Tricks of the the Trade: Writing a Horse-y Blog

Courage is the best at blog tips

Every once in a while, I get an email from a new blogger, introducing themselves. (I love it. Keep sending them!) Not infrequently, they ask me what it takes to write a horse-y blog. It's an interesting topic that Lauren covered here, and it varies from person to person. Definitely read Lauren's post-she covers a lot of important points. Here's what I'd add to her post, though:

Main ideas:

The story of Courage

When I'm browsing a new blog, the #1 thing I'm looking for is a good story. Everyone has a story and I'd venture to say that most people have good ones. I want to see their story conveyed in their writing though. Where are they from? What are they moving towards? Do the characters catch me? It can be a sad story, a happy story, a fun story, or anything in between.

The blogger can battle the clock, the bank account, or their own limitations (or all of them). The story is the glue that sticks all the posts together and differentiates a blog from a training calendar. It's frequently the relationship between the blogger and their horse, but it can be other things.
Bloggers with great stories: Sweet Horse's Breath, Pony Express

The voice of SprinklerBandits

The biggest thing that makes a blog stand out is the voice it's told by. Writing a blog is about more than just good grammar and coherent (SHORT!!) paragraphs. It's about finding your voice in the horse world and learning to speak. This is something to pay particular attention to when you read back over your own posts (unless I'm the only weirdo who does that?).

Everyone has bad days, but if your tone is consistently whiny or entitled or cynical, I'm unlikely to add you in to my daily feed. A strong voice in a blog shows your personality and gives me a character to engage with.
Bloggers with great voice: Pia's Parade, Chasing the Dream

Focus on halters

In order to make a blog readable, it is important for the author to focus. Again, we all have days where everything is so right (or wrong) that we just do a massive brain dump, but in general, readers can track so much better if the blogger picks a topic and sticks with it for a post. Topics can be anything: that funny thing my horse did, how my show/lesson went, something I love (or hate!) about the horse industry or something else entirely. Focus helps the reader identify with the writer's ideas and respond.

A lack of focus makes it very hard for me as a reader to respond--I'm still thinking about the first thing you said and since then you said four other things.

Bloggers who focus: She Moved to Texas, We Are Flying Solo

Being honest about Cuna

Honesty is one thing a blog can't stand without. Horse bloggers are a unique group of hard working individuals. Sometimes it's awesome. Sometimes it's horrible. Instead of glossing over the ups and downs of life on four legs, embracing the raw honesty available on a blog is another way readers can connect with a blog. If you're knee-deep in road apples, you don't have to play it off as rainbows and unicorns. We're all vulnerable and we appreciate people who can admit it.

Bloggers who are honest: Dandyism, Poor Woman Showing

Those are my big must-haves. I read a lot of blogs, but the ones that consistently demonstrate these qualities are going to get my attention first because I've connected with them. Here are a couple other things that are less of a big deal, but still important to me as a reader:

Extras

Pictures!!! Pictures pictures pictures!!!! I love good original photographs. They don't have to be pro-quality. Heck, most shots on my blog are from my phone. I grew up with my Mom taking pictures roughly every 30 seconds, which I thought was really annoying. Now I probably take a picture every 15 seconds. I try to only share the best or funniest shots, but adding a picture can really make an entry pop. (Noted: I really can't stand pirated pro photos and random stock shots you didn't take. What is the point.) <-Yes, that could have been a question mark, but I'm not leaving room for discussion. Watch A Collection of Madcap Escapes to see someone who takes more pictures than me and uses a real camera and Suzanne for someone who doesn't steal pro photos.

Courage and Diva approve this message

Layout/readability/ease of use: If I go to your blog and your font/background color combo is completely unreadable or I have to click something to see the full post or your organization is super kitsch and doesn't make sense to me, the odds are that I'm not going to stay on your page. If that's your personal style, good for you. I like things simple and accessible.

Pages: If you have multiple horses or make frequent references to characters I can't remember or are drawing on a backstory I don't have any way of knowing, it is really helpful if you have some tabs I can click on to find out that information. Solid writing probably makes this a non-issue, but who doesn't want more places to put up cute horse pictures? I vote yes to tabs.

In Conclusion

At the end of the day, we read for ourselves. These are just my standards. The great thing about the blogging platform is that you can make it your own and express yourself any way you want to. I can't be the only one who's thought about this--what did I miss? What one thing keeps you reading?