Hey! Where did the network go?
Here’s the farewell letter I sent to users about a month ago:

Howdy Beautiful Horse Lover!

Sad News

It is with a heavy heart I come to you to tell you that I can no longer afford to run nor financially maintain the social network I created for equine rescuers and advocates at www.equineconnection.org. With the toughest stretch financially I’ve experienced in my career hopefully now behind me and what look like some tricky seas ahead I must to go forward on projects better suited to my talent and skills.

Didn’t Attract Sponsors

While I had the back-end mechanics and original content creation aspects of the network well in hand, inspiring those with the resources necessary to help get me out there as a live champion of the project in front of horse lovers and sponsors at equine events just didn’t happen. Frankly, I spent all my money setting up and maintaining the site and didn’t have any to spare to pay any other promotional expenses.

Rescuers & Advocates are Simply Too Busy?

Oh sure, I was warned early on the people I was attempting to serve were burdened with their own efforts and may not see the immediate value of joining forces to pool resources and information with others among them with similar goals to help them with their collective larger missions. And for the most part (though with several notable supportive exceptions) this seems to have been the case. Most seem satisfied making their connections via Facebook despite its limitations or through their own individual online efforts and websites – to which I loudly express great admiration!

Looking For New Steward

I have offered the http://www.equineconnection.org site and all its associative new media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, et al) to several existing equine welfare consortiums to take charge of and run as they see fit, which means the mission, the focus and the contents could very well then change or even disappear altogether. So far no takers. It is a squeaky clean upbeat and global network that could well serve a sponsor’s goodwill….I continue to be surprised none stepped up. I have to think it was my fault somehow. For this I am truly sorry.

Happy News

Some of the projects associated with the site that I do intend to continue on with as time and resources allow are:

Merry Horses Facebook page ( I will of course detach the Merry Horses persona from any official involvement at EquineConnection and redesign her logo so the main site can keep it’s look)
MerryHorses online magazine (formerly EquineConnection) featuring hope, education and optimism throughout equine advocacy and welfare
Iota McHippus and Angry Pony – outspoken online equine advocate horseanalities – champions for horses and those who do them well
“Alfie&io!” – the original cartoon series starring Alfie McFlakey and Iota McHippus and their highly original crazily imaginative solutions to what’s wrong in the mistreatment of equines everywhere
www.merryhorses.com – THIS  new blog with resource links that will organize these optimistic creative projects into one accessible location

I Am So Sorry

Of course I’m bummed I couldn’t support the network long enough to get it to its ‘tipping point’, but what I’ve built, assembled and created to this point is an awesomely powerful tool a group with access to more resources than I can now take there with ease. You wouldn’t believe the plans I had for when things started kicking in – but had I not come this far with it the five projects listed above would never had been created.

If the site gets no takers, it will simply float off into digital nothingness as I will not be able to renew adequate hosting. Don’t worry any information (photos, posts, etc) will be deleted safely and fully.

In the mean hours of a sleepless night I sometimes wonder if all the energy I put toward this did anything for any horse anywhere – you know how those tiny hours can kick, and I wonder if I simply failed on every level. I suppose a lot of people would say “yep!”, but not this crazyass optimist. I’m happy to have stepped up and made this attempt.
One Final Note:

The new blog will not have an automatic email service like this one. I pre-subscribed you for those posts but you can unsubscribe immediately if you like. Check your email for the link. It’s easy.

Again, I’m sorry but hope you’ll like the new less taxing blog and projects I’m going forward with.

Your Hopeful Friend,

Marti McGinnis

merryhorses@gmail.com