Nag Mags: "I Used to Get....But..."

[DairyQueen2049]

So my nag mags need renewal. Hmmm. $10 a year for Equus & H&R, $20 for Prac Horseman.

I'm considering not subscribing for the first time in years.:confused:

Why? Cuz I can get it on the net.:yes:


And you - are you not re-subscribing?? I can even get the Steffan Peters pic on the net, and not wait for the mag cover......:eek:

[Calhoun]

This is the first time in over 20 years I have let my Practical Horseman go. The only mags renewed were COTH and Dressage Today. Although unrelated, I also let 2 of my cooking mags and 1 gardening go. I am working harder than ever right now and money does play a part, but it's also time . . . something I wish there was more of these days.

[greysandbays]

I was a charter subscriber to Equus, but I let it go after it was sold and morphed into an idiot rag.

Got Practical Horseman from 1979 to sometime in the mid 90's. Had Horse & Rider for several years; let it go. Arabian Horse World was a staple until about 1990. Tried Arabian Horse Times, but got sick of the endless advertorials. At various times had Horse Illustrated, Dressage Today, Arabians, Arabian Express, and a several others I don't recall (not counting the magazines that came with association memberships in USEF and USDF).

Only magazine I still get is the Modern Arabian Horse that comes with the AHA membership, and I don't even read it completely anymore. I used to get 6 or 8 magazines every month and read every one of them from cover to cover. If there's a decent horse magazine still out there, I haven't found it. Journalism is a lost art. Now all we're left with is claptrap aimed at the lowest common denominator and one-and-a-half-spaced so there's only about a half a page of stuff on each page.

[Pirateer]

Practical Horseman and Equus run the same articles. I don't get Dressage Today, but I'd hazard a guess that since they are also Primedia they run the same ones also.

[grayarabs]

$10 for Equus? I just renewed yesterday for $24 for one year.
Have subscribed for about 20 years. Did I miss something?
I'll probably let H&R go - not really my taste.
Always renew COTH mag.

[jenm]

$10 for Equus? I just renewed yesterday for $24 for one year.
Have subscribed for about 20 years. Did I miss something?


I think the price offered depends on how quickly (or not) you renew. I haven't renewed yet, but just got an offer of $12 for one year. I guess I'll hold off and see if they bring it down to $10.00!

[Pony Person]

Young Rider. It bothered me that it was getting more geared toward what clothes/items were "in style". The last straw was when they featured a male rider, and kept going on about how cute he was.:confused: I thought it was supposed to be for horse-crazy girls, not boy-crazy girls!

[War Admiral]

Used to get Saddle & Bridle, but the irony is that when you're an AOT with a young horse in training, the luxuries get trimmed. $79 a year is too much. :no:

[cwill]

All of them!

A friend loaned me some PH from the 1980's and 1990's- I would definitely subscribe if the magazine was still like that.

I would love to renew my subscription to COTH but I'm broke so...

[tcgelec]

PH is the only horse magazine I read. Usually cover to cover the first day I get it. Love it even more that Jimmy Wofford is on staff and there are a lot more articles on eventing. I also like the Simon Cowell ohhh sorry George Morris section where he picks apart rider's positions over fences...I always try and pick out the one he likes best. (It's not the eventer lol)

[Larksmom]

Yes, I have in the past gotten, something called Spur, Eventing, [from UK], and I LOVED Equine Art or Illustrated, I don't even remember, Color mag about horse artists, from Bev Doolittle to Sir Alfred Munnings. My first equine mag was Dressage and CT. I LOVED it, but it pretty much competed with COTH, and we see who is still standing. In fact, I accidentally let my subscription to COTH slip, I renued and got it started back, and today I got the issue with County's obit. But I guess I missed the one with Peter Winants obit.:(

[rivenoak]

I used to subscribe to all of the horse rags til they got stupid one after the other.

Now, I only get CotH. And I waver on that because it always gets here late. I think my Rolex issue showed up 2 weeks AFTER the event. :mad:

[mvp]

I bailed on COTH long ago. Tired of pressing my nose up to the glass while reading articles about people at WEF that contained quotes like "I don't know how it happened; we bought him 10 days ago and now we're champion in two divisions!"

