Submissions are closed for Challenge Two. Check back soon to read interviews from HorseFeathers, catscowgirl and Martha Lee Halstead. Congratulations on stepping up to take on the challenge!

Hello again everyone! Can I get a drum roll before introducing your next challenge?

For this challenge, you’ll need to be curious, be smart, be creative and be you! We’re asking you to interview someone related to the horse world and write up an interview. It actually isn’t as easy as it sounds, because this time we’re challenging you to take a journalistic approach — focusing on fact rather than opinion. Here are some guidelines:

1. Only one interview per person. The interview should be no more than 5 questions. As always, focus on quality over quantity.
2. These questions should not be yes or no questions. Make them thought provoking, insightful and different. Think of something that will interest you and your readers.
3. Questions can be about anything horse related – riding, horse slaughter, tack, training techniques, rescue organizations, and horses in general. Again, be creative! The world of horses is HUGE.
4. Your interviewee should NOT be someone who has ever been interviewed at Girls Horse Club. (Yes, Terri Farley fans, that means you must leave our favorite mustang advocate/author alone this time. ;))
5. Interview anyone else, but they must be related to the horse world. This can include a riding instructor, a veterinarian, a farrier, a politician, a trainer, etc.
6. A journalistic approach means you have to leave out your own opinion. Make the focus your interviewee and what they have to say. It’s all about the facts.
7. When submitting your interview, you have one of two formatting options:

a. Simple question and answer format. Example:

Q: How did you get started in the equestrian business?
A: It began when I was only four years old…

b. Or, if you’d prefer to challenge yourself further, attempt writing an article. It’s actually quite difficult turning your facts into an entertaining piece of writing. You may only use facts (no opinions of your own) and quotations. You may paraphrase, but are not allowed to change the words of exact quotes, only remove words. See the links below for some help with that.

It’s a good idea to read interviews and articles in magazines or newspapers to get the hang of everything (you might even learn something new on the way). You can interview your chosen person through email, over the phone, or — better yet — in person. Take this opportunity to learn and feed your curiosity. Don’t be afraid to go out there and talk :)

To complete this challenge, submit your interview to Girls Horse Club no later than SATURDAY AUGUST 7th. So put on those journalist helmets and have fun! ;)

Questions and feedback, as always, are welcome in the comments.

Cheers!

Submissions are closed for Challenge Two. Check back soon to read interviews from HorseFeathers, catscowgirl and Martha Lee Halstead. Congratulations on stepping up to take on the challenge!

More to read...

• Are You Up for a Challenge?
• Challenge One: Vision Board

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED for Challenge One. Click here to see the vision boards »

For your first Summer of Horse Dreams challenge, you will be designing a poster/vision board that features the following:

1. A horse. Looking through local newspaper ads or online resources, find a horse that is currently for sale or up for adoption. Print out/scan/draw that horse and place it on the center of your board along with the price (and any other captions you want).
2. Everything you need for your horse. Again, by either searching magazines and newspapers or browsing online, locate a local boarding stable, tack, equipment, etc. Cut out or draw on these items with their prices as well and place them on your board however you like.

The idea is to make this as realistic as possible. The horse and its necessities are all real. Technically, if you had the ability and the money to afford them, you would be able to go purchase them tomorrow. By giving your dream of horse ownership a certain degree of tangibility, hopefully you will be motivated to set small goals towards one day achieving it.

However, we also want you to be as creative as you can! Using your artistic skills (or a computer if you’re like me and can’t draw to save your life), try to give your board an aesthetic quality. It can be as plain or as intricate as you’d like, but I challenge you to think outside the box!

Once you’ve finished your poster board, take a picture or scan it in where they will be featured in the gallery for everyone to see your dream horse that isn’t so far from reach after all!

There you have it! Will you opt for a fancy show horse or a green broke pony? Will your horse sport a neon green barrel saddle or a classic dressage saddle? How much does it all cost and how close are you to someday making your vision a reality?

We will find out soon. You have a week from today! Good luck!

Cheers!

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED for Challenge One. Click here to see the vision boards »

More to read...

• Are You Up for a Challenge?

Hey Girls Horse Club! How’s your Summer of Horse Dreams been so far?

Mine has had its ups and downs — but most of all it is filled with a lot of horses. I wish I could give some of my incredibly good fortune to all of you so everyone could ride and work with the animals we all love so much, but unfortunately I can’t do that. I would love for each and every one of you, especially those of you who rarely have horses in their lives, to delve a little deeper into the equestrienne world in an effort to realize your dreams.

In order to help with this, Madelaina and I (with assistance from the lovely LeadMare) will be hosting the first ever Girls Horse Club Weekly Challenges.

