Life and death, foal to retiree, our bloggers this year tackled some of the most deeply touching topics with grace and feeling. Read on for our favorite blogs of 2024—and perhaps keep the tissues handy.
Can Work-Life Balance—And A Savings Account—Exist In The Horse Industry?
Dressage rider and trainer Eliza Sydnor Romm, and her collaborating illustrator Susan DiFelice, were a new addition to our blogging lineup in 2024. This piece Romm did went far beyond her blogs on dressage training: After taking a close look at her finances and lifestyle, she made the difficult decision to give up her farm in favor of becoming a freelance instructor. The situation made her wonder how her fellow horse professionals were making ends meet—as well as saving for the future. This blog, which sparked a thoughtful conversation amongst readers online, was the first of a series in which she tackled the issue, which involved writing a survey that garnered more than 1,500 responses, the results of which she presented in December at the U.S. Dressage Federation Annual Convention. Romm’s curiosity and writing skills make her an asset to the larger industry, far beyond the sport of dressage.
It’s Only Worth It If The Horses Win Too
Equestrian sports at the Paris Olympics happened under the shadow of British Olympian Charlotte Dujardin’s shocking suspension for horse abuse, with eyes everywhere looking for any other examples of ambition and medal-chasing being put in front of horse welfare.
Sara Lieser, the Chronicle’s former managing editor, was at Versailles for part of the Games and wrote this essay upon her return, questioning not the riders but the Olympic format of horse sports, and asking whether the format changes we’ve made to keep equestrian disciplines in the Olympics do, in fact, put animal welfare first.
“No inalienable right exists to compete horses at all, let alone for equestrian sport to be part of the Olympic Games. It’s a nice-to-have, not a need,” she wrote. “So if the [International Olympic Committee] asks equestrian to make changes, we need to make sure those changes benefit the horse, first and foremost. It’s a difficult needle to thread to preserve the essence of the traditional equestrian sports while meeting IOC criteria and still prioritizing horse welfare above all.”
Air Horse One: There And Back Again
Lifelong Anglophile and longtime blogger Lindsey Colburn moved to England three years ago and took her horse with her, with high hopes of enjoying all the equestrian activities such a horse-steeped country has to offer. “… Absolutely none of that happened,” she wrote.
An active duty U.S. Air Force member, Colburn’s job duties included serving as her installation’s mortuary officer and handling mortuary affairs for American service members and civilian employees and their families who died. While Colburn described it as “my singular honor” to serve each family who faced a death, she also acknowledged the devastating toll such work took on her personally.
“It’s difficult for me to pinpoint any one reason I didn’t get to accomplish what I wanted to with Sig, or even spend time with him on a regular basis,” she wrote. “I suppose it’s impossible to be excited about riding, training or competing when you’re so deep in that flight/fight/freeze response for months at a time and struggling to just survive.”
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This deeply personal blog offered insight into the life of a military service member and the limits and possibilities of what our horses can do to help us through the most challenging times in our lives.
Homegrown Horses Are Our Best Chance For Topping The Podium
The challenges of developing young horses up through the levels in the United States has been a much-discussed topic this year. In the hunter/jumper world, breeders have discussed the economic challenges of raising horses here versus in Europe, including the high price of U.S. horse shows, training and more. In this blog, Grand Prix dressage rider and trainer Lauren Sprieser took the rider’s perspective to talk about the financial risk of bringing up horses from foal to Grand Prix, but also the idea that those horses—the ones benefitting from deep, long-term relationships with their riders—are the ones most likely to succeed on the international stage and bring home medals for the United States.
“We need a paradigm shift in sport, from celebrating the top to celebrating the bottom. A groundswell of support for those in the trenches, developing the 5-and-younger horses,” she wrote. “A bright spotlight on those long slow years of installing changes and half-halts. All of the highs that make all of us who train horses—whether professionally or avocationally—feel the lows are worthwhile are the same highs and lows at Grand Prix as they are at second level. People can connect to that. People can be inspired by that.
