The Art of Caring: Finding Beauty When Things Are Hard
BY LISA CURRY MAIR
Most of the people who know me think of me as an artist. Someone who paints pretty pictures of peaceful scenes, usually with a horse...
The Key to a Capital H Home
A Fresh Start with Wild Horses, Three Daughters and Gumption
BY KIM HINSON
It was a boy, of course. A girl leaving her home and...
Confessions of a Former Fashion Pariah
BY LAUREN MAULDIN
I’m not really what you would call a fashionable person.
Growing up, my favorite outfit was a pair of jeans and a t-shirt....
Miss Moppet: The Rescue Horse That’s Taking Full Advantage of Her 2nd Chance
BY COLLEEN FITZPATRICK
Some people say that horses walk into your life for a reason. But Miss Moppet doesn’t walk, she struts. A sashay perhaps. She came strutting, sashaying,...
Hanging It Up
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...
Blackhound Equestrian Shows Why Sometimes Professionals Are Better Together
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...
The Emotional Truth About Selling Your Horse
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...
Horse Show Husband and Dad Does Spruce Meadows
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...
30 Tack Rooms That May Be Nicer Than Your House
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...
Warmblood Whoas
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...
10 Quotes to Fuel You When You Feel Like Giving Up
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...
Free to a Good Home: What it Means to Own a Horse
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....
Keep the Fun in Horse Shopping
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...
Perseverance and Grit For The Everyday Equestrian
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...
The Heart and Soul of Breeding
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...
Am I Enough of a Rider? Finding Joy Through Fear and Doubt
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...
ES Equine Photography: Capturing Memories for a Lifetime
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,...
The Heart of a Barn Rat: Riding with a Pacemaker
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...
Grafton Ridge: Michael DelFiandra and Vanessa Roman Build a Positive Team for Every Kind...
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...
SHOW STRIDES BOOK 2 Exclusive Excerpt: Confidence Comeback
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...
You love your pony through their imperfections. Love yourself and your rider the same...
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,...
Finding My Pride on Equestrian Social Media
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...