I bought a subscription to PH to help a kid with a school fund-raiser and reminded why I don't subscribe. It states the obvious about any topic, but not enough more to teach me something really novel. A while back, every jumping problem ever, it seemed, would be solved with a 72 foot line jumped in 4, 5, or 6 strides. And I don't care about one (well-connected) back-yarder's journal of her experiences with buying and raising her young horse.

Oh my. Sorry, I'll chill now. But I think my point is that there seems to be a widening gap between the average and really sophisticated trainer/owner.

[Paige777]

I still get Horse Illustrated and Equus - I value Equus mostly for the scientific/health articles. I used to get Horse and Rider, but found it ran many of the same articles as Equus. I've never subscribed to Practical Horseman, though I used to pick up the occasional issue at the tack shop until the quality just really seemed to go downhill. I've been questioning my Horse Illustrated subscription lately, as the articles seem to go in a one year rotation - I feel like I've read most of them before.

[kellyb]

I only get the QH Journal, and I don't even have a QH :lol:

I used to sub to Equus, Horse & Rider, Horse Illustrated and PH. I liked Practical Horseman but not enough to keep subscribing to it. It's very thin. Plus the constant spam from them about renewing just drove me batty.

I don't care for Equus or H/I. Too vague, covers a lot of very obvious things, and I really don't care for the random breed features (I'm not a 10 yr old girl anymore looking for posters).

[5]

They all seem to be owned by the same company running variations of the same popular methods.

IMHO you get more value buying old magazines from someone who needs the room and evaluating what would work best for your particular horse.

My particlar poison is Western Horseman and I have about four xerox boxes worth of extras from the mid-1940s on that I can't bring myself to give away at the going ebay prices. (although I would consider a year by year trade of COTH magazines since they are of about the same vintage.)

[Jaegermonster]

Let Equus go when it became about basic backyard horsemanship.
Still get The Horse, although a bit dry, it does have lots of good medical information about keeping our horses healthy and sound.
Got PH consistently through the late 70's 80's and into the 90's and it was awesome, (still have the old ones, thank GOD) let it go when it became My Little Pony on paper, got it back a couple of years ago when it stepped up a bit and when Jimmy Wofford got on staff. Really like it when they publish the courses from a medal final or something like that.
Let The Horse Journal go when Michael Plumb left.
Still get COTH it used to be always late but has gotten better.
Like everybody else, money's tight these days, cutting out some of the fluff gets me a few more lessons. Plus as somebody else said, Equus and PH publish the same stuff, esp the "articles" about trailering or whatever else that are really paid ads they think we are stupid enough to believe are really articles.

[BlueBobRadar]

Young Rider. It bothered me that it was getting more geared toward what clothes/items were "in style". The last straw was when they featured a male rider, and kept going on about how cute he was. I thought it was supposed to be for horse-crazy girls, not boy-crazy girls!


I so agree! The little quote-thingy on the cover said "Meet Hot Young Show Jumper, xxx" or something along those lines. I let it go a long time ago, along with Equus and Horse Illustrated.

[RenaissanceMare]

And I don't care about one (well-connected) back-yarder's journal of her experiences with buying and raising her young horse.



Is that the section with the illustrations and she's a dressage rider? I've tried to read her stuff but it's sooooo long and I just never related to it. I like the GM eq. critique but some of the pictures look really old!

Equus has some fun tips and facts but not enough to subscribe to IMO.

I LOVED Horse Illustrated. I still have their "Mega Posters" hanging in my old bedroom in my parents house :sadsmile:

[FlashGordon]

I bailed on COTH long ago. Tired of pressing my nose up to the glass while reading articles about people at WEF that contained quotes like "I don't know how it happened; we bought him 10 days ago and now we're champion in two divisions!"

I bought a subscription to PH to help a kid with a school fund-raiser and reminded why I don't subscribe. It states the obvious about any topic, but not enough more to teach me something really novel. A while back, every jumping problem ever, it seemed, would be solved with a 72 foot line jumped in 4, 5, or 6 strides. And I don't care about one (well-connected) back-yarder's journal of her experiences with buying and raising her young horse.

