Become a Member
Become an ‘anyway, horses.’ member
If horses are not something you fit into your life, but the thing you build your life around, this is for you.
You might be at the beginning of figuring out how to make horses a bigger part of your life. You might be in the middle of chasing goals that are taking more from you than you expected. You might be reinventing yourself in the horse world, building a business, trying to get back in the ring, navigating what comes next, or looking back on a lifetime of choices that all somehow came back to horses.
Wherever you are on that spectrum, membership gives you the full ‘anyway, horses’ experience: premium articles and essays, member-only podcast episodes, monthly Substack Live sessions, the full content library, subscriber chat, member article submissions, topic requests, the ability to submit to be a guest on exclusive members-only podcast episodes and lives, and first access to every new feature and event within the larger world being built around this brand.
This is for the horse people who love horses obsessively, have goals and aspirations in the horse world, and know that a life built around horses can be beautiful, demanding, expensive, emotional, meaningful, and very difficult to explain to anyone who has never felt the pull of it themselves.
Basically, if you have ever been asked what your ‘hobbies’ are besides horses and felt genuinely confused, you are probably in the right place.
What You Get With Membership
You’ll get:
Four new articles each week (one weekly article is always free to the public, while the other three are members-only)
Full access to the premium content library and archive
Monthly live discussion sessions on Substack
Two member-only podcast episodes each month, plus bonus podcast content only released here
Subscriber chat for in-depth discussion, community connection, topic requests, guest suggestions, and more
The ability to submit personal essays, op-eds, and stories on the editorial platform, within our three recurring series as well as standalone topics. Note: contributing as a writer, or podcast or Live guest, is for members only. Written contributions may be fully credited + author bio and links featured, or they can be completely anonymous. This is a platform where you can feel comfortable writing openly, even in our small and oftentimes political industry.
Access to the members-only ‘anyways, horses.’ shop. All merchandise outside of special collaborations is available exclusively to members! Founding members get a hefty discount throughout the shop + a free quarterly gift
First access to future projects, events, collaborations, and special offerings
Quick note about access: one article per week is free for public readers and free subscribers, and there is also a free article library available to all free subscribers. The other three weekly articles are for paid members only, along with the archive, podcast episodes, live sessions, replays, member submissions, and future member-only offerings.
A premium content library you can actually come back to
The member library is where the full body of the editorial platform lives.
This is where you can go back through essays, articles, conversations, podcast episodes, live replays, and recurring series organized around the parts of horse life that shape us the most.
The pursuit of goals. The cost of horses, financially and otherwise. Building a business or career in the horse world. Confidence, pressure, identity, ambition, reinvention, belonging, self doubt, and the decisions we make when horses are at the center of our lives.
The value is not only in reading more articles. It’s in having a place to come back to when you are trying to understand your own path a little better, get language for something you have felt but never quite known how to explain, hear how other people are navigating the same kinds of questions, and remember that there are many ways to build a life around horses.
Members-only podcast episodes and monthly live sessions
Each month, paid members get two podcast episodes released here on Substack, plus a monthly interactive Substack live session.
Some episodes and lives will be solo conversations around specific topics. Some will include incredible guests from across the horse world. Some will come directly from questions, requests, and conversations happening inside the subscriber chat. All are exclusively released here for members, separate from the public AH podcast episodes releasing fall 2026 on Apple Podcasts & Spotify (though you will be able to access all of those podcast episodes right here, too).
A real way to contribute to the editorial platform, not just read and listen.
Members can submit personal essays, op-eds, guest post ideas, and story submissions for recurring series and standalone pieces.
This will include our flagship series on the real financial cost of pursuing goals in horses, building a business or career in the horse world, and the real human experiences of the pursuit of a life built around horses.
Submissions can be published with full credit and an author bio, or fully anonymously, depending on what feels right for the piece and the person submitting it. That matters in an industry that can be small, complicated, and sometimes very political.