Beginning shortly, we will be posting blogs detailing a challenge for the week. We believe these challenges are easily attainable (with creativity and work on your part!), but also give a realistic view of the horse world. They will encourage you to become more knowledgeable, give you a little insight into horse ownership and riding, and will hopefully encourage you to set goals and strive towards your dreams in the long run. For those of you who have the privilege of horses in your life, these challenges should still be, well, a bit challenging and will hopefully inspire you to reach higher and learn more.

Submissions will remain closed aside from the challenges and an occasional blog from Madelaina, LeadMare, or myself — so if you’re inspired this summer, write your heart out in a journal and save it for when/if submissions do open!

I can’t say too much more without giving away the first challenge, but here’s a hint: If you enjoy scrapbooking, you will probably enjoy this one.

Feel free to ask any questions in comments as well as suggest your own challenge ideas! Feedback is always welcome.

Cheers!

Your humble editor,

Julia

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• Dream!
• Think Your Work is Bad? NO WAY!

by Julia, age 14

Thirty-three thousand roam the lands of the west.

They gallop and frolic with their own lands to roam.

Yet there are people who want to take them from their home;

Rounding them up and selling the best,

But the ones still too wild are put to their death.

“There are too many!” The officials will say.

“You’re killing them off!” The protesters will cry,

“Let the beautiful creatures have room to fly!”

The officials just argue, “That isn’t the way.”

The protesters nor the officials opinions will sway.

Nature is fighting against the harsh hands of man.

Where there were once large herds of horses,

Many new buildings now stand.

Commercial cattle now graze,

Where the mustangs once ran.

The wild horse population is shrinking each year,

The people who care must spread more awareness.

But sadly the herds are seeing their greatest fear,

Many sent to slaughter, others to new careers,

But either way truly wild herds now behold a true rareness.

So let’s save the horses that roam the Great Plains!

We need more petitions with more people to sign,

And hopefully out west where the wild horse reigns,

Not another great creature will be forced to be tamed,

And the stars above the home of the wild horses will shine.

Beginning March 1st 2010, Girls Horse Club will host March for Wild Horses here at our virtual barn. The intent is to use our collective, creative voice to speak out for the rights of wild and feral horses on public lands, and show our support for the individuals and organizations who are their loving protectors. Throughout the month we’ll publish stories, essays, poems, and artwork created by horse girls, inspired by wild horses. Please check the event calendar to the right for key dates, beginning with open submissions on February 19th.

Save the Wild Ones by Julia was first published at GHC in the former Loft Book Club, and was a finalist in our monthly Judge for Yourself competition in September 2008.

The last time I sat down with the sole intention of writing to my favorite horse girls was all the way back in May! That’s five months, right? Math isn’t my strong suit…

Anyway, I decided to write this when I was looking back through older blogs and fiction that I had written back in 2007. I came across the newsletters on Maggie, the HopeFoal that I was so inspired by when I had heard her story here at GHC. Determined to bring attention to that foal’s brave struggle, I wrote the poems HopeFoal and HopeFoal: A Prayer Answered, and had even written part of a seventh grade school project on her. That got me thinking, and I realized I haven’t been truly inspired to write with a purpose in a very long time.

Next month is National Novel Writing Month, and I want to participate. How, though, can I truly write something so large and detailed when nothing is inspiring me to do so? Horses are obviously inspiring; I mean c’mon, have you not read the work on this site? What I need is to find something specific that I’m passionate about and just channel all my passion into writing a novel worthy of being dedicated to whatever it is that inspires me.

The bottom line is I need to be inspired. I feel like I’ve used that word too many times in this blog, but what other word is there? Right now, I am asking you, who I love for reading what I have to say, to please help me find that inspiration. It might be in the form of a horse like Maggie, a horse with a story that simply touches my heart. Maybe it’s in the form of a poem you write that just sends chills down my spine because the words talk to me in a way that just click and turn on the little light bulb above my head. The bulb needs to be replaced as soon as possible, because the darkness is causing writer’s block at its worst!

For anyone that is having the same problem that I am, I sympathize with you. Really, I do. I’m sure you will be more than willing to share your inspirations with me in the comments, and I thank you in advance for helping me and anyone else who is banging their head against the wall in frustration because their light bulb burnt out.

For now, know that I’ll be reading every word you write in the hopes of turnin’ on the light bulb and spending as much time as I can with what I love to write about the most – the horses in my life.

Happy horsing, GHC!
Cheers!

More to read...

• Learning From Different Places

Diversity is a beautiful thing.

