As I’ve discovered lately, horse forums are a great networking source and a wonderful way to acquire tidbits of new horse knowledge! When I discovered that my mare had what looked to be ‘stringhalt’ I posted a query on 3 of the four horse forums I’m signed up with. I was curious to find out other horse owners experiences, successes and failures with this condition. I wrote a post describing my mares condition (and my suspicion of it being stringhalt), described her current environment and any recent changes and mentioned some specific occurrences that I suspected might have contributed to the condition (such as having a new mare put in the herd and my mare kicking at it a lot or when she hit her head hard on the edge of the loafing shed). Then I asked for advice or information or even any insight into my horse and her condition. I was really impressed with how many people responded to me – offering some good advice or just words of encouragement!

Now, my usual tactic in the past would be one of two directions – call the vet out immediately, especially if it looked to be a life-threatening condition or the horse was in pain OR research information on the Web. Since my mare didn’t seem to be in pain and it obviously wasn’t life-threatening at the moment, I went with the Web research route. The problem with the Internet these days is the VAST amount of information out there one needs to sift through. This can often be a daunting task. So I spent about an hour reading and watching some videos I thought the most relevant to my horse’s condition, then I became overwhelmed. And that’s when the idea of posting a query on the horse forums hit me. Within 1 day of posting I got some great information back. Granted some of it wasn’t useful so much as it was encouraging but other replies gave some great, specific advice. And at the very least if gave me some new avenues of exploration.

There is a way to go about finding the horse forum that works best for you.

1. do a Google Search for ‘horse forums’
2. pick about 4 to join,
3. go through the wee bit tedious task of signing up and creating a profile. Of course this doesn’t have to be tedious – I’m just a little OCD about filling in all the spots and then I have to get my signature just right, set up the link properly, search for the best avitar, edit it a little in Photoshop, look through ALL my photos to pick the best ones for the photo gallery,….you probably get the picture!
4. keep a text file of all the url addresses of the forums you join along with your username and password for each (I use the same one for all I join…easier to remember). Make room between them to add a few notes after you’ve spent a little time on each.

After doing this, start replying to some posts or create a post of your own. In this way you will quickly determine the ones you like and the ones you don’t. I find the forum(s) I end up sticking with are the ones that frustrate me the least. I want to quickly find past posts that I’ve submitted when I login. If I have to search for my own posts I get irritated. Some forums have silly little rules like not being able to upload avitars or photos until you’ve made 15 posts (or replies). I would have quit this one except when I vented my frustration over this I had so many members encourage me to stick around (and they were so nice) that I decided to stay. And that brings me to the last reason for staying with or dumping a forum…the quality of the other members. This is a personal preference…kind of a ‘good vibe – bad vibe’ thing. Go with your gut. If reception to your posts are lukewarm, hostile, derogatory or are being answered by what seem to be 12 year old pre-pubescent girls…well then, don’t feel bad about saying bye-bye!

Anyhow, my favorite two forums (from my original 4) are:

• http://www.horseforum.com – this one is awesome!
• http://www.e-equestrian.com – this one is pretty good too.

Another one I haven’t had much opportunity to explore but looks interesting is www.horsechitchat.com/equineforums/. Of course ultimately it’s a question of personal taste and acceptance (for frustration levels…). But do give forums a try…if nothing else, it gives you other horse people to talk to on those days when you start to feel like a “nut” for being a 40-something adult who is still crazy about horses. Good luck!