Members can also submit themselves or nominate someone in their community as a guest for Substack Lives or exclusive Substack podcast episodes. You can request topics in the subscriber chat, suggest people whose stories should be told, and help shape the conversations that happen here.
This is one of the biggest reasons membership matters. You are not only getting access to the publication. You have a way to help shape what gets explored, whose stories are heard, and what conversations become part of the ‘anyway, horses.’ world.
Why This Is Different
Membership is granted through Substack, but it’s so much more than a Substack.
Substack is the heart and homebase, but this is the editorial platform within a larger equestrian media brand, community, & movement: essays, podcast episodes, live conversations, community stories, recurring editorial series, video series, events, collaborations, social media, and a member world that grows alongside it all.
This is a platform you can rally behind.
Membership gives you the full editorial experience, not just extra posts. It gives you access to the essays and conversations that go further into the reality of what it means to build a life around horses, and it gives you a way to participate in the platform as it grows.
The content here is about many things: inspiration, connection, feeling understood, exploring all aspects of this life, learning, and maybe even some real life value in a more tangible sense:
To help you think more clearly about your own goals. To give you perspective from other horse people with different paths and experiences. To make the hard parts of this life feel less isolating. To give words to the things so many of us feel but do not always say out loud. To bring forward stories from people across the horse world, not only the ones who are usually handed the microphone.
This is for the horse people who love the horses first, but still have goals. The people who care about partnership and still want to compete, or build a business, or succeed in or out of the ring in a meaningful way. The people who are building a career, changing direction, chasing a dream, starting over, coming back to riding and giving it their all, moving up, finding a new direction, or trying to figure out what their place in the horse world looks like now.
It is for the people who know horses shape every aspect of our lives - they aren’t just fit in here and there - and want a publication, platform, & community that takes that seriously while still feeling like the heart & soul of it all matters.
Choose Your Plan
Once you subscribe, your price stays the same as long as you keep your subscription active.
Monthly, $9.99/month
Best if you want the full membership experience without committing to a full year yet.
Monthly membership gives you immediate access to the premium content library, including member-only essays, the full archive, two exclusive podcast episodes each month, monthly Substack Lives, subscriber chat, replays, and member submission opportunities.
This is the right tier if you want to read along more closely, join the conversations, submit topic requests, and have a place to come back to when you’re thinking through your own goals, choices, questions, and life around horses.
Cancel anytime.
Yearly, $99/year
Best if you already know this is your kind of horse world, and you want the best value for the full year.
Annual memberships save 30% off the monthly membership option.
You get everything included in monthly membership, with one annual payment that saves you money over paying month to month. It also gives you a full year of access to the archive as it grows, the ongoing editorial series, member-only podcast episodes, monthly Lives, replays, subscriber chat, and submission opportunities.
This is the tier for readers who know they will want to keep coming back to the essays, conversations, and stories here. The ones about ambition, identity, reinvention, money, confidence, belonging, the pursuit of goals, and the very specific experience of building a life around horses.
Annual members will also get special discounts in the shop and first access along with Founding Members to new releases of members-only merch, collaborations, and events.
Founding Member, $199/year
For readers who want the closest access to ‘anyway, horses.’ as it grows, and who want the most value and involvement. Or who simply want to support the growth of a positive and meaningful platform and community within the horse world.
Founding Members get everything included in yearly membership, plus priority consideration for personal essay submissions, op-eds, recurring series submissions, podcast guest suggestions, Live guest suggestions, and topic requests.
This tier is for the people who want their voice, stories, ideas, and suggestions to have a real place in the early foundation of this platform. As member-only series, podcast episodes, Lives, events, collaborations, and merchandise develop, Founding Members will be the first group invited into those opportunities.
Choose Founding Member if you want the full member experience, the closest access to what is being built, special quarterly gifts delivered to your door, first access to live events, special Founding Members merch, hefty discounts on shop items, live events, and collaboration projects, and the strongest opportunity to help shape the stories and conversations that become part of the ‘anyway, horses.’ world.
