The Magazine Meet The Team

Whether you're a beginner, a returner, an established rider seeking new skills or an experienced competitor, there's someone at Horse&Rider who's rooting for you.

Louise Kittle Editor

Joined Horse & Rider in 2014 Started riding age 7

After just 18 months as editor of Horse&Rider, Louise was awarded the title of ‘Editor of the Year’ in 2015. With many years of horsey experience and lots of horsey qualifications (Louise is a qualified BHS IntSM), she’s perfectly positioned to steer Horse&Rider content. Louise is always first to get involved in any horsey office discussions and debates (and as you can imagine with so many horsey staff there are a lot!) and she’s often found on the phone to celebrity riders planning exciting features and photoshoots.

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Franchesca Slack Production Editor

Joined Horse & Rider in 2016 Started riding age 1

Fran’s been riding all her life and was lucky enough to grow up on her mum’s livery yard, which meant she could go out and see her pony in her pyjamas! She was a member of Pony Club and, after leaving school, went on to study at Sparsholt College, where she completed a national diploma in equine management and BSc (Hons) degree in Equine Studies. While there she also competed on the inter-college riding team. Fran worked as a groom, and in retail and equestrian wholesale before getting the job as a Sales Executive at Horse&Rider. She owns Sekonda, a 17hh Irish Draught, who she enjoys dressage with. They’re also thinking about having a go at showing, if Fran can keep Sekonda clean for long enough – he is grey after all! She also shares two Shires, Sammy and Roxy, with her partner and uses them for draught work, riding and driving.

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Sarah Garland Head of Art and Design

Joined Horse & Rider in 2014

Sarah is the lead mare when it comes to anything art-and-designy at Horse&Rider. In addition to creating interesting designs for all the pages and tweaking them to perfection, Sarah puts together all the beautiful H&R covers giving us so many to choose from for each issue. In the summer, Sarah is always the first to volunteer to go on a photoshoot, especially when we go in search of stunning new cover shots (whether it’s because she likes spending the day with all the lovely horses or because she just worships the sun, we couldn’t say). She also has a hard time keeping on top of the pesky editorial team, who occasionally like to think they can extend their skills to design, but often end up being more hindrance than help!

Adam Witt Senior Designer

Joined Horse & Rider in 2013

Before starting at Horse&Rider, Adam didn’t know all that much about horses, but that’s changed since he joined the team of extreme equine enthusiasts. The turning point was probably when he had to reproduce hundreds of complicated equine anatomy drawings for all the veterinary features. Want to know the internal structure of a hoof? Adam’s your guy, and he can even tell you about laminitis! Listening to how much everyone in the office spends on their horses, Adam spends his spare time praying that his daughter doesn’t get hooked on ponies, not just yet anyway!

Zoe Cannon Managing Director

Joined Horse & Rider in 2001 Started riding age 1

Zoe started riding early – plonked in a basket saddle at just 10 days old. She had a very horsey childhood and took part in all Pony Club activities, gaining her B test and competing in dressage, showjumping and eventing with her chestnut Arab mare (sounds like a tricky combination!), Monique. Now Zoe juggles life as a working mum with riding Valdes, a fantastic Spanish PRE that she shares. As Publisher of Horse&Rider, Zoe oversees the magazine and focuses on its distribution, making sure it gets from the office to you.

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Ali Hill Marketing Co-ordinator

Joined Horse & Rider in 1999 Started riding age 8

Ali's passion for horses started aged eight with a bareback lead ride on a retired horse called Rustler. After college, with her heart set on working with horses, Ali returned to the school where she originally learnt to ride and thoroughly indulged herself in the horsey life, before landing a job at Hermes managing events. During this time, Ali took a sabbatical to train for her BHS AI and eventually moved out of London and back to Surrey. She now co-ordinates the attendance of Horse&Rider at all of the major equestrian events and owns two dressage horses Walnut and Amos, as well as her retired horses Hudson and Teddy. If you see Horse&Rider at an event, go and say hi!

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Lianne Tadd Digital Marketing Manager

Joined Horse & Rider in 2018 Started riding age 7

Despite being born to non-horsey parents, Lianne caught the pony bug while visiting relatives. Her parents eventually gave into her incessant pleas for lessons and she soon became a firm fixture at her local riding school. Fast-forward a few years and she's managed to make her passion pay for itself thanks to a job in the marketing department at Horse&Rider mag. Her current horse is a lovely – albeit rather grumpy! – TB called Tommy, who she regularly takes to Riding Club clinics, and competes in dressage and showing classes.

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Abi Cannon Commercial Director

Joined Horse & Rider in 2019 Started riding age 1

Abi had her first pony ride when she was just two, and promptly threw a tantrum when it was time to get off – starting as she meant to go on! Not long after, Jason (a 10.2 Welsh x Shetland) arrived on Christmas morning. As the years passed, Abi continued riding and enjoyed passing on her ponies to her sister as she grew out of them (H&R’s Publishing Director, Zoe). After studying HND Business and Finance with Stud and Stable Management, Abi worked on tour with Monty Roberts and Kelly Marks – cool, huh?! In 1999, Abi joined Horse&Rider and apart from a two and a half year break has been here ever since. Now in her role of Commercial Director, leads the sales team and organises all of H&R’s celebrity rider demos. Outside of work, Abi supports her daughter, Jess, and gorgeous PRE Valdes who she shares with Aunt Zoe doing BD and BRC dressage.