Oh my. Sorry, I'll chill now. But I think my point is that there seems to be a widening gap between the average and really sophisticated trainer/owner.

LOL....

Agree.....

[Beverley]

I liked Spur, while it lasted. Let Equus go years ago. Still subscribe to COTH and get the AQHA mag - America's Horse- that comes for being a member. And Covertside for being a MFHA member. Used to subscribe to Hounds (UK) which I love but let it go because I got so annoyed at the wonderful hunting stories since I don't hunt regularly any more. Practical Horseman never floated my boat enough to subscribe.

Actually, my current fave is Garden & Gun- not particularly horsey per se but they do cover horses and hounds with some regularity, and I like their other stuff too.

So- you're telling me that the stacks of old white paper Chronicles that I use for boot trees might bring a tidy sum?:cool: I think I also have all the hunt rosters dating back to early 1980s...

I did subscribe to Western Horseman in my youth, and loved it. Haven't read a recent issue, maybe I'll browse next time I'm at the feed store...

[Traum]

Anyone remember the oldie from the 80s, HorsePlay? I loved that one when I was a kid. I don't currently get anything. Horse Illustrated drives me up the wall the last few years. Many repeats and really REALLY basic stuff. Practical isn't quite that bad but I really enjoyed the series they used to run in the 80s, with many page long stories about a horse or rider. Those were great days.

Now the only one I pick up sometimes is Western Horseman. Good articles, interesting sports I don't know a lot about and good writing. That one I like.

[grayarabpony]

A friend loaned me some PH from the 1980's and 1990's- I would definitely subscribe if the magazine was still like that.


Me too.

[Jaegermonster]

I forgot about Horseplay! That was an awesome magazine. I still have some old ones.
And I forgot about Covertside too, I get that one and really enjoy it.Also get Horse Country

I also get that fluff you get with your USEF/USHJA membership, what is it? In Stride or some such garbage. What a piece of crap. I could do without it really.

[Mali]

What were they thinking? I finally renewed my subscription in 2007, after about a 10-year hiatus. Then this year they go and add COLOR and reduce the size of the issues by at least 50%. Ugh..as much as I like the info it provides, I'm done. It's ridiculously high priced AND you can't even access the articles online (as a subscriber) - that is really annoying. How about they just develop an e-copy and cut the price in 1/2 and have the whole dang thing in color. I'll use COTH as my main tool for product reviews!

My absolute favorite magazine that I will never drop - The Horse. Lots of good medical info.

[DairyQueen2049]

http://www.dotcommags.com/horse-amp-rider.html

$ 9.99

Soyeah $ 10

or Google it and you can get Equus and H&R for $ 18.:eek::yes:

It just seems you are getting what you are paying for. :no::no:

[spurgirl]

I currently get H & R, Equus, PH, and Western Horseman. I renewed the first three because of the great deals- like the $12 a year mentioned. The only one I'm going to renew from now on is going to be Western Horseman-even though it is primarily Western, it has some really good all around training articles-and the ranches they showcase, and trail riding vacations out West they describe and picture make me drool! There are also nice profiles of ranch women each month that are interesting, and the saddlery articles are nice too. Some of the saddles the leather artists make are beautiful!

All of the other magazines mentioned seem to have the same articles, with little tweaks here and there:(

It sounds like The Horse is a better choice than Equus-for medical info? I have never subscribed to that.

[JollyBadger]

I used to get Horse Illustrated, but as others have already noted, it seems like they just kind of "rotate" articles. But hey. . .when I was a kid, it was great for posters to decorate my room with! Same with EQUUS - I still like some of their health-related articles.

When I bought my TWH and became a one-year member of the NWHBEA I got a subscription to "The Voice," but I let that lapse. It was page after page of full-page color ads for crippled-looking Big Lick horses and their hunched-over grouchy-looking middle-aged male riders dressed like gangsters. :lol: Very little talk about anything to do with training, just a lot of "who's who" in the industry articles. Oh, and the occasional little blurb about horses that are ridden in places other than flat arenas.

A lot of the other magazines I used to buy seem to have "dumbed down" their content, or taken a very NH route.