“If we can cultivate grassroots support for U.S.-made horses—through syndication, through partnerships, through crowdfunding, through single owners, through getting people on board at whatever level they can get on board—it’ll inspire both the next round of owners who didn’t know that they could be a part of something big.”
Road To The Makeover: Surviving A Nightmare
When eventing trainer and off-track-Thoroughbred restarter Brit Vegas came on board to document her journey to the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover with her young stallion Capture The Magic, we all anticipated a series of blogs about the victories and set-backs of bringing along an athletic young horse. We did not predict that “Houdini’s” story would take a turn that would fit just as well into our “Back From The Brink” feature when he got out of his stall and caught in metal paneling, suffering lacerations to his foot so serious that his life was at risk.
Vegas’ story of rehabbing her stallion from the possibility of euthanasia, to stall rest to riding and turnout was a victory in its own right, long before they ever reached the Makeover—which they did!
Full-time high school teacher Sarah Susa usually blogs about the lesson program she runs from her Pennsylvania farm, offering helpful tips and suggestions to others teaching new riders and maintaining the precious horse who do that work.
But in this blog, Susa diverted from her regular fare to talk—on the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month—about a dear friend she lost to the disease. This touching blog about horses and the enduring power of friendship is well worth revisiting, tissues at hand.
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Exploring The ‘Why’ For Riding
“When I first meet with a potential client, I ask questions. It’s important to me that we’re like-minded in our approach to the sport. I used to start with, ‘What are your goals?’ But more recently I’ve pivoted to, ‘Why do you ride?; That’s because I’ve noticed that, as riders, we place too much importance on achieving certain competitive milestones and not enough on why (or if) those goals matter.”
Hunter/jumper trainer Paige Caide wrote this thoughtful blog on the importance of understanding one’s own definition of success. For her, as a trainer with an active sales business, its importance applies both to finding an appropriate horse for each person and helping those people and their horses succeed in their partnerships, within the boundaries of realistic expectations.
“Asking a potential customer about their ‘why’ for being involved with horses can tell me a lot about who they are, if they’re being honest,” she writes. “People are great at lying to other people, but they rarely lie to their animals. And I’m not talking about bad distances, we’ve all told that lie (sorry, horses). I’m referring to how they interact with their horses when no one is watching. Do they view their equine partner as a sentient being who has thoughts, feelings and needs that must met before their own, or is a horse just a proxy for a tennis racket? Actions always speak louder than words.”
Stop One Day Early Rather Than One Day Late
Dressage blogger Sara Bradley usually entertains with stories of her show ring adventures aboard her German Riding Pony “Dubai,” but in this blog she took a side trip to talk about Baffin, the horse who grew up with her, brought her up the ranks to the FEI levels and made her a trainer.
Deciding when to put a horse down is never easy, and the adage “better a day too soon than a day too late” is far easier to say than execute. But, as Bradley wrote, being brave enough to do it is the best final gift an owner can give.
“Since the day I got him, I hoped he could live his life and never have a bad day. I hoped he would be healthy, and discover that the world was kind and that he was cared for,” she wrote. “As I watched him in the last years of his life, I felt content that I had succeeded. He was happy and healthy, I had never put my ego or needs over his care, I had always made the choice to stop one day early rather than one day late. And as horses age, if you want them to continue living that way, you need to decide what the end game is.”
If you are a horse owner facing this stage of your horse’s life, the wisdom in her words is worth a read.
I’m Grateful To Share A Love Of Horses With My Teen
If you are a parent, watching the round-faced kid you knew for the first years of their life morph into a mini-adult with new interests, new independence and edgy comebacks you still haven’t quite grown to expect, this blog is for you.
“Unlike other aspects of my teen’s life where she’s shut me out temporarily, she still wants my horse-related thoughts and opinions,” blogger Jamie Sindell wrote. “Though I get grunts or one-word responses when I ask how school was (fine, OK, bad), when I ask about her lesson I get, ‘Oh, we practiced courses today. I’m working on keeping her balanced in the corners. Sometimes she falls in,’ and it sparks a conversation we can both enjoy.”
The bonding power of horses: Strong enough to withstand even the teen years.
