Unlimited access >

Worthwhile print equestrian magazine subscriptions?

Remember when we all nearly went blind reading the COTH show results?

3 Likes

So I don’t even know when I last had to renew my subscription but I got some kind of good deal at LRK3DE almost a decade ago and my mom just took it and paid for it to shut the sales guy up (not something we usually do but dude would NOT shut up and I already read it anyway)

I actually think the print edition has gotten better since it went to quarterly and merged with Dressage Today but I don’t really read it online so can’t compare and frankly if Jimmy Wofford’s column (which I think is online but not the most recent one compared to what’s in print) ever goes away I’ll probably quit subscribing.

But like, if I didn’t already have the subscription I probably wouldn’t bother.

This is reminding me I think I got the latest one the other day and IDK where it went.

COTH was worth it when I had it but not at the price they charged at the time, IIRC and I think even when they changed to a less frequent printing (twice monthly? monthly?) it was still too frequent. I started off subscribing digitally but switched to print before just dropping it completely b/c digital was kind of a hassle to read, either you had that wonky pdf thing on a laptop or I could get it on my Kindle but again, just not easy to get at digitally.

I haven’t seen Equus in years.

COTH is like sitting with a good friend and hearing their stories, with the added pleasure of all those gorgeous pictures.

After 50 years, it has never lost it’s appeal, no matter the changes. :sunglasses:

4 Likes

If I’m “waiting and hunched staring at my phone,” I might be aimlessly scrolling social media or I might be getting in some Spanish practice through Duolingo.

I LOVE reading print but for news/magazines it just doesn’t make sense anymore. Books - absolutely, I own a Kindle and I own print books. The two aren’t mutually exclusive I use the Kindle for stuff I know will consume a lot of shelf space because, as I don’t have my own place at this time, shelf space is at a premium. Also use the Kindle for Manga (graphic novels) because some of those series can get long (20+ volumes and sure you can get some where there might be 3 volumes in one fat book but it doesn’t seem like a good use of shelf space to me).

I love reading but there are some things that work better learned via a video. I do yoga via youtube video (don’t have time for a scheduled yoga class and picked it up as a form of exercise wanting to get more flexible for taekwondo) because it works better for me that way. I used to have a yoga for equestrians book and tried like, maybe one pose, and never really could pick it up because it’s not something that works well in book format.

Aren’t at least several of these magazines owned by the same publishing company?

Seem to recall the family that published Horse and Rider (Western and very good) selling and it ended up with the same management and format as Practical Horseman.

I devoured it as a tween and teen with few resources and no hope at the time of participating in the competition levels it was covering. But it was soothing just to read the tattered secondhand copies I came across. I felt as though I were a part of the fabric even if by the thinnest thread. The ads, the classifieds, the show reports — it was all thrilling.

3 Likes

I subscribe to one horse magazine, Eclectic Horseman. It is focused on training in the styles do Ray Hunt/ Buck Brannaman, Martin Black, etc. however with few exceptions their articles are useful for almost any horse activity (haven’t seen anything on carriage driving). Dr. Deb Bennett frequently writes for them on anatomy and riding. There are very few advertisements and those are specialized towards their training style. I find the articles to be interesting and intense and I definitely hang on to every copy.
Eclectic Horseman has also come out with a DVD magazine called The Gazette. Again, each month there are training articles, conformation, tack, etc. I can’t afford it but it looks enticing.

I’m resurrecting this thread because a trio of COTHs from the 1990s, that I bought off ebay on a sentimental whim, arrived today.

I subscribed intermittently back in the day or would read them, like ZuzusPetals, secondhand. I still remember that little thrill I used to get at the site of the old buff cover or how the arrival of the horse show issue felt like early spring. And, for some reason, the black and white photos and super small results felt so much more like a “real” or “professional” horse world publication.

So these issues from spring of 1990 arrived and at first I thought it was sentimental wishful thinking that the cover art seemed familiar. But I do indeed remember reading these issues in study hall way back when. The two-column in memoriam ad for someone’s beloved little dog Leaky (May 4, 1990)? “She had no paper hearts to give and so she gave her own” has popped into my head at odd times for years.

And oh, the classified ads! Speaking of things killed by the internet. My old mare came by way of COTH classified.

That same issue has a letter from Anne Raskey, “Costs Too High For ‘Little People.’” She writes “I am one of those 600-plus photos in the Horse Show Issue…”

The more things change, right?

2 Likes

I subscribe to Horse & Hound from the UK. It’s weekly, which sometimes is too much but I try to read that instead of phone scrolling. And they are excellent to pass on. I got a 50% off deal at Black Friday.

I also get Practical Horseman. For the price, there are always some good exercises to try that are cheaper than paying for one lesson, and I keep them to use, then pass them on.

I have subscribed to COTH on and off, to support them as I like the forums. But their content is too US-based for me.

I used to subscribe to Horse Sport (Canadian) but they stopped publishing.

Flying Changes is no more. I still have copies from when it was named InStride.

Ah yes, I remember the teeny tiny print of the horse show results. I was euphoric when I saw my name in The Chronicle!

4 Likes

Me too! Me too! Once in a great while, for a C show or some such.

I get, I totally get what a production nightmare it must’ve been in its true weekly heyday but it was such a cool feeling (even if you knew there were only two other people in your class or division :grimacing: :sweat_smile:)

4 Likes

COTH here, though I may drop it.

Also The Morgan Horse magazine. It’s very show-focused, but has good articles about Morgan history, “round table” training discussions, etc.

Ooh, I nearly forgot. I also get the East Coast Equestrian newspaper. It’s a $20 lifetime subscription my friends. I love it. LOVE it.