I don’t know about you, but personally I love surrounding myself with all different kinds of…well, everything! On my bookshelves you could find fantasy, historical fiction, biographies, mysteries, and even some children’s picture books. In my closet I have a shirt of just about every color and style. I live in America, a country filled with diversity and I love it.

In my opinion, life would be pretty darn boring if everything or everyone was the same. If every horse was the same, there would be no point to riding. You could learn the aids and commands and positions and that would be it. No matter what horse you ride, you would ride them the same way. As some of you may know, you never ride two horses exactly alike. Some horses need a lot of force to earn their respect…while others need nothing from their rider but the gentlest cue to send them off. Where is the fun in that?

I’ve taken you through my room, but let’s use an example we all can relate to very well. Girls Horse Club. Without diversity, this place would be nothing. We only have two things in common: 1) We love horses, and 2) we love to read and/or write.

That’s it. Each JB has a story to tell, fictional or reality. I am not the same as HorseFeathers, mustangmane isn’t the same as Madelaina, Peanut isn’t the same as Rachel Danielle. Sure, we have some attributes that are similar. But we’re all different. When we take everything that makes us unique, makes us diverse, and sit it on the foundation that is our love of literature and horses, you have just built a barn. A barn that houses girls of many ages from many parts of the world with a voice to be heard.

Therein, you’ve built Girls Horse Club.

Don’t try to fit in, because I’m sure not the only one out there that appreciates the diversity of the world. Be yourself, because that’s what got you noticed in the first place as a Junior Blogger, or a friend, or an author, or a person. A 100% completely amazing individual – that’s what you are. The next time you read a blog, ride a horse, read a book, or meet a new person, take a minute to admire its uniqueness. Because diversity is what makes this planet (and on a smaller scale GHC) a truly special place to live.

Diversity. It’s a beautiful thing.

Where do we go when its raining outside?
When its too cold or too hot
Or we don’t have horses to ride?

We log online and visit our virtual home,
Where ponies graze,
And wild horses roam.

There we meet the amazing JBs,
We learn of their lives,
Through all the many stories.

It’s a place of inspiration,
We all come together,
To read and to write and have oodles of fun.

Every strong herd needs a stronger lead mare,
They’re usually pretty bossy so I think we lucked out,
Because ours really cares!

So come find your inner author,
Come share your love of the horse!
Come get involved with all this hubbub!

Are you ready? If so…
Come join the herd at Girls Horse Club.

This is an entry for the GHC Lyrics Competition, the first step in a collaboration to create a theme song for Girls Horse Club. For more details about the competition and how to enter, click here.

Personally, I’ve lost count of the numerous horse books I’ve read. Some were just great (like The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle) and some not so great (which won’t be mentioned as they are not worth mentioning). Either way, there is one fact that can’t be denied: Horses inspire fictional writing. At Girls Horse Club alone there were thousands of stories in the Loft, and a new collection is beginning to form in the Fiction Channel of the blog.

It’s Black Beauty and Mr. Ed and all the characters in between that inspired us in the first place.

Why is it, though? Why do horses make us want to pick up the pencil and let all the stored-up imagination flow out of our fingertips?

I think it’s because of the possibilities. The endless (ENDLESS!) possibilities. The potential stories to be shared. There is a lot of talk about dream horses. In our dreams we have the image of the absolute perfect horse. And we think to ourselves, “Why not share this horse? Who wouldn’t love to hear the story of my perfect horse?”

Maybe said horse is a slender Arabian mare? She’s high strung and only *you*, her creator, can tame her. Maybe this horse is a muscular quarter horse that endures long laborious hours of work on a a cattle ranch and one day….

Even greater than the image of the perfect horse is the image of the not-so-perfect horse. Riding is such a dangerous sport, and the accidents that could happen and the problems some horses have make for excellent plots. Sympathy is evoked for the little foal born with a crippled leg. Fear and suspense is built up as the spooked horse trips and begins to fall, rider coming crashing down onto a road with oncoming traffic! Will the horse regain momentum and canter out of the way in the nick of time? Will the accident leave permanent scars? Who knows? Only you, the writer.

For those of us fortunate enough to have real horses in our lives, the incredible stories told by horse people are just the icing on the cake, because they have their own tales to spin. But for those of us who may not have horses in our lives, the fictional ones that reside in our dreams and our nightmares and maybe just the back of our minds are what keeps the flame burning. The fictional horses that make us laugh and cry and want to ride. The passion for the equine.

Before ‘retiring’ Julia was the first ever Junior Blogger. You can read more of her blogs in the Junior Blogger Archives.

