Happy Second Birthday, Equestrian Ink

A little over two years ago, I was contemplating how best to market an upcoming book of mine. This book was an equestrian romance, the very type of book New York publishers claim doesn't sell. I came up with the idea to do a group blog written by equestrian fiction writers. After checking out my bookshelves for author names, I contacted Kit Ehrman, Michele Scott, Mary Paine, and Toni Leland. They agreed to join me, and we published our first posts in March of 2008. Everyone was assigned a day to post every other week. We were off and running.

Over the past two years, contributors have had to drop out and new ones have joined. Laura Crum has been our rock. I am grateful to her for picking up the reins and posting when others are unable to post. Janet from Mugwump Chronicles joined us for a time, as did numerous guest bloggers along the way.

Our regular contributors have come from all walks of life in the horse world. As you know, I'm the dressage nut, but we represent trail riders, western riders, horse racing, harness racing, horse trainers, etc. It's been great fun, and we've made a lot of good friends. Our readership has grown from under a 100 a month that first month to over 3000 a month.

As I contemplate where we've been and where we're going, I'd like to know what your favorite posts were from EI over the past few years and what you'd like to see.

My biggest undertaking so far for EI was my series on a Conrad Schumacher rider symposium I attended. It began with this post in April of 2009:  http://equestrianink.blogspot.com/2009/04/part-1-conrad-schumacher-training-of.html. I have to admit my motives were not altogether unselfish. That was such an incredible clinic, I knew if I posted my notes, I'd always be able to find them and refer to them.

For me, my plans for future posts include a series on horse barns. I built my barn in 1995 from my own plan. At the time, I owned a 15-3 Quarter Horse. Now I own a 17-1 Hanoverian. You can bet there are things I would change about that barn, but I'll save them for next time. I would love some guest bloggers on this subject with pictures of your barn or a barn in your area, including what you like about it, and what you'd change. Email me at jami@jamidavenport.com.

On that note, I'd like to thank all of you for supporting us, and I hope you've enjoyed our posts. We feel this is your blog, too, so please let us know what interests you. Since we're all writers, would you like to see more on publishing and writing? Would you rather see more training articles? Etc. Give us your ideas.