buckskin come from two different genes.
- More guides and references
Equestrian Gifting Calendar 2026
This page is the 2026 equestrian gifting calendar: every gift-worthy date of the year for the horse lover in your life, with one gift idea beside each, so a personalised present arrives in time rather than the …
- Horse gifts
Equestrian gifts, personalised with the horse's own name
The best equestrian gifts are personalised with the horse's own name: because "equestrian" covers every level of horse involvement (horse owners, riders, grooms, yard staff, leisure riders, competition riders, …
- Choosing your horse
Friesian horse portraits and prints
Pure black, abundant feathering, long mane: the dramatic Dutch breed.
- Horse gifts
Gifts for horse lovers
Gifts for horse lovers tend to be the same generic gift over and over: the stock-photo mug, the horseshoe key ring, the framed poster of a horse they've never met. It recognises the category ("you like horses")…
- Horse gifts
Gifts for horse riders: lessons, shows and yard mornings
Gifts for horse riders work best as personalised pieces that fit the riding life: a yard-kitchen mug, a tack-room print, or a portrait canvas of the partnership horse. Riders care about the horse, but the gift …
- More guides and references
Guides.
Long-form notes on keeping and knowing horses, sourced from the governing bodies rather than from received wisdom.
- Choosing your horse
Haflinger
Chestnut with flaxen mane, Tyrolean origin, the family pony with a 30-year working life.
- Choosing your horse
Hanoverian
The branded H, the German register that has produced Olympic medallists for two centuries.
- Horse gifts
Horse gifts for her, named for her own horse
Most horse gifts for women miss in the same way: they treat "loves horses" as a personality trait to decorate rather than a relationship with a specific animal. The woman you're buying for doesn't need another …
- Dreaming of horses
Horse height converter
Hands to centimetres, centimetres to hands, and feet either way. Type it however you say it out loud.
- Horse gifts
Horse memorial gifts
Horse memorial gifts are for a particular kind of grief: the loss of a horse. Years of yard mornings, the sound of hooves on the concrete, the bond no one outside the stable quite understands: gone in a day. Th…
- Choosing your horse
Horse name generator
Stable names and show names, generated from the habits British yards use. Press it as often as you like.
- More guides and references
Horse questions, answered.
Straight answers to the horse and equestrian questions we get asked most: no fluff, nothing invented, the basics done properly.
- Horse gifts
Horse racing gift ideas
Horse racing gift ideas for the owner, the syndicate member, the racing fan or the racing family: the horse itself, the colours it runs in, or its name set properly. Made to order.
- The partnership
Horse years in human years.
Every converter gives a different answer, and the harder problem is the number you type into it.
- The daily round
How do you muck out a stable?
Mucking out means clearing droppings and wet, soiled bedding from a stable and keeping clean, dry bedding down.