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Equinet – a Farrier Application

January 21, 2023 by Christine Meunier Leave a Comment

It really is a delight to work in the field of equine education. Over the past year, my workplace has come to be offering a farriery qualification. One of these students made me aware of Equinet. This is a farrier application.

Although I am not a farrier – and do not have skills in hoof trimming! – I can assist with regards to health care, poulticing and bandages of the lower leg, horse handling skills and understanding equine behaviour.

Because of this, I was asked to assist with training and assessing a couple of the first year units. It was such a different dynamic – mainly young men – to the mostly young women that I often teach. It also provided opportunity to learn about different jobs and skills.

Equinet – Farrier Application

Recently one of the young apprentice farriers made reference to Equinet. It is an application that he and his father hoped to use in their farriery business. I made a note of this, not being familiar with it myself. It’s always good to learn about new horse related applications!

Equinet - a Farrier Application | Equus Education
Equinet – a Farrier Application | Equus Education


This application created by Mustad has been created for ‘making business easier for farriers’. Currently the application is only for use in Australia and New Zealand. But it has been downloaded by more than 700 hoof care professionals. So, if you’re in the hoof care industry in Aus or NZ, perhaps this application may be of interest!

With this application, you can:

  • create horse entries,
  • schedule appointments,
  • manage inventory,
  • place product orders,
  • manage finances
  • and collaborate with your team

You can learn more about the application on the Mustad site. It is available in the AppStore and on GooglePlay. What horse application makes your life that much easier? I’d love to know! Leave a comment.

Filed Under: Business, Career

Profile On: Shelley Paulson, Equestrian Advertising & Editorial Photographer

December 5, 2022 by Christine Meunier Leave a Comment

Another person I recently reached out to on LinkedIn about being profiled was Shelley Paulson. She was kind enough to provide some incredible detail for budding equine photographers! Read on below.

How much of your day/week is related to horses?
I live on an acreage and care for my own horses, and my work is 100% horse-related. So I would say at least 75% of an average day is related to horses.

What is it exactly that you do?
Primarily, I am a Commercial Equine Photographer. This means I work with brands and businesses to create photos and videos to help them market and communicate their value to customers. I also have an extensive Equine Stock Library companies and magazines use when they need images for publications, social media, and marketing projects.
Profile On: Shelley Paulson, Equestrian Advertising & Editorial Photographer | Equus Education
Profile On: Shelley Paulson, Equestrian Advertising & Editorial Photographer | Equus Education


Secondarily, I have a mentoring and education program for Equestrian photographers. I offer small group mentorships, standalone courses, and many free resources. This is to help equestrian photographers grow in their skills and gain the confidence they need to take better photos and grow a successful business.

Multiple Income Streams

In this field of work, is it possible to be a full-time professional and earning a liveable income?
Yes, but it can be a challenge. I live in Minnesota, so the season when I can offer portrait sessions is painfully short. This is what led me to create multiple income streams to help me continue earning money throughout the year. Depending on where people live, they may find the same issues and struggle to have a full-time business unless they plan to travel to warmer states to work in the winter.

Profile On: Shelley Paulson, Equestrian Advertising & Editorial Photographer | Equus Education
Profile On: Shelley Paulson, Equestrian Advertising & Editorial Photographer | Equus Education
The other challenge is that many photographers start out doing it as a hobby they are passionate about and aren’t trained in how to run a business. This generally leads to undercharging and burnout from working too many hours for too little money. Pricing for profit and understanding how to run a successful business are two strong predictors of success for equestrian photographers.

What are the general steps taken to be employed in such a role?
If someone is still in high school and considering becoming an equestrian photographer, I recommend finding a college with an entrepreneurial or small business major. Photography itself can be learned outside of the college setting, but business education is harder to find.

Profile On: Shelley Paulson, Equestrian Advertising & Editorial Photographer

Favourite horse memory?
Last summer, I added a beautiful dunskin Morgan filly to my herd. She was born at a friend’s farm just a few minutes from where I live. So I spent as many evenings with her as I could from the day she was born. I remember one evening in particular when she lay in the grass and let me lay next to her with her head curled under my arm. I’ll never forget that feeling.

