Tell Me About Your Reading Habits
I'm curious about your reading habits and how they relate to your sources of equine information.
Pre-Internet (if we can even remember such a time), if information didn't come on treeware (paper), we didn't get to read about it. But now that so many of us have access to digital software, there's not much we can't read simply by going on-line. So I'd like to know: Do you still subscribe to horse magazines, or buy them off a newsstand? If so, tell me a little about what you purchase to read, and why. What DON'T you buy to read any more, in terms of magazines? If you feel like explaining why on that point, too, please do.
Seeing as how I'm in the horse-magazine business, it's hard for me to get an unbiased fix on this from my own experience. Basketloads of freebie horse magazines pour into my house every month, and of course, I know what's going into Horse & Rider well before it even goes to press. I don't read any fewer magazines than I did pre-Internet, but I might, if keeping up with the genre weren't part of I do to stay in business.
While you're thinking about your mag-reading habits, I'd also like to know where you practice them. In the living room? In bed? In the bathroom? All the above, plus other?
posted by Juli Thorson @ 12:25 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
I still subscribe and read magazines - 5 a month to be exact. And yes, "Horse & Rider" is 1 of them that I've gotten for the longest period of time along with "Wisconsin Horsemen News". I read while watching TV (my granddaughter doesn't understand how I do it - I tell her it's an aquired skill..)and during my lunch hour at work. I also receive several e-mail newsletters and surf the web alot for specific horse info.
Diane
I get the 1/4 horse journal, Americas Horse, Western Horseman, Horse & Rider, Cowboys and Indians and belong to Clinton Anderson's new No Worries Club and I read all of his new magazine.
I also read in front of the TV. If I read books I read upstairs on the couch.
I also get a lot of information on the forums on Clinton Anderson's No Worries Club.
I'm definitely still a magazine and paper reader. I like the physicality of a magazine and the portability. I live in a VERY rural area, so am stuck with dial up internet, so my internet habits are pretty much limited to text-heavy, graphic-light endeavors like forums.
I subscribe to Horse & Rider, QH Journal, America's Horse and Equus (letting that one run out). On newstands or by trading mags with my family I get Performance Horse, Western Horseman and the Cascade Horseman.
I read in my living room after dark or during bad weather and often take a magazine with me if I know I'll be waiting somewhere like Jiffy Lube or Les Schwab.
I find the internet useful for keeping up with research, nutrition and health issues, thus my waning interest in Equus. I also found some articles in Equus redundant with topics addressed in H & R.
I subscribe to magazines for tips from trainers (Bob A's articles in H & R, the many articles in Performance Horse about training cow horses) and because I really enjoy articles about great horses, influential people and places that I may never get to visit. Ranching in Hawaii, horsemen in Argentina, pasturing the Forest Service cavvy in Montana-- all topics of really cool articles that I remember.
I truly appreciate a well edited and well rounded magazine with great photography. Searching the internet for all my equine information would be, by nature, self limiting. I love being surprised by an article in a magazine on a topic that I wouldn't have even known to research.
I've actually followed you around the magazine world ... I started subscribing to Western Horsemen when I accidently found you there after you left the prior magazing. Now I subscribe to Horse & Rider cause you are there. I read magazines much less now than a few years ago, mostly because I'm retired and can't really afford the luxury of subscriptions any more. I read in bed before going to sleep. I use the internet alot for my horse questions.
I subscribe to and read horse magazines. I subscribe to 6 and read 2 others at the library where I work. I also have an extensive print library of horse books. I find it faster to flip thru a book when I need information than to "fire up" the computer, besides I take the the information anywhere I want.
Mary
I read Horse & Rider (and have since it first came out...much to be said for us 50+ yr old riders!!) Paint Horse Journal, Equus, and Horse Illustrated...after that it is repetitious and I am tired of storing those...I keep my H & R and PHJ, everything else gets donated...
I read at shows, in the evening, enjoying my LQ and my ability to be strong and healthy enough to ride and show my horses. I save up my magazines to read just for those moments. It is a blessing...and yes I go to enough shows to get the opportunity to read them!
Hi Juli,
Internet is for research, but magazines are still... trusted friends. Just got the May H & R, like that thick binding- and will put it in the 'read in the car' pile. I know that sounds dangerous, but I usually get some diabolical fast food for lunch and read then in my car-coccoon.
Don't subscribe to as many magazines as I used to as I don't have time to read them all, mostly the fashion mags. But since we moved to the ranch and don't have Internet access there, I still read a lot and spend more time with my son.
No Internet access at home is a good thing- I don't spend two hours every night wandering around cyberspace, getting depressed over world news.
At work, I get probably two dozen horse mags, and while I try to read them all, sometimes I just have to address the towering pile, skim, and toss. But every time I really read one, I learn something, even if it's just a tiny tidbit.
Other than reading in the car, I also read in bed. There's no laptop yet that lets me do that comfortably, so the essence of paper is still what I choose first for information.