Currently I pick up copies of The Trail Rider when I see a new issue at Tractor Supply (or borrow from my boyfriend, since he is a subscriber). Most of the training/riding articles are still very basic and kind of aimed at the casual backyard horse owner, but there is often good information about preserving land for continued equestrian use.

[mvp]

Perhaps I just like "outside the box" with respect to the training I learned in H/J land and that means I used to dig Performance Horseman and Dressage Today. Though I thought I smelled the slight stench of Holier Than Thou in the dressage rag.

I loved Horseman's Journal back in the Mike Plumb era and had planned to keep those bad boys around. That was the intention: they were printed on paper with three holes punched for the Bible one might build with a subscription. I haven't seen it in a long time. Has it gone to advertisers in a hand basket? If so, that's too bad. It was a great idea and initially well done.

[equest]

Anyone remember the oldie from the 80s, HorsePlay? I loved that one when I was a kid. I don't currently get anything. Horse Illustrated drives me up the wall the last few years. Many repeats and really REALLY basic stuff. Practical isn't quite that bad but I really enjoyed the series they used to run in the 80s, with many page long stories about a horse or rider. Those were great days.

Now the only one I pick up sometimes is Western Horseman. Good articles, interesting sports I don't know a lot about and good writing. That one I like.

PH was recently having a special - $27 or so for 2 year subscription. I find it worthwhile at the price.

[BlueEyedSorrel]

I used get H&R and Equus. H&R was getting too NH/barefoot/herbal supplements for me. The final straw was an article advocating using some herbal concoction as a "tonic for the liver" and "an immune system" booster.

I let Equus go when I realized I could read it at the barn....we have a community magazine pile that people toss their mags on when they're done reading them. I still like the magazine, but if I can read it for free.... I also read PH and some random others at the barn.

I used to get QH Journal, got tired of 500 pgs of ads and the articles on the rich&famous.

As a kid in the late 80s/early 90s I got Horse Illustrated. I outgrew that one fairly quickly.

I've considered subscribing to The Horse. They seem to have good evidence based information.

BES

[DairyQueen2049]

When I bought my TWH and became a one-year member of the NWHBEA I got a subscription to "The Voice," but I let that lapse. It was page after page of full-page color ads for crippled-looking Big Lick horses and their hunched-over grouchy-looking middle-aged male riders dressed like gangsters. :lol:


Tooo true, JB. Your description had me ROTFWL.

[grayarabs]

Tks - I am going to call Equus CS and see if I can get a better deal.
I have been receiving H&R for a couple of years - they had an offer for $10 - so I said what the heck. Of course became inundated with mailings saying I had not paid - the price was $12 - oh - even threatening to report me credit-wise. I will not renew that one - but expect to continue to get renewal info from them.
I am also not a fan of the photos in that mag - ie rider position - just not my taste.
Looking at the conformation clinic is always a challenge - this month's issue really a poser.
I put horse "B" in last place - wrong again - he "won the class". Oh well.

[Mali]

For those of you interested in The Horse, you can access their articles online and get a feel for what their publication is all about. They are much more in-depth than Equus, but there are no riding articles, no discipline bias - it's ALL healthcare and management. I think I pay $24/year (less if you renew for several years at once), but it also includes full access to the website articles, plus I get email updates continuously.

www.thehorse.com

My current subscription is good until May 2011 - if that's any indication of how much I like the mag (and that was as of Aug 2008)!

[Mali]

Perhaps I just like "outside the box" with respect to the training I learned in H/J land and that means I used to dig Performance Horseman and Dressage Today. Though I thought I smelled the slight stench of Holier Than Thou in the dressage rag.

I loved Horseman's Journal back in the Mike Plumb era and had planned to keep those bad boys around. That was the intention: they were printed on paper with three holes punched for the Bible one might build with a subscription. I haven't seen it in a long time. Has it gone to advertisers in a hand basket? If so, that's too bad. It was a great idea and initially well done.


see my previous post (#25) - no advertisements, but definately NOT worth the over-priced subscription fee! I honestly don't think I'd pay more than $12/year for the current lay-out. :mad:
Yes, it is still 3-hole punched, but not worth keeping. I still have all of the really old ones in binders, which is what makes me furious about the new issues- you can really see how crappy they've become.

