By PIPER KLEMM, Ph.D.
As is often mentioned from my online keyboard detractors, whenever someone doesn’t like an article, I invite them to write a response piece. I am known for it for a reason. I can frequently be found both writing and saying that people should pen their own reality. Write something yourself. Do something about it.
I don’t always agree with everything in this magazine and I certainly don’t agree with everything we publish on theplaidhorse.com. I do, however, believe in the power of letting people tell their stories, speak their truth, and draw their own conclusions. I think the more experiences we consider, whether they are decisions we would personally make or not, the better we can empathize with all of those who share this equestrian experience with us.
To put it more strongly, even more than we need individuals getting involved, we need people truly putting their hats in the ring. It has never been easier or harder to start your own blog, your own magazine, your own podcast, or your own media form that hasn’t even been invented yet. We need more committed and diligent voices of all ages making the commitment to chronicling an experience through the time. We need more writers, more thinkers, more readers, and, ultimately, to generate more discussion.
These coherent thoughts formulated will drive more dinner table conversations, more phone conversations, and more hours logged in the truck spent trying to improve our sport, our knowledge, and what we have to offer these horses.
Contrary to what you might assume, my personal belief is that we need more magazines in this industry, more blogs, and more podcasts. We need more emphasis on people thinking and forming their thoughts and craft . We need more editing and more back and forth. We need more collaboration. We need more energy going into the next generation of equestrian journalism, which will take forms that we probably cannot even yet imagine. We need new, we need passion, and we need people who are ready to rehearse a lifetime of constant development of horse and rider.
If you’ve ever read a piece in The Plaid Horse and thought, “I could write that better” or “That doesn’t reflect my lived experience” or “Why are we talking about this and not that”, my challenge to you this October is to do something about it. Whether it is for TPH or another publication or your own publication, Do It.
We have had so many changes in the last decade that we need to absorb; changes to how we communicate, how we learn, and how we spend our time. Let’s all keep working on it–together.
