Our Ruby Year

Quarter Horse News (QHN) is celebrating its 40th year in 2018, and that is cause for excitement. Over the last four decades, the magazine has brought you breaking news, event coverage and features about the people that make our industry great. I’m proud to be a part of such valuable history.

Through time, QHN has evolved from a tabloid-style publication into a true-to-form magazine. Before Google, Facebook and websites took over, our print issue was one of the only places people in the industry could find out what was going on in the associations and at the shows. My how times have changed.

By the time an issue of QHN hits everyone’s mailboxes these days, most of our readers know who won the shows featured inside. They know the scores, the money and by that point, they probably don’t care as much about the color of the cows each winner cut. The nature of the print magazine medium keeps it from being a breaking news source in the modern world.

With the evolution of technology, QHN has attempted to find balance. I’ll admit it’s been a struggle; we want to serve our entire audience, which has included a generation that has historically been less inclined to get their news online. Statistics now show that has changed and our readers are looking for breaking information in a faster way, so we’re ready to adapt once again.

Starting with this magazine, you will begin to see more feature stories about the horses, people and topics that drive our industry. For instance, our “Gettin’ Personal With…” articles will appear semimonthly and spotlight a different person in each issue. We’ve also added a new department called “Outside the Pen” to give you backstage insight about some of the most popular horses in the business. That will run in every other issue.

Our loyal readers have probably noticed our event coverage vacillating in the last year or two, but we think we’ve finally come up with a strategy to deliver the information you’re looking for – when and where you want to find it.

QHN will still be on the scene, covering the major events in our industry in person whenever possible. Look for our updates on social media – like Facebook and Instagram – to get breaking information and to find out whom the champions are in near real time. Then, make sure you check out our website at www.quarterhorsenews.com for detailed articles about the winners and their runs within hours.

Not to worry, the shows aren’t disappearing from the pages of our print publication. Moving forward, you’ll find easy-to-read coverage from the event, with fast facts and interesting information about the main champions, along with the complete results. When we uncover unique stories along the way, you’ll see them as standalone features in later issues so we can give them the attention they deserve.

Since QHN still serves the industry as an unbiased news magazine, we will continue to work hard at reporting from association conventions and meetings. Our goal is to help our readers stay informed, all while encouraging productive conversations about how to improve the Western performance horse world – both by discipline and as a whole.

As you can tell, we’ve got a lot of changes coming for you this year! Whether we’re keeping you updated from an event, telling someone’s story or addressing the hard-hitting topics many publications shy away from, we are dedicated to you – our readers.

This is our ruby year at QHN, and we plan to make the most of it!