As Chronicle staffers covering competitions around the world, we take thousands of photos each year. Some of our favorite pictures are ones you might expect—riders winning major championships or smiling on a podium—but others make the list because they demonstrate a particularly strong bond between horse and rider.

As 2016 looms on the horizon, we took a look back at the most popular stories on www.coth.com in 2015. From funny looks at our quirks as horsepeople to unusual equipment choices and equipment malfunctions to breaking news, we published it all and thousands of you read and shared the stories...

There’s a saying in the newspaper business that “if it bleeds, it leads,” meaning that if a story has a gruesome or violent subject, it will attract readers. It’s a sad reality of life that the adage rings true. 

It's that time of year, when pets of all shapes and sizes get adorned with all kinds of holiday gear! Publishing a Holiday Pet Gallery is an annual tradition in The Chronicle of the Horse, and we have some dogs and horses who appear year after year. Odamae, who appears midway down this page, has had her photo in the Holiday Pet Gallery for years! We decided to share the gallery, which appears in the Dec. 22 Holiday Issue print edition of the Chronicle, with you online this year as well.  

After a two-year hiatus from showing, I finally pulled out my hunt coat, shined up the tall boots and headed to Lake St. Louis to show in the adult amateurs. I hadn’t shown since I was a junior, and my horse Happy Go Lucky (Lucky for short) was coming off of a seven-month vacation while I was gallivanting around interning for Phelps Media Group, working for James Parker and The Book LLC, and interning at the Chronicle.

Needless to say, I was a little nervous for our return to the show ring.