I used to keep a plastic file storage box packed full of manila folders carefully labeled “colic,” “lameness,”  “conditioning,” and other horse health topics. Each folder held photocopies of articles from various horse magazines that had been handouts from 4-H hippology or horse bowl meetings or United States Pony Clubs (USPC) rating-preparation sessions. Others were items my mom or I had copied for our own reference in caring for our horses.

A few years later I hauled around a textbook during college called The Horse for a few of my classes. (Prophetic? Possibly.) In fact, I had an entire shelf of textbooks, manuals, and reference books so that I could look up anything when I was studying for tests or trying to understand weird conditions my horse was battling. We didn’t really access the Internet much then for information on horse health