Future of magazines? Good for my generation, but will younger folks be so used to reading computeer screens that they don't know the pleasure of picking up a book? I hope not.
Suzi V
Hobby Horse
I am a 14-year-old girl, and still enjoy books and magazines. I get Horse & Rider, Equus, Dressage Today, Wisconsin Horseman's News, Practical Horseman, America's Horse, The Horse, Horse Illustrated, Horse Journal, and John Lyon's Perfect Horse. I used to get Young Rider. My favorite's are Horse & Rider and Practical Horseman. The information in these two are the most unique and interesting.
A lot of kids in my grade don't ever pick up a book, but magazines are still O.K. I also use the internet, but not as much as most people. I check equisearch.com usually 4x a week.
I usually read on my couch, in the car, and in my bedroom. There's nothing that can replace the feel of paper and it's portability.
I really enjoy all of your articles, Juli. I look forward to H & R every month.
Ellen S.
i'm new to horses. i don't subscribe to any magazines, but i've looked at several at newsstands and bought one or two. as a beginning horseperson i find that many of the articles deal with subjects that are beyond my understanding and experience at this point. mostly i like the advertisements which teach me a bit about horse culture. i browse the magazines and leave them behind at the store. i really like cowboys & indians.
and books? oh, i've been reading horse books for about a month solid now and cannot get enough of them.
I am in my late twenties and because of my job I have to change with and adapt to the current technology. I am constantly evaluating mediums for efficiency, easy of use, and accessability.
The internet is NOT just for research.
The internet keeps you up to date with what is going on in the industry, in YOUR industry. I can now travel to the AQHA World Show in Oklahoma and see outfits that I have seen up here in Washingtion. I went down there this year with square toed boots and felt more in style than I ever have going down there. THAT ladies and gentlemen is the power of the internet. Gone are the days of waiting years for trends to get up here - when they hit - they hit everywhere.
The internet puts me in touch with people that I would've normally never come in contact with in that way before. I spent 2 hours this winter, on a well-known forum, debating Performance Halter Classes in the AQHA ring with someone (whom I was getting rather fustrated with) before I realized he was a rather well known AQHA Judge (the king of western pleasure himself). I hope he never figures out who I was.
Instead of being one isolated exhibitor in a small town in NE Washington, I am part of a world wide community. I don't have to wait for my horse friends to call to chat and share, I can do it anytime I want with people from around the world if I want.
From 5 subscriptions I used to actively pay for - I now have 2. The Qhorse Journal and H&R. I only keep publications that I actually get useful information out of that I can actually use in my chosen horse activites. I came back to H&R because Juli came back. She knows what she is talking about and I can always count on being able to use the information she offers - because of section of the horse industry she is involved in. If she (or H&R) were a little on the heavy side with Arabs or some other breed, well then, I would mostly not be subscribing to Horse and Rider. I show Quarter Horses and I need my money to go publications that will help me in that area.
I recieve America's horse and Way to Go and Cascade Horsemen as a result club memberships that I have.
That's about it - I don't buy horse books for information or training advice much anymore because it seems they are so quickly outdated and cost too much. Besides I can almost always find it on the internet or watch it on RFD TV. And if all else fails I can go to the source and pay for the real thing.
I read long after dark when everything is taken care of. Sometimes I read at night at horse shows while laying in my trailer trying to find sleep, but am too excited to close my eyes. I always something to read with me - I never now if I am going to be caught in traffic, at the tire shop, at the doctors office or where ever. Sometimes I'll drive down to my trainer's barn for day-long lessons in the summer time and in the middle of the day after lunch we'll just sit and read through magazines or catalogs while the horses take a breather.
My trainer, surprisingly, reads alot. They are so busy I don't know how any horse trainer finds time to read. But more than once he's scared the you-know-what out of me, while trying to read the Journal while driving (not with horses I might add).
There should be a balance between paper and internet, there are just somethings you still can't get - for whatever reason - from the internet. Same can be said in reverse. So its good not to be closed minded. I would encourage everyone to try both out again or for the first time, you may be surprised.
Being not-so-young (pushing 40) I grew up in an era where there was no internet. I learned from a very young age that books can be treasured friends.
The internet is simply no substitute for an honest to goodness, "real" paper in your hands.
I read almost anywhere, and will read just about anything~ right now to the labeling on the cereal boxes. Horse magazines litter all rooms in my house, as well as my truck and trailer. A few can even be found in the barn, and in my locker at work as well.
And what is there about a HORSE magazine that prevents a person from tossing it, anyhow? I have no qualms about tossing any other magazine or newspaper, but horse magazines ... nope, just can't bear to do it.
I DO weed through them on occasion, sort them out by breed articles and list them to ebay. As in "Morgan horse lot of mags".... I can part with them if I know they're going to another horse lover, but the trash? Never!
Charla
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