Author Archives: Gretchen Lida

In its efforts to invade Ukraine, Vladimir Putin's troops took control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in late February. Troops seized the exclusion zone around it, which is now a...

It is well chronicled here on Horse Network that I, Gretchen Lida, have depression. I can be a sad sack who happens to love horses. Like clockwork, the worst spells are usually...

Earlier this week, my mare let out the world’s most pregnant capriole ever documented. Perturbed that she was not the first back into her stall for dinner, she took a...

When I was a preteen I could name all the essential horses in Lord of the Rings. But even then, I knew not to expect much equestrian nuance in high...

"You look cute in that," the person I love said when he first saw me in barn clothes. There was hay in my hair. The ratty t-shirt and jeans I...

Horses and cowboys are ubiquitous to the romance genre. A good steed and a tough man is such a well-known trope that it seems impossible to separate "The West," and...

In March, the New York Times profiled an equine-based life-coaching facility with a star-studded client list in the Ramsay de Give penned essay: "Can We Learn Anything From Horses?" The Equus Experiential...

"Gretch, you fell from six feet going 25 miles an hour," my horse trainer said as I stood up and limped back to the mounting block. I dusted the arena...

Burnout isn't just a buzzword but a reality for millions. It is a state, defined by researcher Christina Maslach, of exhaustion in which we are often cynical and less effective at...

After 20 years of riding other people’s horses, I finally have one of my own. As I latched her stall door for the first time, a familiar sense of worry...

When Benjamin Franklin proclaimed that, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he was referring to fire prevention in Philadelphia. But, this sage piece of wisdom is...

The editor of the new anthology Horse Girls: Recovering Aspiring and Devoted Riders Redefine the Iconic Bond, Halimah Marcus, once refused to write about horses, and no one ever questioned...

I just bought my first expensive helmet. Then I spent the entire drive home from the tack shop panicking about how much money I had just spent. Up until that...

While I finished three-time Olympian Jim Wofford’s memoir, the three-day eventing portion of the Tokyo Olympics played in the background. Competitors completed dressage tests, leaped over Samurai sword-shaped logs in...

If the horse lover in your life has a bookshelf, it probably has at least one volume written by Elizabeth Letts. The author’s first book, 80 Dollar Champion—about Snowman, the...

After a year of lockdowns and social distancing, the world is finally opening back up. For equestrians, this means a return to horse shows, expos, county fairs, clinics, and an...

“Heads up! Center oxer!” Amara’s voice echoes through the indoor riding ring as she and Silver Streak—a gorgeous, leggy black jumper—canter toward a wooden fence in perfect rhythm. Even their...

I only rode once when I lived on the island of Nantucket, MA. A stranger lent me a fiery Friesian Cross that snorted and puffed across the moorlands. I only...

In the opening scene of middle-grade novel Horse Girl, Wills earns one of the most essential badges of honor for every budding equestrian—she falls off. Clyde Lee, her not-so trusty...

Polo Player Kareem Rosser's memoir Crossing the Line is dedicated to "all the victims of gun violence, my late brother David Rosser, and my dearest friend Mecca."  Like Kareem, David...