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.
107 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, not a maximum.
- Choosing your horse
Black horse
Black is a coat colour, not a breed. In the UK the black horses you see most are Friesians, Fell and Dales ponies, Shires and cobs, and true black, with no brown at the muzzle or flanks, is rarer than it looks.
- 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.
- 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
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 and not the morning after.
- Horse gifts
Equestrian gifts
"Equestrian" covers owners, riders, grooms, yard staff and the parents of Pony Club children, and one thing works across all of them: a gift that names their horse. It needs only the horse's name, or a photo of…
- Choosing your horse
Friesian horse portraits and prints
Pure black, abundant feathering, long mane: the dramatic Dutch breed.
- Horse gifts
Gifts for horse lovers
Most gifts for horse lovers are the same few things: the stock-photo mug, the horseshoe key ring, a poster of a horse they have never met. The gift that lands names a particular horse, whether they own it, shar…
- Horse gifts
Gifts for horse riders
Horse riding gifts work best when they fit the riding life: a mug for the yard kitchen, a print for the tack room, or a portrait of the horse they ride. Most riders already own their kit, so the gift that lands…
- More guides and references
Guides.
Long-form notes on keeping and knowing horses, sourced from the governing bodies, not 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 and equestrian Christmas gifts
The horse Christmas gifts that stay out of the cupboard are the ones that name the horse. Start from a photo of the horse if you have one, or from its name if you do not. Everything is made to order, so leave a…
- Horse breeds, types and coat colours
Horse colours
Every horse colour starts from two pigments, black and red. Where the black goes, and what dilutes or whitens it, gives every coat from bay to cremello.
- Horse gifts
Horse gifts for women
Most horse gifts for women miss in the same way: they treat "loves horses" as a theme to decorate with. The woman you're buying for doesn't need another horse-print scarf. She has a horse, with a name, a breed …
- Dreaming of horses
Horse height converter
One hand is four inches, or 10.16cm. So 13.2hh is 137.2cm, 14.2hh is 147.3cm and 15.2hh is 157.5cm, while 148cm is just over 14.2hh. Type any height however you say it out loud and it converts both ways.
- Horse gifts
Horse memorial gifts
A horse memorial gift is usually a picture of the horse that has gone, made from a favourite photo, or its name set as a print when there's no photo.
- 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.
- Choosing your horse
Horse names
Most horses have two names: a long one on the passport and a short one everyone shouts across the yard. Ideas for both, and the rules if the horse will race.
- 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 gifts
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.