Nearly 75% of all U.S. households have Internet connections, virtual portholes to the online world, according to the research group Pew Internet and American Life. That's 147 million adults all bringing their hobbies, interests, careers, and daily lives to the Internet.
Little wonder that horse enthusiasts, too, have stretched their spidery web across the Internet. In addition to private and commercial websites covering every detail within the equestrian world, you can contribute and shape your own experiences through online equine communities. In a forum environment, subscribers (users) can interact with one another, posting messages and responses to the entire group.
There are online groups for anyone interested in just about every horse-related topic. Do you like talking history and bloodlines? Equine diseases? Training methods? Then there's a group for you.
In fact, that's exactly how an online forum gets started. Someone decides to create a group about a specific topic. Other people get interested and join in. Soon, you have the online-equivalent of the circle around the campfire, with everyone swapping stories and adding their two cents.
Horse enthusiasts are trading arena rails for keyboards as their favorite place to chat with friends, talk to experts, and, frankly, share gossip. The online world, despite its anonymity, has grown to mirror the off-line world, and the result is the online-equivalent of a saddle-club meeting.
These days, it's difficult to find a horse-related chore that doesn't have some online connection. While Internet shopping used to be limited to tack and equipment, it now includes horses, too, with eBay-like online horse auctions gaining popularity. Truck and trailer dealers direct you to their sites with updated product info. Even local clubs and organizations are advertising shows, clinics, and events, posting documents, rules and, yes, online entries.
Your guide to sorting this bottomless vat of information is your online horse community. These groups provide a place to connect with a supportive network of fellow horse-loving keyboard jockeys. If you haven't yet ventured into the online horse world, or have done so with trepidation, we're here to guide you down the digital trail.
Online Forums:
The Digital Saddle Club
So, how exactly does an online horse community work?
Typically the forum creator or owner is also the administrator or moderator of the group. The moderator is the end-all, be-all, and is generally the one who decides if forum postings will be archived and whether the archive will be made public or kept for members only. The moderator can enable members to conduct interactive chat sessions, post photos, maintain events calendars, hold auctions, create folders to organize message topics, or-if needed-block troublesome users from posting.
It's not unusual for one company to host countless topics divided into forums, such as Yahoo Groups or Delphi forums . To find a group you might want to join, log on to one of these sites and do a search for your favorite topics.
