What do the forums mean to you?

[Moderator_3]

Have the forums played a big role in your life? The Chronicle would like to know what the forums mean to you. Have you made any special connections, created decade-long friendships or met anyone in real life?

Share below, or you can email Kimberly at kloushin@coth.com.

[JB]

I have absolutely made honest to goodness friends as a result of COTH! I’ve been here for a very long time, like 22 years or so I have met some COTHers in real life, but I’m not sure now if I actually met them here or another forum first.

It has been as good as, or sometimes even better than, a Google search for something. A ton of what I have learned, has been through reading these Health/Care and Breeding forums - learning through the experiences of others. You’d be amazed how often COTH comes up on browser searches for things.

The sheer number of members, who have been willing to share their personal and even 2nd hand experiences, have made this an amazing Hive Collective of knowledge. That’s why a lot of people tend to get ticked off when members delete things, because it takes some of that away.

I’m part of some pretty large FB groups on horse health/nutrition/training, but I’ve always stayed and cruised around here because there’s a dimension here that isn’t there.

[endlessclimb]

I came here after another forum I frequented died/died down. The previous forum touted no moderation - that was fun in a way, but some mild moderation is good to keep things from getting too out of control.

I like the level of knowledge here. I would not consider myself a knowledge-giver in most cases, but I try to be a sponge, and I have learned so much just reading through threads even if they have nothing to do with me or my horses. When I can contribute, I do.

I have met a couple people from the forum, that I respect greatly and would love to see again - though I would not describe the relationship as “friends”, but maybe my definition is different than others!

[candyappy]

I come on here primarily as a source of entertainment. Not " entertainment" in a humorous way but as a way of reading about all things horses and about any issue I might come across.

I also on occasion share on topics if It is something I have directly experienced or if I believe I can help someone by offering support or ( hopefully ) a kind word to…

I have learned a lot on here and it really has been an interesting experience to see how people who share the same passion can have such different views, experiences and ideas. I have found you just need to sort it all out and have tried a few things I learned on here.

We never know it all when we live our lives with horses and this forum is an excellent way to keep up on what is going on out there.

[Pippigirl]

There is a wealth of information posted on CoTH that has saved the day for me on numerous occasions. There are vast real life experiences that people are kind enough to share on here. It’s greatly appreciated!

[rockymouse]

I’m an avid learner, meaning that I love learning about all sorts of aspect of a subject - primarily horses. COTH really fulfills this for me, on a generally “hmm, that’s interesting” level to a more urgent “can you help solve this this problem” level.

I completely credit COTH for teaching me about ulcers. Our gelding was increasingly grumpy, didn’t want to finish his hard feed, seemed sort of depressed. I knew something was wrong, but had no idea what it could be. Reading about ulcers here was illuminating. When I queried our local country vet, he said the horse was fine and there’s no way it could be ulcers - that’s something performance horses get, not well-cared for, semi-retired old geldings. His symptoms kept bothering me, though, and again through COTH I learned about treatment possibilities. I followed up on that and within a short time, he was a dramatically improved, happier horse.

Now, note that I’m not taking COTH’s wisdom as veterinary advice, nor am I ignoring my own vet. But reading other people’s experience gave me the validation and confidence to follow my own instincts, which were correct.

This is one example. Every day I learn something here. Today I learned about a great horse rescue in California. Tomorrow it may be something about changes in the rules of Eventing or a racehorse’s training trajectory or tractors or electric cars. Even reading about people’s experiences with animal communicators or a problem with their mother in law is entertaining and often educational.

COTH is a chief form of entertainment for me daily, and I’m really grateful for it.