In my dreams I ask my horse to canter
And without visible effort he steps into the correct lead,
With a steady rhythmic pace.
His body is in perfect frame,
And my equitation…flawless.

In the ring I ask my horse to canter
And after I give him a good kick
I lose my contact and he picks up the wrong lead.
His gate is too choppy and he is about to break.
My shoulders are too far forward and my toes are pointing down.

In my dreams I’m flying over oxers!
My horse sets up perfectly,
Taking off at the perfect point.
My legs don’t waver from position.
Four foot nine cleared with ease.

In the ring I’m trotting over poles.
My horse quickens his pace and trips.
My legs slide too far back,
I didn’t even cross over the pole in the center.
Another pole done sloppily…back to the walk.

In my dreams I take my newly polished Bates saddle,
Place it on the rack with my name engraved in gold.
I unlace my Ariat Pro Field Boots,
Put them in their own case,
Oblivious to all the price tags.

In the ring I take my borrowed saddle to the tack room,
The leather worn and pliable.
I untie my four-year-old paddock boots,
As well as unzip my equally old half chaps.
All bought on consignment.

In my dreams I pin blue ribbons,
Ride any horse I want,
Regardless of the skill required.
I practically own my own barn.
My life is simply perfect.

In the ring I practice, practice, practice.
I ride the naughty lessons horses.
I take pride in everything I do, though,
Treat every day as a gift, regardless of what I could have.
I see reality as reality.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Over recent weeks I’ve seen a few comments about whether or not spurs, whips, and force in general are good ways to train your horse -– or if they only hurt the horse. Well, we’re going to go about this one at a time starting with spurs, which seem to be the most controversial.

SPURS. There are many variations of spurs. I’ve only used English spurs, just because I don’t have my own western ones and I ride English (right now anyway). English spurs are metal bands that go around the heels of riding boots. They usually have a blunt spoke on them used to poke lazy horses. You should only use spurs on horses that need them, and if you aren’t sure then ask a trainer for help deciding. They are used by turning out your toes and pushing your heels into the horse’s side. You apply pressure with both legs for forward motion or use only one spur if you need lateral (sideways) movement. As soon as the horse responds, you point your toes forward again. Spurs are an extension of ‘Ask-Tell-Make’, which is the process of correcting your horse.

For example, if you ask your horse to trot and he doesn’t move, you ‘tell’ him to trot by squeezing again and giving a kick. If that stubborn bugger of a horse still won’t move you’re going to ‘make’ him by kicking and using a crop if you have one (we’ll get to crops later). If that horse still hasn’t moved forward you’re going to make him again, only this time use your spurs until he moves forward.

As you can tell, that’s a lot of work just to get your horse moving forward. That is why it’s important for only experienced riders to use spurs and use them correctly. Horses are very intelligent, and eventually will move forward without the constant use of spurs (in most cases anyway). They are used as an extra aid, and if used correctly do not hurt the horse in any way.

WHIPS. There are many different types of whips as well. There are longe whips, dressage whips, crops, racing bats and the list goes on. For ordinary riding you will use a crop in most cases, which is a short whip that’s usually about 24 inches but can be longer or shorter. Crops are also used as an extra aid. Crops are important to learn to use because chances are at some point you will have to use one. Crops are held in your outside hand when riding, unless told otherwise. They’re used when the horse is refusing to listen (see the Ask-Tell-Make above). How hard to use them depends on the horse and basically how bad they’re being. It’s important not to overuse your crop because it is annoying to the horse; try to use your legs as much as possible and only give a good swat with the crop occasionally. Horses have thinner skin and thicker muscles, so crops only feel like hitting yourself with a pencil…Of course, you CAN make the crops hurt, but it’s usually unnecessary to hit that hard because horses associate the crop as punishment regardless.

TOOLS OR TORTURE? Horses are very big, powerful animals and will learn to take advantage of you if you let them get away with bad habits. Lesson horses are a prime example because beginner riders don’t correct them, so they develop bad habits that advanced riders have to fix. Any whip or spur can hurt a horse if used the wrong way, which is why they sometimes get such negative feedback. Understanding which horses need to be punished and to what degree is what’s important. Yes, there are methods of training that don’t use any spurs or crops, and even I would like to learn more about them. But some of the best riders in the world use these spurs and whips as tools; extra aids that enforce training and curtail bad habits.

The problem is people don’t always take the time to learn about what they hear or see, and it creates false ideals of how they see things. It’s up to you to decide if you use spurs and whips, but before you decide, make sure you understand there’s no harm in being forceful to the right degree.

Before ‘retiring’ Julia was the first ever Junior Blogger. You can read more of her blogs in the Junior Blogger Archives.