Future goals?
Last summer I went to Iceland for an equine photo tour. I returned renewed from the experience and with a beautiful portfolio of images. I would like to plan more trips like that where I get to photograph horses and experience parts of the world I’ve never been. In 2024, I’m hoping to visit South Korea and photograph horses there.

Best thing about your sport/profession?
I recently asked photographers who have been through my mentorship WHY they do Equestrian Photography. Not a single person said they did it for the money. I love that my profession is driven by a love for horses and their owners.

Filed Under: Career, Education, Profile On

Palomino and Pinto Editing

September 24, 2022 by Christine Meunier Leave a Comment

Back in 2016, I wrote about a niche area that fascinated me in regard to potential work. Still today, I believe if I wasn’t in a horse educational role that I love, I would look into editing horse books! It seems I am not alone. Enter: Palomino and Pinto Editing.

Joyce Bloemker of Palomino and Pinto recently reached out to thank me for the above post on Equus Education from back in 2016. She indicated this was also her passion and if you view her site, you will find this to be true!

I love everything about books, writing, and horses. This is a place where I combine all my passions. Check out the editorial services I offer for authors and my blog where I write about my horses.”
Palomino and Pinto Editing | Equus Education
Palomino and Pinto Editing | Equus Education

Joyce has recently branched out into the world of editing books. Interested? Be sure to have a look at her site linked above. As I stated back in my 2016 post focusing on Equine Editors, finding a horsey editor to review your horse book can have an added bonus: they know horses.

Good editors can pick up on spelling errors, grammar inconsistencies, formatting errors, and sentence structure issues. And of course, this will be beneficial to any author. But one that knows horses can pick up on details that a non-horsey editor may not. Whether it be fiction or non-fiction, the horse information should be correct.

So if you’re in the business of writing about horses, why not check out this new editor who also happens to know horses?

“My troubles are all over, and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple trees.” ― Anna Sewell, Black Beauty

Filed Under: Career

Profile On: Ginny Telego, Organizational Change Partner

May 12, 2022 by Christine Meunier Leave a Comment

I recently saw a post by Ginny Telego on LinkedIn that had me reach out to her. I love discovering new horse careers and qualifications! She was kind enough to be profiled and share about her work that can include horses!

How much of your day/week is related to horses?
Every day! I have 4 horses of my own – Wager, an Appendix Quarter Horse gelding; Gia, a solid APHA mare; Cookie, a Miniature Horse mare; and Carmel, a Miniature Horse gelding.  My business is focused on equine assisted learning.  So when I’m not doing something related to caring for my horses, I’m doing marketing and other administrative work for my equine assisted learning business.

Leadership Development with Horses

What is it exactly that you do? 
The “umbrella” of the work I do through my business, The Collaboration Partners, is providing experiences for organizational and community leaders to develop the capabilities they need to navigate through uncertainty with vision, understanding, clarity, and agility.  The majority of my leadership development work is done in partnership with horses; I also coach leaders and facilitate leadership development without horses. But the work WITH the horses is far more powerful and engaging for my clients!

Ginny Telego, Organizational Change Partner
Ginny Telego, Organizational Change Partner

In this field of work, is it possible to be a full-time professional and earning a liveable income?
Is it possible? Sure – anything is possible. Is it reality? It depends.  I can’t say that it’s easy to work full-time in the field of equine experiential learning and earn a livable income.  A “livable income” is going to look different for different people in different areas of the world.

I can tell you that I do make enough money from my equine experiential learning work to pay all of the annual expenses for my four horses as well as contribute financially to my personal expenses.  My husband is a Project Manager for a tech company.  So between us, we are able to provide a comfortable life for ourselves due to the low cost of living where I am located in North Central Ohio.

The main challenge for me, since the primary work I do is in the Organizational Development field, is that equine experiential leadership and team development is still fairly unknown to the people who are coordinating training and development for their organizations.

I recently co-facilitated a 3-day equine experiential leadership development program.  It was for senior executives of a Fortune 500 company with another equine experiential leadership development company that contracts for my services.  The two program managers of the company’s Learning and Development office attended as observers (the 3 days with the horses were part of a larger 6-month leadership development program they were piloting).

While talking with the two program managers at the end of the second day – after they had observed the experience that we were providing with the horses along with the debriefing conversations we led – they marveled at what the leaders in the program were gaining from the experience.  They said “We had NO idea something like this existed!”

