Horse Magazines

I don't own a horse and probably never will. I've been on trail rides, but have never taken riding lessons. So why do I have subscriptions to five horse magazines? For the record, the subscriptions I currently have are: Western Horseman, Cowboys and Indians, Horse & Rider, Equus and Horse Illustrated. I also had a subscription to American Cowboy, but I've had to let that one lapse.

There are several reasons those subscriptions are a good idea.

One is all the photos of horses. They're not just fun to look at, but they also make good reference photos for my future horse artist goal.

Second, the articles are good reference material for my writing. If a horse owner (yes, there are children who  own horses) or a member of a horse-owning family would read one of my children's novels, I wouldn't want her or him (girls would be more likely to read the novels I'll be writing) to throw the book across the room and shout "She doesn't know anything about horses!" While I want my research to be invisible to my readers, I still need to have my facts straight. What better source of knowledge than magazines written by horse owners for horse owners?

Third, no knowledge is ever wasted. I belong to a number of horse groups on LinkedIn. The information I learn from my horse magazines will allow me to comment intelligently on discussions posted in those groups. I want to be able to contribute to the groups where I'm a member.

Fourth, just because I believe I probably never will own a horse, God could have other things in mind for me. These magazines are useful for future reference to prepare me for the day when God might decide that horse ownership is in His plan for me.

Fifth, some of the articles are useful for riders who aren't horse owners. Even if I don't own a horse, I do want to take riding lessons. The articles can help explain why my lesson horse acts the way he does and what I can do to correct it.

A personal reason for subscribing to Western Horseman is that my Dad had copies of that magazine, even though we didn't own horses. I'm just following in his footsteps!

Yes, horse magazines are useful for a non-horse owner. I may not be able to renew them when the subscriptions end, but I'll still have plenty of back issues that I can read over and over again.