Ever since I was a little girl, I loved reading anything I could get my hands on about horses. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds and Horse Care by Judith Draper was gifted to me on my sixth birthday, and by Christmas the following year I was gifted another copy because I had worn mine out. I remember poring over old battered copies of Horse Illustrated, memorizing the strange ways horse people talked (we seem to know an awful lot about feet) so that when the time came to get a horse of my own, I would fit in a little better.
My experience riding as a kid was a lot different than it is now. I grew up riding gaited horses in the galleries of field trials, enjoying the day from the comfort of a thickly padded trooper saddle. When I returned to riding as an adult just three years ago, I had never sat in an English saddle, and there was a LOT to learn. How do I post correctly (and what is a diagonal)? What’s the difference between a dressage saddle and a jump saddle? Why do hunters require hair nets? What do I do when my horse runs out of a fence? And, perhaps most importantly: how do I stay on?
We are not the minor leagues of equestrian sport.
We are its engine.
Thankfully, horses hadn’t changed much from what I remembered from my youth, but the equestrian world at large was much different. Suddenly there were rules, and politics, and people who just expected me to know things. As intimidating as this was for me, I couldn’t imagine how intimidating it would be for someone completely new to the sport–and for an industry that is slowly pricing out everyone who isn’t already independently or generationally wealthy, that felt like a major problem that became the thesis statement of this publication.
“Amateur” is a word that gets thrown around a lot in this industry. It’s often paired with a look down the nose, or a snide remark, or a backhanded compliment. Amateurs are the brunt of jokes, the scapegoats when things go wrong, and the excuses professionals give for why programs fail. Here’s something the industry knows but rarely says out loud: it runs on us. The recreational rider — the one boarding on a budget, hauling to schooling shows, fitting lessons around a full-time job — generates $36.7 billion in annual economic impact¹. Nearly half a million jobs exist because she keeps showing up. When you add in the amateur show world, the majority of this $177 billion industry traces back to people riding for the love of it². We are not the minor leagues of equestrian sport. We are its engine. And we’ve never had a magazine that said so. Until now.
Modern Amateur Magazine was dreamed up, created, and published for you. The woman returning to riding in her mid thirties, swinging her leg over a different lesson horse every week. The mom whose kids took one lesson and decided it wasn’t their thing–but she remembered it’s hers. The retiree who can finally afford the time to ride her horse every weekend on the trails around her home. The forgotten, the ignored, the pushed aside. For each and every story out there with horses at the heart, this one is for you.
¹ American Horse Council Foundation, National Economic Impact Study of the U.S. Horse Industry, 2023. Recreational riding segment.
² Ibid. Total industry economic impact figure.
BLAIR BUSH is the founder and editor-in-chief of Modern Amateur Magazine. A lifelong horse person with a roundabout path to get here, she grew up riding gaited horses, stepped away from the sport for nearly two decades, and returned at 32 with something to prove. A brief detour through the hunter ring eventually led her to eventing, where she found her people. She is currently focused on dressage and working toward her USDF Bronze medal — which, she will tell you, is a five-year plan and not a suggestion. She is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