At the end of the third day, they were talking to us about bringing the leadership team back to do another program with us at the end of the 6-month pilot program.  This was so the participants could SEE and EXPERIENCE the progress they made throughout the program.

What we know in the area of equine experiential learning with organizations is that a) sending their people to do leadership or team development with horses is not something they actively seek out unless someone else they trust tells them about it; and b) people have to experience the work in order to really understand what it is (and what it’s not – which is riding or learning horsemanship).   Collaboration with other equine experiential leadership development facilitators is a much more productive means to create a viable business doing this work.

Profile On: Ginny Telego, Organizational Change Partner

Now, if you are interested in doing equine experiential learning with youth – say for developing life skills – or doing equine assisted psychotherapy, you may be able to garner a more steady revenue (which may or may not be a livable income depending on your overhead to have a horse facility and horses) once you establish yourself in the field and develop relationships with the organizations that will fund those kinds of programs.

What are the general steps taken to be employed in such a role? 
The short version of this answer is:

  1. LOTS of experience learning about horse behavior and herd dynamics through hands on interactions with all kinds of horses – especially horses that are not “dead broke” riding horses.  The essence of equine experiential learning is that the horses are given permission to just be horses. They aren’t disciplined for rubbing their head on someone, or moving while someone is holding them, etc… Everything horses do is simply information, and they are always responding to the energy around them.  If the person holding the horse is nervous or excited, the horse is picking up on that energy and trying to figure out what to do with it because horses MOVE their bodies as a way to manage energy that comes at them from people or other horses.  They are genius at teaching people how to manage their energy to effectively influence others in a non-threatening way.
  2. Training in a model of equine experiential learning that is congruent with the work you want to do.  There are a multitude of quality organizations around the world that train people to do this work. And it’s important to do your research on them before investing the money to get trained and certified.  Some training organizations are focused on equine assisted psychotherapy; some are focused on equine assisted learning (non-therapy based work like leadership development or life skills development); and some are focused on equine assisted coaching.  I am a Certified Advanced Practitioner and Master Trainer through E3A (Equine Experiential Education Association).
  3. Education – again, this depends on the path you want to follow (primarily therapy versus non-therapy).
    1. If you are interested in doing any type of therapy based work in partnership with horses, you either need to be a licensed mental health professional (and training in a therapy based model of equine assisted psychotherapy or therapeutic riding if that’s what you want to do).  Or get trained in a therapy model of equine assisted psychotherapy and partner with a licensed mental health professional.
    2. If you are going to work with organizations to do equine experiential leadership development, it helps to have education in some kind of organizational management field as well as experience working in the corporate world.
    3. If going to do life coaching or other personal development, it’s recommended to have some kind of coaching certification.
  4. There aren’t a ton of jobs in this field as a facilitator. Most of the people doing the work are self-employed and work as contractors.  Some therapy based programs do hire people.  These are most often non profit organizations and pay is likely on the lower end of the scale unless you are a therapist.  So having some education in entrepreneurship and running a business is REALLY helpful.

Favourite horse memory? 
Oh gosh, there are so many…. 43 years with horses creates a lot of memorable moments with a lot of horses… 😊  I think my favorite memory would have to be with my very first pony, an unregistered POA that my Dad got for me for $100 when I was 13. That pony put up with so much from me…

My dad passed away just before my 14th birthday and the moment I received the news from a pastor in my town, I ran to our barn, saddled Chief, and just started riding.  As I sobbed in the saddle, he just gently walked, letting me bury my head in his neck.  I didn’t realize it until many, many years later, but I was so grateful for him supporting me at my darkest hour.  Someday I hope I see him at the rainbow bridge so I can thank him.

Future goals? 
To grow my business and help make equine experiential leadership development something that organizations are seeking as the primary option for developing their people (meaning I don’t hear them say “I had no idea this existed!”).  I also want to continue mentoring new facilitators coming into the field.

Combining Your Passions

Best thing about your sport/profession?
I get to combine the two things I love most – horses and coaching people to their fullest potential. And get paid for it! (The travel is fun too!)

