The First Ten Years...
6 January 2010: The Equine Independent publishes her first article Behaviour Based Horse Management – A Blueprint for the 21st Century, By Andy Beck. This was followed rapidly —on the same day— by two more articles, Positive reinforcement in Practice – Including interviews with Ben Hart, Becky Holden, Alexandra Kurland and the Natural Animal Centre, By Catherine Bell, and The Importance of Self Awareness, By Emma Kurrels.
To celebrate the first ten years, TEI is getting a makeover; a new look to the site.
In 2013 the site moved to the Netherlands and every effort was made to maintain its look, although behind the scenes, much had changed. Unfortunately, despite -or maybe because of- its flexibility, the theme we were using was retired and we risked increased possibilities of security breaches. To avoid these dangers, we changed our theme base, adapting the new theme to closely mimic the old but with one or two minor changes.
Now, after ten years, the time is ripe to finally put all traces of the old themes to rest.
This is the first post using the new theme. We hope you like it. Being site wide, naturally all archive posts will have this new look too.
Although the actual quantity of copy published during those first ten years was not overwhelming, the Equine Independent has nevertheless tried to keep the quality of the content high. Sadly, just three years after setting up the Equine Independent, Emma Lethbridge, its creator, found that managing a website alongside her other activities was becoming too demanding. Being a ‘free access’ site, it was also not paying its way. The loss of forty-two articles – albeit not a staggering number in terms of the numbers published every day around the world – was viewed by many as a shame and therefore action was taken to save the articles – and the site. And so, in June 2013, the site was physically relocated to the Netherlands under the financial umbrella of a diverse group of other websites, with no further need to pay large hosting fees. Its future as an archive was secured.
However, the problems that Emma had suffered, did not stop there–although luckily for her, they were no longer her problems. Although the archive was safe, ideally the site needed new content. And to this date, that has been difficult. The Equine Independent is grateful to the small number of contributors of the past seven years. But content must be of value. Not having a budget to pay contributors, our writers must be prepared to work for nothing. It could be argued that we accept advertising; or we allow sponsored articles. The former may be a possibility but how to preserve the cleanness of the site without a clutter of adverts; and how to avoid the adverts that go against the ethic of the site…
Sponsored articles have already been proposed by a number of third-parties. And rejected. The Equine Independent would not be independent if it accepted sponsored articles. As with advertising, how to ensure that the site is not supporting products that go, directly or indirectly, against the ethic of the site.
The Plateau de Beret in the Val D'Aran. Spain
So, the Equine Independent remains in safe hands – the unwanted sponsors will continue to be rejected; advertising, if it ever arrives, will be held to the ethic of the site; and we shall strive to publish as much interesting and relevant content as we can.
WE NEED YOUR HELP
As already mentioned one of the greatest problems is getting relevant, interesting and correct copy. We would like to see the start of The Equine Independent’s second decade as a sort of relaunch – getting the ball rolling again. But sadly, articles don’t write themselves and the site editors cannot be experts on and spend their time writing about all matters.
Your contributions are thus necessary.
We cannot make any payments for your contributions but naturally you get full recognition as the author.
Posts can be submitted to info@theequineindependent.comand please do not forget to put your name, your website –if appropriate– and to include a list of your resources in your article.
Social Media
The Equine Independent has a presence on the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. We are looking to expand to Tumblr and maybe one or two others in the near future.
We have just created a new Equine Independent Facebook page; the old Facebook group is still visible but has now been retired and all activities transferred to the new page which will better serve our followers and facilitate better links with the website.