[shakeytails]

Used to get Saddle & Bridle, but the irony is that when you're an AOT with a young horse in training, the luxuries get trimmed. $79 a year is too much. :no:

Ain't that the truth! I love Saddle&Bridle. Fortunately I get mine free- I have a friend that gives me his mags when he's done with them, S&B, Bluegrass Horseman, and several others. They're a couple/few weeks late, but I'm not complaining!

[TheJenners]

I renewed Equus for the health articles, but like PH go. Haven't applied to anything else. Money's tight, and frankly I lost some of the zest for a lot of the articles last year :(.

[eventersmom]

I used to get just about every horse mag out there but now I'm down to Eventing which comes with our USEA membership, Practical Horseman, and Stable Management Magazine.

I haven't seen anyone else mention Stable Management. It is a relatively new publication and the magazine itself is small but I've found the articles very informative, particularly for those of us who run our own barns. Most recently they've had great articles on coaching fees and manure management, both of which were extremely helpful. The articles seem to be written by people out in the trenches doing this stuff and the advice is mostly practical and easily implemented.

I like COTH but can't justify the expense. Luckily I have a great neighbor who shares her subscription!

[katarine]

gonna drop Equus- used to get it back in the day, stopped forever, restarted. It Sucks. The most recent thing to me was regarding trailer safety/windows/screens- it said something along the lines of 'don't adjust windows etc in a way that would allow a horse to take an inappropriate position. JEEPERS guys just say HEY- don't be a dumbass and let your horse ride with his HEAD out the window, you dweeb!.

The Horse is a better magazine for the vet-type articles, though it's a bit alarmist at times. Like, 24/7. Read with a grain of salt and a tinfoil hat on your head. In your bunker.

Get America's Horse as I'm a member. It's a nice, glossy rag, not a lot to it.

Starting Dressage Today

[HoneyB]

I just decided to let my subscription to PH lapse. While I enjoy the 2 pictorial clinics I don't feel that the majority of the mag is geared to a rider of my level. I hemmed and hawed but decided that it just wasn't worth it.

I ditched COTH years ago when my issues kept arriving (1) late, (2) ripped up, (3) often not all all.

It will be the first time in years that I receive no horse magazines. :sigh:

[yellowbritches]

I used to get Horse Illustrated when I was a kid...my room was plastered in those damn posters!). I still remember my first one- the featured breed article was TWHs and the poster was a fabulous looking black TWH! Stopped getting it ages and ages ago when I routinely got deja vu reading it.

Got Practical Horseman for years and years, but it did at some point start to feel aimed more toward (sorry) re-riders and lost a lot of the interesting training articles and rider/horse bio type things. It IS better now, though not as good as it was. I occasionally pick up a copy of it at the tack shop when there are interesting articles, though, I think you can read a lot of them on the equisearch website.

Don't get COTH. Love reading it, but we have enough trouble collecting crap we don't need around here. I'll pick up an occasional issue when I feel like it.

Never ever got Equus. ALWAYS rubbed me the wrong way, and I have heard many a rumor that a lot of the stuff that's in it is written by people who really aren't the authority on anything. I also want to bash my head into the wall at all the silly little articles written by people that go something to the tune of "I fell off of Pooky and jammed my little finger. I was too scared to ride after that, but with the help of Natural horsemanship, my horse psychic, the love and support of my grandfather, and 6 years, I am finally able to get on and take a gentle walk around the ring." Or, my other favorites "I rehabbed BooBoo after someone once flicked a whip at him. He was so frightened, it took me 10 years of X but I manged to get him to come around..." Equus is almost always nothing but BS in my book (sorry).

Don't like USEA's Eventing, either and was relieved when it went the way of the Omnibus. If it were more like the UK's Eventing (but with US riders and events), I'd be all about it. I do get UK's Eventing...:lol:

I read the Horse online.

[Trakehner]

I'm down to:

Western Horseman (useful and broad...poetry, art, and all sorts of areas covered.

