Practical Horseman is always interested in finding new contributors, fresh voices who can write to our magazine's needs.
Your best guideline to those needs is to study our magazine. We are first and foremost a teaching publication with a strong emphasis on accurate and logically presented how-to material that is useful for the serious amateur English rider. Our articles are written from detailed interviews with respected experts in the sports we cover. (To safeguard our credibility, we submit these stories back to the experts for review before publication.) Features or profiles are also the result of in-depth interviews, often in person. To effectively research these pieces and communicate with prominent members of the equestrian community, the writer needs a strong base of horse knowledge.
Good entry points for new writers are:
- One-page columns (e.g. My Life) that showcase people and happenings, often in the grass-roots of our sports
- Here's How pieces (many of them are mini-how-to's that answer a question)
- Tips & Talk, which includes short (500 words or less) news stories and short how-to features.
- Center Aisle: A personal viewpoint on a particular topic or event
If you have an idea you think is right for us, we prefer sharply focused queries to complete submissions; our time for reading "spec" material is very limited. Send published clips (and, of course, a SASE) with your query. Email is perfectly acceptable. The more we feel that your idea and its presentation reflect a grasp of our magazine's goals, the more receptive we'll be and the more likely we'll be willing to try an assignment on spec. Thanks again for thinking of Practical Horseman—maybe we'll be hearing from you soon!
Practical Horseman
Editorial Department
656 Quince Orchard Rd., Suite 600
Gaithersburg MD 20878
Email: practical.horseman@equinetwork.com