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Evie Edgar Advertisement Manager

Joined Horse & Rider in 2018 Started riding age 1

Born with a horsey-mad mum, Evie has been thrown on (and off) young horses for as long as she can remember. With a passion for showjumping, she’s groomed for riders both nationally and internationally, riding and competing her own horses where time allowed. Lucky enough to live at home on a farm, she (and her still-horse-mad mum) have eight horses, with two more on the way in the spring. Since starting at H&R, Evie has had more time to focus on her current project – six-year-old Ronnie. As he’s only 148cm, she’s having to change direction to eventing this year, with the hopeful outcome of him being FEI potential – that is, once he's kicked his habit of throwing in 180 degree turns to spice up schooling sessions!

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Nicky Moffatt Staff Writer

Joined Horse & Rider in 2022 Started riding age 8

Nicky started riding when she was eight years old on a cheeky Shetland pony called Rufus. Having always been competitive, her early riding career involved mounted games, going on to win the MGA World Championships in 1989 as part of Team GB. Her focus then turned to dressage after buying Lucinda, a Danish Warmblood mare and together they competed up to medium level, qualifying for the British Dressage Winter Championships in 2002. Nowadays, she owns a 21-year-old, 15.2hh Andalusian stallion called Anthony with whom she’s competed up to Prix St Georges level. Due to his age, Nicky now competes him at the lower levels as well as enjoying hacks around the Wiltshire countryside.

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Emily Weeks Marketing Assistant

Joined Horse & Rider in 2022 Started riding age 1

Emily has been riding since before she could walk – her mum plonked her on an event horse when she was just six weeks old! With Mum as a mentor and Dad as chief supporter, Emily has been an active member of Riding Club and Pony Club since the age of three, with lots of fun-filled days, competitions, and championships. She studied sport psychology at university and in between studying competed for the university’s equestrian team, which involved riding a wide variety of horses. Now, she is following her passion for horses as Junior Marketing Assistant while having fun competing in showjumping and dressage in her spare time.

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Megan Xavier-Witherington Editorial Assistant

Joined Horse & Rider in 2022 Started riding age 3

Megan started riding at the age of three when she was on holiday in Devon on a super cute Shetland named Alice. After requesting a pony on every Christmas list, she finally got her first pony at the age of seven – a 12.3hh Welsh Mountain X New Forest, called Crumbs. Over the years Megan has also owned Heinz and Donald who she enjoyed competing for Pony Club and being placed in many championships across all disciplines. Megan now rides and competes her 16.3hh Dutch Warmblood D’artagnan who placed her in the top 10 at the Sunshine Tour Dressage Championships in 2022. They also go out showjumping and hope to qualify this year for championships in both disciplines. Now, she’s loving her job as Editorial Assistant and can’t believe she works for the magazine she loves reading!

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Halima Crabtree Sub Editor

Joined Horse & Rider in 2022 Started riding age 8

Pony mad as a child, Halima was destined for journalism, as right from an early age she used to create her own ‘pony’ magazines and even wrote a horsey novel (unpublished!) at the tender age of 10. She read zoology at university and, a few years after graduation, converted to law, taking her solicitors’ exams. Having then given up work for a while to bring up children, Halima started at Horse&Rider as a staff writer in 1995, leaving in 2004 to gain wide and varied editorial experience in publishing before returning to the fold in 2022. She has owned several horses over the years, including ponies belonging to her children (one of whom was Whistles, the ‘PONY magazine pony’) and her dream horse, a Trakehner mare, Valeska, who excelled at dressage. A fun fact about Halima is that, in her 20s, she worked with horses in the US, where she became proficient in riding western style.

Lucy Claydon Junior Graphic Designer

Joined Horse & Rider in 2022 Started riding age 11

Lucy has been riding since the age of 11, riding bareback at her local yard in exchange for helping with yard duties. Over the years she has used this successful scheme, riding various horses that have gained her confidence, skills and experience on a low budget. After studying a Graphic Arts degree, she decided it was time to get back into her passion! She now shares Dusty – a 14 year old New Forest x TB and plans to spend 2023 being an active member of local riding clubs as well as competing at dressage, attending fun rides and xc schooling! Since joining H&R, she has been in her element combining both her passion and hobby!

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Evie Epps Retail and Merchandise Assistant

Joined Horse & Rider in 2023 Started riding age 1

Evie’s been riding since before she could walk – with a grandma who owned four horses, she was taught to ride at a very young age. Pony-mad since day one, she finally got her own pony at the age of 14, Callie – a slightly bonkers Thoroughbred X Connemara. Over the years Evie’s also ridden and cared for other horses, which helped her gain experience bringing tricky horses back into work and building up their confidence again. At university, Evie studied fashion communications with business studies. After three years of studying, she decided to come back into the horsey world working for Horse&Rider and taking care of her now 19-year-old Callie, with help from her number one supporter – Mum.

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