About YourHorseSports.com

Welcome to YourHorseSports.com! If you're a horse rider, this is YOUR site.

What do we mean by that? Well, many of the articles, photos, videos, and audio found on this site are written and produced by you ... and you ... and you ...

That is, this site features stories, photos and videos that riding enthusiasts and athletes post to the site in order to share their adventures with others who love this great sport. Articles are written by anyone who has a cool riding story to tell, or advice to give, or a review of a riding product they use, etc.

YourHorseSports.com writers and  photographers: You!

You can think of this as somewhat like a riding magazine. Just like them, we feature stories and photos. (Unlike them, we also have audio and videos.) But instead of professional writers, we feature content from any enthusiast or athlete with a story to tell.

That doesn't mean we operate without professional help. You'll frequently encounter YourHorseSports.com Enthusiast-in-Chief Emily Esterson. she contributes content to YourHorseSports.com -- you'll like her blog, plus occasional riding photos and videos -- but even more importantly, Emily is here to help you share your athletic life with the riding world.

The founders of YourHorseSports.com believe in the concept of "citizen media" (sometimes it's also called "grassroots media" or "citizen journalism"). That simply means people telling their own stories -- not relying on a "professional journalist" to tell it for them. We provide the venue.

Why contribute to the site? (Among other things, you can win prizes and get paid for it.)

First off, we hope you'll share that amazing photo of yourself or your buddy crossing the finish line in first place, or riding on the most incredible trail, because those are worth sharing with the rest of the riding world (and preserving for posterity!).

But we want to give you incentive to post to YourHorseSports.com. So, we're devising ways for you to get paid for what you submit to the site. (Now, it needs to be good stuff, if you expect to earn something.) Here's how you can earn money and prizes. (Some of this is still under development, so expect more soon.)

1. Prizes for the best. Regularly, we award prizes for the best photos, videos and articles submitted to this site. We'll be giving away stuff like riding equipment and apparel, digital cameras and camcorders, riding books and DVDs, food and nutrition goodies, and lots of other stuff that we think horse riders will enjoy.
2. Tip jar. (Coming soon.) If someone sees your photo or reads your story and thinks it's amazing, they'll see a "tip jar" that encourages them to send you a little money via Paypal. You'll keep all the tip minus any Paypal transaction fee.
3. Ancillary product sales. (Coming soon.) We'll be developing and selling a variety of products featuring your photos and videos (with your permission, of course):
   • Calendars featuring the best photos submitted to the site
   • DVDs with the best videos
   • Posters with your best photos
   • T-shirts
   • Etc.
   • If we use your image, we'll share the profits from the item(s) with you.

So that's the YourHorseSports.com story. It's your story. But we serve as your host and publisher. And like any good publisher, we help you not only reach a wide audience of like-minded souls, but also get compensated for what you write and photograph.

So go ahead. Tell your story, in pictures or words. Your many friends in the riding world are waiting for you.