- Breeding
- Cookies With a Clue For Your Horse
- The History of Horse Breeding
- Submit Your Grant Proposal To USA Equestrian Trust
- Buying a Horse
- How to Buy a Horse
- Equine Experts Send Us Your Best Tip - Win $750 Worth of KAM’s Healthy Horse Products and More
- Top 3 Ways Using Horse Classifieds Can Save You Money
- General Horse Articles
- Tips for Finding the Right Riding Instructor
- Halter Horse Show
- Submit Your Grant Proposal To USA Equestrian Trust
- Horse Feeding
- What Makes Good Hay
- Feeding and Management of Horses During the Transition from Warm to Cool Weather
- When Dealing With Horses Get It in Writing - Sign Up for May 16 FREE Webinar
- Horse Grooming
- OmegaTri & the Equine - Reducing Inflammation, Restoring Balance
- An Overview of Horse Grooming
- When Dealing With Horses Get It in Writing - Sign Up for May 16 FREE Webinar
- Horse Health Issues
- Evaluation the Equine Athlete from the Outside In
- Horse Dental Problems and Prevention
- Essential Fatty Acids – The Functions and Benefits in Horses
- Horse Training
- Two-track to Slow Your Horse's Gaits
- Equestrian Education: Choosing the Right Horse School
- Training Mythunderstandings: More Early Lessons for the Green Horse
- Horses & History
- Equine Experts Send Us Your Best Tip - Win $750 Worth of KAM’s Healthy Horse Products and More
- A Brief History of Horse Breeding
- The History of Horse Breeding
- Horses & Sports
- Halter Horse Show
- How to Prepare for Your First Equestrian Competition
- In Defense of Horses in Sport
Making the Most of the Online Horse Directory
03/23/2009
In order for you to take full advantage of a horse directory like GoEquine.com, it’s important to take a moment to familiarize yourself with all a horse directory has to offer.
As you’ve probably noticed, most major horse-related websites aren’t really websites in the traditional sense of the word. We’ve come to expect websites to be a collection of webpages that provides unique information, to have created that content, and to be responsible for that content on every page. Most major horse-related websites, then, aren’t so much websites in this sense as they are a horse directory. A horse directory—any online directory for that matter—acts as a kind of portal which collects information from all over the internet, sorts it, arranges it, then provides it to you in a way where you can access information more easily. Google, for example, is a directory, not a traditional website.
As with any directory, an online horse directory has a unique set of benefits and drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is lack of direct connection for goods and merchandise. If you want to buy tack, a horse directory can show you where to go shopping, but it can’t sell you the tack directly. Another drawback is the lack of supervision. Horse directories filter out spyware and fraudulent sites whenever possible, but they have a hard time weeding out poorly updated or dead websites quickly. That said, horse directories can be an enormously powerful resource for the enthusiastic equestrian. In order for you to take full advantage of a horse directory like GoEquine.com, it’s important to take a moment to familiarize yourself with all a horse directory has to offer:
Directory
On a portal website, the “Directory” section is the main source of all information. It acts as an index would act in a book. It’s a summary of all the main categories the horse directory has collected. A horse directory that specialized in providing breed information may have a Directory section that lists individual horse breeds, unique breed histories, and unique breed care. A bigger horse directory will have dozens of topics which are broken down to even more subtopics. Clicking on any of these sections in a horse directory will take you to a list of all of the websites that specialize in the information or product you’re looking for. If you head over to a horse directory looking for horseback riding lessons, clicking on the topic “Horseback Riding” will bring you to a page with links to dozens of horseback riding instructors, programs, and ranches.
Classifieds
A horse directory will often have a “Classifieds” section so users can have a greater degree of interaction that with the Directory section. The horse Directory is often a list of static links, and doesn’t change much over time. Classifieds allow people who are interested in buying or selling products can go to advertise or shop. Classified sections of a horse directory are often the best places to go to shop for good deals.
Events
A horse directory’s “Events” section is in many ways a compromise of the Directory and the Classifieds. Upcoming shows, contests, fairs, and competition are all listed as they would be in a normal horse Directory, but try to drive people to action like the Classifieds do. The Events section of a horse directory is also updated more frequently than the Directory section, as old events expire and new ones begin.
Articles
A horse directory caters to horse enthusiasts, and as such, attempts whenever possible to provide information that it believes would be of use to the reader. That’s why a horse directory assembles a collection of articles on various equine and equestrian subjects. If a reader wants to know about the history of the Arabian horse, he or she can search through a horse directory’s article database. Some web portals just pull articles from other sites on the internet, and some provide their own content. GoEquine.com has a bit of both: many articles in our horse directory are uniquely written by our staff to address the unique concerns of our readers, but we also compile articles from expert equine and equestrian directories.
Community
A horse directory’s “Community” section is a social network where equestrian fans and horse lovers can come together to share photos, blogs, and stories, or to chat about horse related issues. Community sections are a great place to network, to learn the latest gossip on what judges prefer at which competition, and where you can watch the most recent International cup.
