Long before we began to formulate how to best focus the Horse Sense and Cents™ blog, we set out to find what others were doing. While, admittedly, tech savvy isn’t our strongpoint, it was incredibly challenging finding blogs that provided useful, consistent, interesting and relevant equine material. We signed up for all kinds of Google alerts, asked groups and listserves about their favorites, talked to professionals, researched the blog database sites and got creative in trying to root out the gems in the rough – or at least find someone who had something useful and thought-provoking to present without a deleterious agenda. We didn’t turn up much initially, but are beginning to discover there are tons of virtually hidden equine blogs out there worth checking out. We’ll continue to feature summaries and pointers on Thursdays in the coming months for as long as we get pointers to those worth highlighting. Have a favorite horse blog? Send us an e-mail or comment on this blog and we’ll consider spotlighting it in a future. Our ultimate aim is to create a network and resource for those seeking useful equine blog material feeds.
Auction reports
Susan McCarron summarizes the results of horse sales (primarily in the Midwest and focusing largely on Quarter Horses) with comment on trends, pricing and pedigree. This is a fun site to look at and a great example of how to use a blog as a tool to compliment your business (she owns McCarron Equine Appraisals). She’s smart in not trying to sell on the blog as she doesn’t need to – she’s found a perfect niche focus area to drive customers to her. Even if you are not interested in horse sales, this blog is worth taking a look at as it serves as a savvy illustration on how to effectively market equine-related services.
Check it out at: http://mccarronequine.wordpress.com/.
Personal Approach
Erica K. Frei has created a blog that is updated regularly with largely stream-of-consciousness writing on various horse training activities and opinions. There are some good articles and great pictures included in her blog posts. This is presented more as a personal blog, although she does run an equine-related program (Awareness In Riding; More Than A Method: A Lifestyle!). This is a decent blog to follow if you are looking for random ideas and illustrations of training techniques she uses on her horses (with commentary on the day’s riding session), opinions on equine industry issues and pointers to contests, events and happenings in her area (presumably Wisconsin, USA). She does include a searchable archive, so if you’re looking for information on a particular topic, it’s easier to use this feature rather than try to find it in her home page post summaries. Also included in this blog is a good deal of useful video to illustrate topics presented.
Take a look at the fun she is having with this at http://www.writingofriding.com.
Do you write an equine blog? You are welcome to share this information, but please provide appropriate attribution by citing the source with a pointer to www.HorseSenseAndCents.com/blog. Thanks.
