Disappointing but the magazine really hasn’t been very useful for quite a while
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Like since D&CT was bought from Ivan Bezugloff
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Oh, in the early days, it was still OK - not D &CT good, but worth the $15/year for the occasional useful article. It was when they got bought out by a larger company that it went way downhill. That same company owns PH and Equus, and several other magazines. The magazines all became formula style - sometimes they’d even recycle the same article amongst the magazines. It has steadily gone downhill since then, with minimal training information and maximum fluff articles.
Is dressage so out of favor? Are equestrian sports so out of favor?
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I too am a long time subscriber, started with D&CT…
I don’t know that equestrian sports are so “out of favor” vs. the people with the deep pockets aren’t getting as much return as they think they ought to be…
Either way, a larger, quarterly magazine holds ZERO appeal to me. I LOVE to read. I never have enough reading material even when I don’t have time to get to it all! And online “reading”? That’s not reading.
I am really disappointed in this.
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Yes, you are probably right - it isn’t just magazines, it is print media. My local newspaper has gotten smaller and smaller too. I love reading - I love books, magazines, papers, but - I won’t waste my limited free time reading trivial trash, which is what DT has turned into. I guess it is a vicious cycle - those of us who do still read stop our subscriptions because the publication goes downhill. The publication goes downhill because of falling readership (and advertising), so more of us drop our subscriptions, and so on…
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I still love printed media, can’t stand digital media for the most part. I still want a magazine in my hands. Unfortunately DT and PH have both declined over the past few years, neither had much content that was worth reading. I don’t think combining them will help, I suspect the magazine will stop the printed version soon enough.
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Maybe this is an opportunity for COTH to have a section on “dressage/riding/jumping theory”…theory of training the horse is what the old D&CT used to focus on.
I guess I’m the only one who sees this as a positive change. I used to subscribe to both, downsized to just PH, but lately I’ve been taking more dressage lessons, so I remain interested in both disciplines.
These magazines exist for hobby riders like me. I don’t know of any pros who read them. I appreciate many of the how-to articles. I slavishly read the George Morris critiques, as I used to the equivalent column in DT. I’m pretty much their demographic as someone who rides on her own a lot.
But I suffer from print burn out. I read a ton, but periodicals seem to pile up. I would actually be more inclined to keep my subscription if it were quarterly, but had richer content. No one needs the “Olympic Special Edition!” two months later anymore. They have to change or die, and if they change into something with deeper (actual) journalism, I’m on board.
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It is sad news, but I haven’t been impressed in DT magazines for awhile now. The issues have gotten thinner and thinner. There are more and more ads and less and less articles with actual good information. I won’t be renewing.
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I wish they would do a re print of the whole D &CT mags. I loved them, but I know I didn’t get all of them, but the content was really really good. I would buy them again. But once my sub on DT is done, I’m out. It was total crap really.
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Hmm…Interesting thought…I would also consider buying it if a compilation was reprinted.
Since COTH knows all…anyone know who owns the copyright to the old D&CT mags?
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I don’t mind digital, but I used to be Practical Horseman subscriber. I cancelled it due to the content, or lack of. Dressage Today as is has been lacking these days. Now it has become the (digital) version of the magazine I cancelled? Oh well.
I’ve only been reading DT via recycled copies from people who had subscriptions. Would never PAY for that. Usually used to flip through, nice pics, recycle. Even some of the training articles - if I have a horse that is at the level of doing canter zig-zags, I don’t need a magazine article to figure out how to train it. Sigh. You know what is still going strong? Western Horseman. Someone needs to figure why THAT is still doing okay. Probably because of the way AQHA, et al. supports and rewards all levels of competition and the growing popularity of working equitation (there was an article in a recent issue of WH, including pictures of people in dressage saddles), and western dressage. Hello, PTB? Not paying attention, are you?
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I don’t know how many months I have left, and I can’t find the login button on the dressage today page to check. Anyone know where it is?
Yet it’s the printed version that many people prefer. As for DT, on two separate occasions I emailed them asking for advertising info. I didn’t get a reply either time, so I went with magazines that responded. All of those publications are still being published. One of them, Warmbloods Today, seems to get thicker with each issue.
It should be on the mailing label, somewhere a line or two above your name. (On my DTs, it is two lines up, but on the merged PH, it is the line above my name.) it should give a 3-letter abbreviation of the month, then the last two digits of the year.
Just a high-altitude comment here: the digital age has for sure taken a serious toll on magazines, and horse publications have seen their share of downsizing and disappearances.
But I believe there’s an important parallel to be found in the loss of quirky local tack shops and riding stables in the suburbs, too.
We can buy tack online, or at shows… but where do the beginners/newcomers go to learn what good leather feels like, and to be shown the difference between a day sheet and a rain sheet?
And where do those same beginners/newcomers, even re-riders go to get their hands on a horse when they don’t live in the country and urban training stables expect too much- too much time, too much money, too much commitment- from them to find out if horses are their thing?
Magazines, to me, offer a gentle introduction and affordable education in our world of horses, just as local tack shops with knowledgeable sales people, and local riding stables with dedicated teachers, allow people of ordinary means to experience horses.
The brittle reality that all three of these portals to riding are downsizing or dying is not something to ignore.
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Raise the price, surely there would be people willing to pay more if they were to get a quality magazine. I get a couple of magazines from England, costs are high but not outrageous. Their magazines are still plump with good articles, lots of reading and eye candy. Their horse magazines give away monthly prizes that are really, really nice! Maybe DT and PH should have looked at them for some clues as how to survive.
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Thanks!!
Just got the “new” PH - and it’s the last George Morris… Now that pisses me off. In flipping thru the mag, I will not be renewing. I do not like the thicker slick shiny pages, it’s more like something you’d put on your coffee table than actually read. I don’t like the format. At all.
Horse & Rider (a western mag) combined with Trail Rider mag awhile back, it’s the same format except still coming monthly. I don’t like the way that one has gone either.
:no::no::no::no::no:
