Barn Lounge

BY JULIE STIELSTRA The bridle hanging in my tack locker bloomed with mold. I rather resent the steamy midwestern summers that force me to clean tack before I ride as well...

BY JESS CLAWSON Making it as a professional in the horse world can be challenging… that’s perhaps an understatement.  The isolation, long hours, even longer list...

BY JAMIE SKUBAL  Today, I’m sitting in the middle of my horse’s possible sale. To be honest, this is not the side I’m used to sitting on. If you...

BY GORDON BALLANTYNE It is finally the end of the horse show season, and I’m putting another one in the books—more like an entire library by this point.  The...

Tack rooms. It's where we throw our piles of tack and stacked up saddle pads that need washing. There's usually a barn cat or a corgi curled up by the window, and...

BY SCOT TOLMAN Here’s my method of determining and/or influencing the sex of unborn foals: in the stalls of the mares from whom I want colts, I hang at...

This is a hard sport. There are so many setbacks, countless heartbreaks and reasons to pack it all up and try something easier. But we can't do that, because this is what...

BY LUMI CALLASTRATUS My sister and I bought back our childhood pony, Gemini, for two dollars. Now he sits at our parents’ blue berry farm looking cute amongst the spring blossoms....

BY SARAH SMIT Usually the only worry I have when we take clients on one of our horse-buying trips to Holland is if they’ll get lost on a night...

BY MARY LYNNE CARPENTER Perseverance and grit. As equestrians, we hear a lot about these personality characteristics. When equestrians tell stories, they often reference perseverance and grit as...

BY MARYANNA HAYMON Without breeders pouring their hearts and souls into the creation of foals, there would be no riding horses in three years, here or anywhere else. In...

BY ELLISON NEUMANN An article can’t tell you if you’re “enough” for this sport. I have no clue if I am myself. I’m young, I should feel...

BY JESS CLAWSON No matter what level you ride at or what ring you compete in, all equestrians love photos of our horses. We especially value those perfectly composed,...

BY ALLIE CARLSON Barn rats—we all know and love them. They are the young women and men who happily spend hours grooming, tacking, feeding and mucking for a little extra time...

BY LAUREN MAULDIN How do you feel when you enter the ring at a horse show? Worried about the two stride that looks a little long, or concerned about keeping your...

We hope you are enjoying book 1 of The Plaid Horse’s new novel series, Show Strides. To celebrate Pony Finals – and summertime reading – we are happy to share this excerpt...

BY PIPER KLEMM I am a perfectionist. Which sounds wrong, because my computer desktop is a catastrophe. There are dishes piled up in my sink. On my front porch,...

BY AMY BIEBER We all know the internet can be a deeply negative place. It can foster hatred, bullying, and anonymity for the sake of masking bad behavior. But...

BY GORDON BALLANTYNE The horse show husband and dad is an endangered species. Rarely seen, we are a band of Sherpas loading, hauling, packing and unpacking vast amounts of...

BY JESS CLAWSON Ashley Holsinger’s Memory’s Hill Stables started with a vacant farm and a dream, but Holsinger’s equestrian career began long before her Virginia farm. For a horse-crazy...

BY PIPER KLEMM The topic of horse care can seem so daunting and overwhelming, especially in today’s world. Thousands of gadgets, ideas, and therapies – many of which have...

BY CHRISTINA KEIM 2018 Equestrian Voices Distinguished Entry The equine industry has a dirty little secret. It is whispered about in barn aisles and tack...