How would you like Paul Tapner's advice just before you went on cross country? HorseHub could help
What happens when two great horsey minds think alike? Well, in today’s world they come up with a new equestrian app.
Australian eventing rider and 2010 Badminton winner Paul Tapner together with eventing enthusiast and IT whizz Dominic Sancto have created HorseHub which they hope will become the Equestrian iTunes, full of useful and entertaining content for equestrian enthusiasts.
Many people will immediately say “Oh goody, a new app” and rush to download it to their iPad or iPhone while others may wonder “What’s an app?” so here’s a very simple guide to what it is and how to use it.
The Horse Hub website horsehub.info provides all the basic information about the product (the app called HorseHub) and support for its users. The Apple iTunes store is the delivery mechanism for the HorseHub app which you download for free to your iPad or iPhone (you need to set up an iTunes account which is very simple); once you have the app installed on either of these devices you can then choose the content you wish to view through the HorseHub app. Think of it basically as a library of video, audio and written material which the HorseHub app allows you to download to your iPad or iPhone
At the moment the library of content for the app is fairly small but no doubt it will grow rapidly. The idea is that it will provide training audio and video tips provided by some of the world’s best riders, trainers and equestrian authors, reference material from some of the equestrian world’s biggest brands and entertainment content from some of the best equestrian events.
Content is a mixture of free-to-download and pay-per-download. Most content is less than you might pay for a cup of coffee, making it affordable as well as fun and educational.
Currently the real attractions (for me anyway but no doubt other people will find the other content equally appealing) are bite sized chunks of training videos from Paul Tapner’s “With Taperz” Training Series and a selection of videos from Brett Parbery’s video series “The Professional’s System” (maybe it should be renamed the “With Parbz” for HorseHub)
The thing that’s great about this is that you only download the bit of training advice that you need at the time rather than purchase a three hour long video. For example, Paul’s various short videos offers options such as cross country schooling those trickier fences like ditches, banks and water complexes. You may only have a problem with one area, say the water complex, so you simply download that video at a small cost of $5.49 to help you out
I downloaded Brett’s Novice 2A training video and was impressed with the quality ... As Brett is threatening an eventing career (we caught him at Berrima Horse Trials last weekend checking out the competition), we can’t wait for “Eventing With Parbz”
At $5.49 it would be an expensive method of downloading a whole library of tests but it is a great solution for individual problem solving. Another good thing is that, as you have it on your iPhone or iPad you can have it in the stable, on the side of your arena or out handy in your float for that all important ‘visualisation’ before your competition or out training
I only hope that someone in the future will come up with a download for HorseHub that will mow my lawns, write my articles and clean my house so I can spend more time on a horse using these training tools.
Our verdict: Hopefully there will be a lot more content in the near future but based on the quality of what is available right now, we highly recommend it. If you want to check it out without spending any money to start, go to the website and download the free British Eventing Safety DVD or Paul Tapner riding BE Dressage Test 94 to give it a try
We caught up with Paul at Burghley recently where he told us more about HorseHub as well as his ride. CLICK HERE for the article and interview at Burghley
