first published in the December 2020 Equiery

We at The Equiery would like to thank all of our Facebook followers who helped us decide which of the 349 Equiery covers should be included in this issue. Here are your top five covers based on Facebook likes. Thank you again for your support over the last 30 years. We look forward to another 30 and more!

We certainly all have favorite Equiery covers. The covers with smiling riders on their handsome horses. The covers marking a historical victory. Covers that pay homage to a lost loved heart horse. Covers full of action, full of color, full of life. Out of 349 covers to choose from, picking just one to be the all-time best Equiery cover is well, impossible! However, after posting all of our previous covers for readers to vote on via Facebook, the July 2015 cover came out on top, by over 200 votes! Let’s face it, this cover has it all! It is full of action, full of color and full of life. The cover celebrates Mackenzie Taylor’s individual championship win with Rege Dvorsky’s I’m Inky at the 2015 World Mounted Games Championship. This cover also received the most comments with many people saying they were choosing it because of how great a team Mackenzie and Inky were, while others express how much they loved the action and motion of both the running pony and Mackenzie leaping back into the saddle.

Our readers’ second most favorite Equiery cover was the December 2018 edition depicting 2018 AppyFest Grand Champions Christian Embry and Nya. AppyFest, presented by the Maryland Fund For Horses, provided the photo and had well over 100 followers voting for this cover. In addition, out of all our covers, this one was shared the most. Comments came from all over the country with many of Christian’s family members posting their enthusiasm for this cover post.

Kids and ponies seem to have a soft spot in the hearts of our Equiery readers as our third top cover was the September 2019 issue with US Pony Racing riders racing at the Devon Horse Show, which was the first leg in the annual WIHS Shetland Pony Steeplechase. This photo, taken by Jump Media’s Emily Riden, shows pony jockeys James Wyatt riding Olney Mardi Gras and Sadie Edwards on Knights Taffy. In addition to the 84 likes this cover received on our page, Regina Welsh of US Pony Racing shared the cover post on her own page where it received an additional 53 likes!

The May 2010 cover was purchased by Wheaton Park Stables to honor their school pony Mickey Mouse after his death. The caption read “Mickey Mouse of Wheaton Park Stables, the best lesson and trails horse ever. You will be in our hearts forever.” Great horses never truly die as Mickey Mouse’s dedication cover made our top five reader favorite covers in the number four spot earning 66 likes. His memory surely lives on in this cover and the comments along with additional photos other students posted of him on our page.

Rounding out our top five fan favorite covers is this gem from June 1995 with a very tiny Samantha Schaefer giving her pony Alex a kiss after a leadline class. This cover sure brought back memories, including from Samantha herself who shared the post on her page, writing “My very first unicorn who started it all.” This cover received 51 likes on our page along with several comments and shares. On Samantha’s page, it earned another 154 likes and another 66 when shared on the Maryland Horse Shows Association page! You can see Samantha all grown up on page 11 of this issue as she continues to earn top honors.