As a Founding Member, you are not only getting the most value, but you are also an integral part of helping this platform grow, reach more people, do bigger things, and make a positive impact on the horse world.
FAQs
How do I access everything?
Substack sends posts directly to your email, and you can also read, watch, and listen to everything on the Substack app or website. Once you’ve subscribed as a paid member, as long as you’re logged into Substack, you’ll have access to everything.
Join mid-month?
You’ll get access to the member archive and anything already published for members, plus all future content.
Can I cancel?
Of course. You can cancel a monthly membership anytime and it will end the day before the next billing cycle. Annual memberships you can cancel anytime, but there are no prorated refunds.
Do I need to be a professional rider?
No. You do not need to ride professionally, compete at a certain level, own a certain kind of horse, or have a specific version of a life centered around horses.
This is for people who are building, have built, or want to build a life around horses in a way that feels meaningful to them. Your goals might be in the saddle, in business, in breeding, in media, in ownership, in sport, in advocacy, or in finding your way back to horses after life has taken a few turns and turning it into the focal point of your life.
The common thread is not a title or a level. It is that horses matter enough to shape your life.
Is this for hunter/jumper or show jumpers only?
No. This spans disciplines, levels, careers, and life stages. The common thread is not what ring you ride in or what kind of saddle you use. It is the experience of building a life around horses. Hunters, jumpers, dressage, eventing, reining, cutting, western disciplines, rodeo, driving, vaulting… building a life built around horses creates bridges across all competitive disciplines.
Is this only for people with careers or jobs in horses?
No. Many members are trying to make horses their career, or are already working in the horse world, but many work outside of the equestrian space and dedicate the other areas of life - like finances, free time, life choices, where they live, and more - to their passion for horses. Dedication, goals, ambition, and an obsession with horses takes many forms. The biggest common thread is that for most of us here, horses will never be “just a hobby”.
Can I submit my own essay, op-ed, or story?
Yes. Members can submit personal essays, op-eds, and story submissions. Pieces are chosen for publication based on content & fit for the ‘anyway, horses.’ audience, and each goes through a collaborative editing process (just like submitting to a magazine). Final pieces are never published without author consent and final sign-off.
Can I submit anonymously?
Yes. Pieces can be published with full credit and your author bio and any links youd like to include, or can be published fully anonymously if the subject matter is more personal, complicated, or sensitive.
Will every submission be published?
No. Submissions will be reviewed editorially, and not every piece will be the right fit. But member submissions are an important part of what this platform is being built to hold: more stories, more perspectives, and more honest conversations from across the horse world.
Didn’t receive the welcome email?
Check spam, or reply to any newsletter from me and I’ll help you get in.
A note from me
I’m Erin Lane, and I created ‘anyway, horses.’ after more than two decades of trying to build a life around horses in just about every way I could.
I have been a rider since I was nine years old, and my path through the horse world has been anything but linear. I’ve ridden multiple disciplines, been an amateur and a professional, run a training and sales business, worked as an equestrian journalist and media producer, helped create and produce major educational and documentary-style projects in the horse industry, interviewed and worked with some of the biggest names in the sport, and spent years having the kinds of conversations with horse people that rarely make it into public view.
I’ve also had plenty of my own moments of wondering what on earth I was doing, whether any of it was going to work out, and why I could not seem to choose an easier, simpler, more practical thing to build my life around.
But horses have always been the constant.
Through my own experiences, and through years of conversations with people across the horse world, I have become fascinated by the same questions over and over again:
Why do we build our lives around horses?
What does this pursuit give us?
What does it cost us?
And who do we become in the process?
That is what ‘anyway, horses.’ is here to explore. The stories, choices, sacrifices, ambitions, identity crises, hard moments, wonderful moments, and deep, irrational drive and passion that comes with building a life centered around horses.
For the people doing it any way they can.
For the people who keep going anyway.
For the people who always find a way to turn the conversation back to:
“so anyway... horses.”
I’d love to have you with us.
Erin