Horse & Hound (expensive...but the best horse mag out there)

Trail Rider (neat places to ride and common sense stuff)

Western Mule

Mules & More

The Brayer

Draft Horse Journal

Carriage Driving

Man, I get a lot of critter mags.

I miss "Horse Digest" which had the best articles from a bunch of horse mags.

[TBMaggie]

I still get Equus, PH,COTH, and Horses In Art. I'm kind of bored with all, and don't know if I'll renew. (I also read Horse on line) I used to love COTH back in the day when they published all the suspended horses/riders...was fun, in a sick sort of way, to read about who was on the 'shame' list. Also fun to see my name/horse's name sometimes in the show results....now, only the larger shows are featured.

[Stacie]

At first I thought you meant Mags that NAG you because you USED to get them. :lol:
"Horse" magazine sent me "please renew" pleas for months and now Dressage magazine is mailing me letters every week and CALLING me to renew. Not gonna happen. At least "Horse" magazine offered to send me a hat :winkgrin:

[rideagoldenpony]

Does anyone remember the horse giveaway contests that Horse & Rider used to have? I had pictures cut out and all over my bedroom as a kid, of their giveaway horses!

I don't like H&R anymore, though. Equus and Practical Horsemen - BO-ring. Got them as a "freebie" with Equine.com ads I ran awhile back. I never read them. I've started just throwing them in the trash as soon as they arrive. I've yet to see an article that was even remotely interesting.

I do enjoy Western Horseman. They seem to have more interesting content than the others.

I also always read the Welsh Review (comes with WPCSA membership) from cover to cover, but the Welsh are my thing, so there you go.

[poltroon]

I used to get pretty much everything ... but then the articles seemed to be getting less informative every year, and even though they came, I couldn't be bothered to read them. I might resubscribe when my daughter gets old enough to be interested.

Interestingly, I love to go through my '80s Practical Horsemans and I often learn new things and get new ideas from those, things I wasn't ready for when I read them originally.

My favorite of all time remains the Build-A-Horse series. Very cute and very informative!

[TheJenners]

Hey guys...is it that the articles are less informative, or just that we have all because more informed as the years went on??? Just curious ;).

[rideagoldenpony]

Hey guys...is it that the articles are less informative, or just that we have all because more informed as the years went on??? Just curious ;).

I really think it is some of both. Of course I'm more educated now than when I was 12 (though I was a very well read 12 year old!), but to me, it seems like so many of the magazine articles are just "dumbed down", and I really don't enjoy that.

[metzengerstein]

Apparently I've made someone angry over at Source Interlink Media. When my penultimate issues of DT and PH came with the last issue warning, they said I could renew for nearly $25 and $27! :dead: (But since I was a loyal customer, could start a new subscription to the other for only $19.95. :confused:)

My list had about twenty titles on it, which is kind of embarrassing! My favorites are The Horse, old school Practical Horseman and Horse Journal but I nearly cried when I opened the mailbox to see it was now in color! :rolleyes: Dressage & CT and The Whole Horse Journal are sadly missed.

How was Horse Journal different when Michael Plumb was editor?

[poltroon]

Hey guys...is it that the articles are less informative, or just that we have all because more informed as the years went on??? Just curious ;).

I wondered that too, but I agree with Rideagoldenpony that it is both. I can still pull out those old issues and be entertained and informed. The newer articles are more fluffy, with less technical detail, and seem to be designed for a less informed audience. They may also be shorter. The old articles enthralled me when I was younger just fine.

[greysandbays]

When I last got PH and H&R, they had degenerated to "Five Easy Steps To [whatever miracle]" and dummy stuff like, "First, I'm going to tell you how to [blah, blah, blah], then I'll explain how to [yada yada yada]" instead of getting off the pot and actually TELLING us what we need to know to improve ourselves.

I can go back through my old PHs and read stuff and it's as good as it was the first time around. Their training articles got right to what you should do, how you'd know if it wasn't working, and if so, what to do instead. And the feature articles about particular star horses and their riders told the ups and downs instead of the "OMG, So and So is just sooo wonderful."

