It was a magazine horse show in sultry New Orleans.

Photo used for the AHP award-winning cover of the September 2008 Journal. (Photo by Andrea Caudill)

To me, the coolest thing about competing at a horse show is just seeing how well your horsemanship stacks up. It’s not the winning or placing, it’s getting an “atta-girl” for the work you’ve done with your equine compadre. Or, it’s a “here’s what you need to work on.”

It’s the same for us on staff at the Journal, regarding the magazine material we produce each month. And that’s why we compete every year in the American Horse Publications annual awards contest (www.americanhorsepubs.org).

There are more than 450 equine publications and freelance artists and writers, nationwide, who belong to AHP. The organization puts on a professional development seminar every year, and that’s where the editorial and design contest winners are announced.

This year, it was in New Orleans. The weather was sultry, to say the least – what would you expect? That meant ordering iced coffee with beignets at Café du Monde, not hot chicory blend.

But AQHA’s publications – The American Quarter Horse Journal, America’s Horse and The American Quarter Horse Racing Journal – won 17 awards combined, firsts, seconds, thirds and honorable mentions.

The Journal won two first place awards: magazine cover, circulation over 20,000, and instructional single article, “10 Western Riding Mistakes to Avoid,” by Jim Bret Campbell.

The cover photo is pictured above. Andrea Caudill, editor of The American Quarter Horse Racing Journal, took it at the 2008 Region Three Experience in Minnesota, in a covered overhang outside the show arena – the twinkle in the horse’s eye is all natural lighting. The horse is Invest In Your Chips, owned by Lisa Kroll of New Richmond, Wisconsin. Terry Stidger, one of our in-house artists, handled the cover design.

Our magazine staff wears a lot of hats – all of us who write stories also take photos and post online material, and we help each other out with editorial material. Our art department handles the design for all of AQHA’s material – from world show logos to magazine layouts.

We also really try to make sure our material is correct.

Interestingly enough, much of this year’s AHP seminar was devoted to incorporating print and Web material – further proof of the changing face of the publishing business. Print magazines aren’t going away completely; they’re just changing in delivery style.

They also pointed out that, in the wilderness of good and bad horse information out there on the Web, the value of “vetted” and trusted information has never been greater. Especially in the horse business.

That’s what every AQHA publication strives to produce in print and online. We make mistakes, but we try our darnedest not to, with every single word. We use trusted trainers, AAEP veterinarians and respected professional opinions, so that what you see in the Journal is fact not gossip. Can you trust the Journal to be correct? Our goal is for you to be able to say “yes.”

We’ll keep on competing in organizations like AHP, because we want to continually improve our magazine horsemanship, professionally. In that contest, all the entries come back with critiques, so we can see why some entries were not rewarded.

But, to us, you guys are the real judges. And every new month is another horse show.

Christine Hamilton
Editor
American Quarter Horse Journal

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