Author Archives: Gretchen Lida

"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...

One of the most captivating aspects of Bleecker Street Media's new film Dream Horse is that so much of the rags-to-riches story is true. Dream Alliance was a real racehorse, bred and raised...

My biggest fear around horses was never falling off—it was getting trapped.  For years, entering a box stall with a horse sent my inside screaming. Adrenaline sizzled through me the...

You always know there is something up on a horse farm by the amount of sleep the people appear to be getting. Good or bad, the delirious slur of their...

It is not every day that we can glean the advice of braiders and groomers with as much experience as Emma Ford and Cat Hill. As professional grooms, these two...

The new Netflix film, Concrete Cowboy, is much more adult than the young adult novel it's based on. Unlike G Neri's Ghetto Cowboy, there is more swearing, drugs, and violence....

It's impossible to scroll through horsey Instagram and not stumble upon one of those mind-blowing mane or tail braiding videos. The video typically features a hunter with the perfectly pulled...

Many horse lovers have gone through a phase where they knew all the words to Toby Keith’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.”  We pined for square-toed boots, a cowboy hat that...