I don't care how informed anybody ever gets -- they can still read good stuff and come away appreciating skilled writing and accomplished training/riding. Maybe even more so than the still-ignorant who who don't yet know what it takes to do that sort of stuff.

[AZ Native]

I only get Dressage Today and this : http://eclectic-horseman.com/ It's great !! There are articles online too, so you can test drive first .
I dropped Equus long ago.Now and then i'll pick up a Western Horsman or PH off the rack.

[Lambie Boat]

I've been a total full-on mag hag my whole life. subscribed to Dressage&CT (the best) and then Dressage Today, Practical Horseman, Equus, Flying Changes, COTH, Horse & Hound, Stable Management, USDF Connection, Horse Source, Horse Illustrated, Perfect Horse, Progressive Farmer

as well as Lucky, Cosmo, Glamour, Elle, Vogue, Metropolitan Today, Better Home & Garden, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Utne Reader, Sunset, and Vanity Fair.

Plus New York Times, the Oregonian, and The LA Times and Variety.

now? I only get the Sunday NYT newspaper delivered, for the traditional Sunday morning experience. Everything else I see online. I don't care for the massive quality lapses. And I save quite a bit of $$$ too, even at $10 a year plus baseball cap :winkgrin:

[Simrat]

I only get Dressage Today and this : http://eclectic-horseman.com/ It's great !! There are articles online too, so you can test drive first .
I dropped Equus long ago.Now and then i'll pick up a Western Horsman or PH off the rack.
I am also down to DT and used to sub to Eclectic Horseman. One mag that I have added recently is I.M. Cowgirl. It didn't hurt that they did an article on the 50th Anniversary of the Spanish Mustang Registry in their inaugural issue. :D http://www.imcowgirl.com/ They even had a photo of me with my (then) stallion.

Over the years I have subbed to most of the magazines mentioned here. I just have so much less time for reading anymore and most of that is spent online. And I found, in the last year or two, that I would finish reading an article and have to look back to see where the content went. It was all fluff. I was flabbergasted at what was being passed off as informative writing...

I let Western Horseman go when then did their last redesign. Being more toward the English riding side, I'm not interested in reporting on the rodeo scene or ranching issues. The rest of it was good and back issues are great.

It looks to me like a lot of publications are trying to find their way in the new online age. Some just keep reworking themselves too often for my taste.

[2horseowner]

I also take the UK's Eventing mag too. Excellent mag w/ great articles. I also prefer HORSE and another UK mag. They beat any US mag hands down. I'm glad to hear that others get COTH late too. Why is it late!

[terasa]

At one time or another I got:

Equus
HorsePlay
Practical Horseman
Horse & Rider
Horse Illustrated
Canadian Horse Journal
and Western Horseman

Last year I sent in my subscriptions to PH and Equus and was so disappointed when they came. What happened to all that super informative content and the cool bios? Also extremely disappointed to find they seem to run the same or similar articles. At least I still have my stash from the 80s/90s to reread!

Horse Illustarted is too dumbed down but was one of my favorites as kid. Horse and Rider was never really my thing but seems to have also suffered the fate of PH and Equus.

Which leaves the Canadian Horse Journal. Which I pick up regularly and really enjoy. It has such a wide variety of topics - from health issues to property management to back country camping to show results.
I still get Western Horseman as well, which is funny because I dont ride Western or even pretend to live the life. But the wide variety of well written articles again appeal to me. Also some of the recipes are pretty good!

[DairyQueen2049]

Hey guys...is it that the articles are less informative, or just that we have all because more informed as the years went on??? Just curious ;).

And I think we who are readers are now kept informed on the 'net a lot of time - we already know VS is back, and Barbaro passed on and the latest on HYPP, HERDA, and which blood line passes those on.

We hear directly from Jim Wofford on COTH, :D we already know which BNT abused the horse and has been tossed from the Horse and Rider writer list. :eek:

I wonder if these horse mags know all this???

[kateh]

Currently get Practical Horseman and Horse Illustrated. Horse Illustrated is a carry-over from when I was a younger, at this point I'm just waiting for my subscription to run out. I usually look at any English articles they have (How To Jump An Outside Line) and then it goes to the recycle pile.