About the author
Ginny Telego is President of The Collaboration Partners, a consulting firm she founded in Ashland, Ohio.  She travels in the U.S. and Internationally to facilitate equine experiential leadership and team development with organizations; provides facilitation expertise both in person and virtually; and trains and mentors coaches in the field of equine experiential learning.  Ginny has a Masters Degree in Business Psychology and is a Certified Advanced Practitioner and Master Trainer with the Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A), an international organization that trains and certifies practitioners in equine assisted learning and coaching.  She and her husband, Greg, have 4 horses and live an exciting life with 3 Australian Shepherds.

Filed Under: Career, Profile On

Profile On: Laurie Berglie, Chestnut Pen

December 9, 2021 by Christine Meunier Leave a Comment

I recently stumbled across Chestnut Pen on Instagram and was curious. I reached out to Laurie Berglie and she was kind enough to answer some questions about her horse focused business.

How much of your day/week is related to horses?
The vast majority of my days and weeks are related to horses! On a personal level, I have a small farm, so I keep my three horses at home. I love being able to care for them myself, but it’s so much work! (Absolutely worth it though).

On a professional level, I own Chestnut Pen, which is a boutique marketing agency specializing in copyediting, marketing copy, and other creative ventures for equestrian businesses.

What is it exactly that you do?
If it’s writing or editing related, Chestnut Pen can do it! Years ago, when I was working at my corporate job, I started freelancing on the side to help make a little extra money to support my horse habit. My first client was Horse & Style Magazine, where I became a regular contributor to their lifestyle magazine. I’ve been writing for them for almost seven years now and am responsible for three to five columns for each issue.

That opened me up to writing for a variety of other equestrian publication such as Sidelines, EQ Living, and Covertside.

During this time, I self-published my first equestrian romance novel and immersed myself within the equestrian author community. One of my favorite authors, (who is now a friend!), Carly Kade, asked if I’d be willing to copyedit her second book. With a background in English and a love for grammar, I jumped at this assignment.

In mid-2021, I decided to give my freelance work an official name so I could combine all my efforts, and Chestnut Pen was born! In addition to writing for equestrian publications and copyediting manuscripts, I also develop a variety of marketing and web copy for equestrian brands and small businesses.

I have also published three equestrian romance novels with a fourth on the way. (Hoping to publish that one in February of 2022).

Laurie Berglie, Chestnut Pen
Laurie Berglie, Chestnut Pen | Equus Education
In this field of work, is it possible to be a full-time professional and earning a liveable income?
Yes! While I still work part-time with my husband’s business, (we own a travel agency), I am gradually moving away from that so I can devote more time to Chestnut Pen. I have a handful of wonderful, very regular clients, but I still need to build my base a bit more. While I’m not devoting full-time hours to my company just yet, I anticipate being able to do so in the coming year.

What are the general steps taken to be employed in such a role?
Starting your own business takes courage, but if you are confident in your skills and love what you do, then there’s no reason not to go for it! I believe I have been so successful in growing my business thanks to my social media presence. My personal Instagram account (@marylandequestrian) has a pretty decent following, so I’ve been able to generate a variety of leads through that platform.

Favourite horse memory?
My goodness – this one is hard!! But I’d have to say that my favorite memory was the day we brought our horses home to our farm. My husband and I had saved for years to be able to make this dream come true, so the day my two mares came home is one I’ll remember forever.

Future goals?
Professionally, I’d like to continue growing Chestnut Pen, especially on the copyediting side. Editing is my favorite thing to do, so I’d love to partner with some larger publishing houses for more regular work.

Personally, I’d like to get my newest horse to some shows in the new year. I ride hunters, but I’d like to try a little bit of everything with him!

Best thing about your sport/profession?
The best thing about owning my small equestrian business is that I get to be surrounded by horses, but in a way that benefits my talents of writing and editing. I always knew I wanted to be in the horse industry, but knew I was never a good enough rider to ride professionally or train others.

I briefly considered vet school, but I knew it wasn’t for me. For a while, it felt like there weren’t any other paths, and my skills didn’t align with the traditional professions you think of when thinking about a life with horses. But then it all came together when I started blogging about my mare, (this was back in 2011), and then it went from there. I realized that I could still be part of the horse industry but in a way that fit me – which is by writing about them.

Filed Under: Business, Career, Horse Books, Profile On

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