Errata! mea culpa… But this is meant to be fun.

My last post, Results of the 2022 Tevis Cup, had several errors. People pointed them out, and I fixed them to the best of my ability.** It probably still has more than one! Hopefully readers will continue to let me know if they notice an error. I’ve never published anything without an error, even scientific papers that have been proofed multiple times by me (and other authors), reviewed by other scientists whose reviews were under the supervision of an editor, and finally copy-edited. Pretty sure even my book, Cowboy Dressage: Riding, Training, and Competing with Kindness as the Goal and Guiding Principle, has errors somewhere. This blog undergoes much less quality control, so it’s bound to have more errors. It’s not meant to be perfect–it’s meant to be fun!

**to the best of my ability, given time constraints and the purpose of this blog. More on that later.

I get lots of feedback, of all types

I’ve had corrections and comments on many of my blog posts. The Tevis results blog post from last year also received a lot of corrections (thanks everyone). Most of the time I ask outright for feedback, especially when the topic is something new to me. I still consider myself a novice at endurance, so I always welcome feedback. Mostly, people are very positive. Even those who correct me tend to offer praise alongside constructive criticism. Most people are appreciative, especially of the endurance posts.

Some posts get almost exclusively positive feedback. For example, my post on Arena Etiquette gets steady traffic and earns me frequent appreciative comments.

Other posts get mixed feedback. Sometimes it comes with enthusiasm from both sides. (E.g., my posts on Equine Bone Maturity and Iron Overload in Horses have earned me both heartfelt appreciation and harsh criticism.)

The post that has earned me the most vitriolic responses is “Using a whip is not horse abuse, it’s communication.” I have been called every name in the book for that one, and told I was going to go straight to hell.

I actually find those responses entertaining. My settings make it necessary for me to approve all comments, so I keep those ones private. Frankly, I expected the whip post to be controversial. I’ve actually got pretty thick skin for things like that.

I also get lots of help…

Frequently, I ask for opinions on topics before posting. I also ask for pictures. One of my more popular posts is from 2016: Bits, bosals, hackamores, and sidepulls. Many people from the endurance community shared pictures for me to include in that post.

I welcome feedback of most types

Anyone who publishes in academia has got to have thick skin. Any publication will have been editted many times. Frequently the authors’ favorite sentences are lost in the process; sometimes the authors’ favorite theories are lost. Irritating, but part of the game. I am an academic, and although no one pays me to write up or publish research, it’s simply part of being a professional.

However, I am not a professional journalist. I am not even a professional horseperson. (I’ve maintained my amateur status my entire life.) This horse blog is just something I do in my free time. It’s meant to be fun, not work. I avoid topics I know nothing about (or I qualify my posts with some sort of caveat emptor.) When I want to address a topic I am not qualified to speak alone about, I ask the pros (as in my Iron Overload post mentioned above).

The purpose of my Road to Tevis posts is to document the journey of an endurance novice (me) from nearly zero (50 endurance miles) to Tevis. I have never claimed to be an expert. In fact, many of my posts express my struggles to gain the necessary experience, and all my mistakes.

The only reason I published my first post about the results of Tevis last year was that I couldn’t find anything on the web that put together the information in one place. I did the same thing this year, only after verifying that, once again, no one else had taken the time to compile the information.

I really hope people will let me know when I make mistakes. Unfortunately, a few people (ok maybe several;-) have taken it upon themselves to tell me I should be more professional. Spend more time doing research. Get to know the Tevis website better. Speak to more knowledgeable, experienced people. Well, in another life I might have time to do that. In this one, I do not.

I am not paid to do this

My only blogpost that brings in money steadily (if in small amounts) is Let’s talk underwear! Bunching, blisters, comfort, and incontinence. Readers click on links in it, and some are affiliates–this means I make a small percentage if someone buys a product after clicking on a link on my website. Best bras for riding horses: What to look for and where to find them also brings in a bit of money. All together, this blog earns me about $20/month. This is not enough to cover expenses (security, domain, etc.). I lose about $50/year with this blog. Besides Wild Horses, I maintain Wild World of Research and Wild Woman’s World. None of them make money directly.

Because I do freelance consulting and advertise for it on my research blog, I can write off blog maintenance expenses. That’s the main reason I keep the few consulting clients I have left. I am also a professor. Next month I will be starting a new tenure-track job. I will have even less time for blogging than I have had these past few years.

But maybe you can be!

So if you read my blog posts and are not satisfied with my possibly less-than-humble response to constant criticism, try it yourself! Maybe you have enough time to turn a blog into a paying gig. I’d love to be able to click on a link and access the information I put together on Tevis. In fact, if you, whoever you may be, want to share the work, shoot me a message. Maybe you can compile the data and I’ll do the statistical analyses. (I am a statistician.) Or you can do that and I will write it up and publish it. (Just in case you do not pay to have a fancy blog or do not know about SEO.)

I’m open to collaboration and suggestions and all constructive criticism. Just remember, I have a life outside this. I wish I did not. It’d be great to win the lottery so I could dedicate my time to horses and writing about horses. Until then, enjoy my posts and if you don’t, no worries. You can stop reading at any time 😉

And please do tell me what I need to correct…

But!

Just remember I do not work for you, I am not your student, and I don’t want a long lecture about all the ways I could be doing it better.

And hey, if you really do want to insist on lecturing, do it publicly, where everyone else can see. If what you are saying is too delicate for public consumption, I’m too delicate to hear it.

Remember, this is meant to be FUN.

And let’s finish with a picture Allan Horn shared with me, below. It features Allan finishing Tevis with his homebred horse Royale Prize, first heavyweight and 15th overall in Tevis 2017. Allan finished Tevis with Royale Prize’s dam, Royal Sassha HP, in 2009. Now that’s success!