Jen Paulson Creative

16/11/2024

Thanks to Horse & Rider Magazine for asking me to write about the late Bob Avila. I learned so much from Bob, and I hope we all can carry his legacy forward.

The Western performance horse world lost an icon in November 2024. Here, we remember the legendary trainer Bob Avila.

31/10/2024

THIS is why I love what I do. If you watch this and don't get chills, I don't know if you have blood running through your veins. These horses are so special, and the people aren't too shabby, either. I already can't wait to get to the Celebration of Champions and World's Greatest Horseman early next year!
Equibrand (parent company of Classic Equine) has been a client of mine for 5+ years, entrusting me with their copywriting and more. NRCHA has been on my roster for 18 months and counting. I have some space to round out 2024 and to start new relationships next year. Reach out to see how we can partner.

02/08/2024

This is a great opportunity for someone wanting to break into Western performance media. I'll be there during the open finals, so we'd get to work together for part of it! It's a lot of work, but you'll learn so much in a condensed timeframe.

Applications for 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 & 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 are now open. We are looking for a special person to join our team for the 2024 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity® presented by Metallic Cat! Apply through Of The West by 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝟮𝟯.

Apply today 📲 https://nrcha.co/sbf-internship

03/06/2024

During my short trip to the American Horse Publications seminar last month, I picked up the brochure I copy-wrote for Brooke USA late last year. I'm so grateful to Emily Dulin for the opportunity to step out of my Western performance arena and jump headfirst into advocacy for working equines.
I think we all know that horses, donkeys, and mules play vital roles in third-world countries and the service they provide to the people who partner with them. But I didn't know the depth of that connection and what it means to not just their economies but their survival.
I'm excited to embark on my next project for Brooke USA, covering the Ejiao Act. Thank you, Emily and Brooke USA, for trusting me with your writing needs.

10/04/2024

This was so fun to write! Being a mare owner, I love seeing these phenomenal mares reach milestones that shape the future of our sport. It certainly helped that we're a family of Colorado Rockies fans, so interviewing former Rockies' pitcher Aaron Cook made it extra fun!

The National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) proudly announced its first-ever NRCHA Million Dollar Dam, Scooters Daisy Dukes.

10/04/2024

The Spring 2024 NRHA - National Reining Horse Association Pro Trainer is live, and it has me feeling a bit nostalgic. In it, NRHA Professional Josiane Gauthier Performance Horses speaks about her Professional Horsewoman of the Year award and says this about the hardest lesson she's had to learn:

"When things end, you have to learn to let it go. People come and go in our business, and so do their horses. We put so much heart into each horse and have goals and dreams for them."

For me, that's true of my own business, too. This is the final installment of the Pro Trainer as a magazine. During the last eight years, it's evolved from a print publication we produced three times a year to a quarterly print magazine to a digital magazine. Each of these moves were strategic and involved many considerations. The same holds true with this latest evolution of the brand to serve NRHA's strategic plan as well as NRHA Professionals' needs.

This summer, there'll be a whole new NRHA Pro Trainer website, featuring legacy content that's updated and broken into easy-to-read, short-form articles with lots of links and resources for more information.

I admit, this stings a little for my magazine-loving self, the same way it stings a horse trainer to have a horse they started move on. I was part of the team that created this project and have seen it through many changes in our world. That said, this next step makes sense for the audience. In everything I do, create, and share, the audience remains the most important factor—not my own vanity. Every project must fulfill a void, serve a need, and be appropriate for the intended target if we want to achieve success.

Please enjoy our final installment. As always, thank you to my superstar partner in Pro Trainer crime, art director Sandy Cochran; the incredible freelancers who've lent their writing and photography skills to this endeavor; NRHA for supporting this for so long; and the professionals who've supported us, shared content, and given your ideas and best practices. It takes a village!

On to the next phase!

Read Spring 2024 Pro Trainer by NRHA on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!

19/03/2024

Phew! This one came down to the wire to fit in all the great coverage of the Celebration of Champions and the World's Greatest Horseman and Youth Horseman! Having excellent contributors and teammates definitely helps. 🤩 Thanks to all of our writers for nailing your deadlines and our home team of Jennifer Denison, Callie McCarthy-Boevers, and Susan Sampson for getting it all finished up!

The latest issue of the 𝑹𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒘 𝑯𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒘𝒔 is now available online and be on the look for the issue coming in the mail in the next week or so!

Not only are there articles from the 2024 Kalpowar Quarter Horses Celebration of Champions, Ray Shell Ranch LLC and Western Bloodstock LTD. World's Greatest Horseman™ along with the World's Greates Youth Horseman™ presented by Mars Equestrian but there are great articles to learn about the Box Drive Class plus interviewing tips!

Read now ➡️ https://nrcha.co/RCHN

18/03/2024

Most of my work focuses on the Western performance horse world, but a big part of my life is and always has centered around wrestling, thanks to the influence of my dad, Ray Barron. I'm so proud of the work we're doing through the Ray Barron Strength & Honor Fund to honor his legacy and perpetuate his values. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jake and two other finalists for this year's $10,000 scholarship. His future is bright, and he'll even have a little help from our supporters to pursue his dreams.

🥁DRUM ROLL PLEASE🥁
Announcing the 2024 RBS&HF $10,000 Scholarship Recipient, Jake Glade of Mead High School!
Jake is a four-time state-placer, including back-to-back championships last year and this year, and his Mead High School wrestling team took home the 4A team title from state this year. He puts his team, family, and community ahead of himself and works hard to see them succeed.
The RBS&HF Board was very impressed with this year's class of applicants and enjoyed getting to know the top three contenders via video interviews. Learn more about Jake, his background, and his future plans here: https://www.raybarronstrengthandhonorfund.com/news/rbsamphf-names-2024-scholarship-recipient

08/03/2024

I really enjoyed writing about Scooter Kat for Horse & Rider Magazine late last year. Today this big guy and Justin Wright take on The American Performance Horseman challenge! A little bird told me this pair topped this morning’s reined work. 😉 Can’t wait to hear how they do down the fence tonight!

He’s the highest-earning reined cow horse of all time, and cow horses from his first foal crop had all eyes on them at the 2023 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity.

17/01/2024

I love a chance to write about a special mare!🦄

This palomino mare is anything but lonely as her progeny join her in the ranks of being top reining performers.

09/01/2024

This is such an important topic for those who work in media, marketing, advertising, and more. Shelley Paulson Photography does an excellent job pointing out how to recognize AI images, why they're problematic, and what ramifications brands can face when using them. Plus, you simply can't replace our talented, authentic photographers, writers, and other creatives and expect to maintain integrity, authenticity, and reality.

Side note: Anyone watch the Golden Globes and see the presentation speech that was written by AI? Good laugh...and totally cringey!

In the past month, I've been disappointed to see several posts and ads by reputable equine brands using AI-generated images.

Very believable AI-generated images.

As AI advances, it will get more difficult to tell synthetic and organic images apart, so, I wrote this article to share 6 Ways to Discern AI Horse Images from Real Equine Photos.

https://shelleypaulsonstock.com/2024/01/09/6-ways-to-discern-ai-horse-images-from-real-equine-photos/

Do you have any to add? I would love to hear in the comments.

03/01/2024

I sat in my car in traffic today and suddenly realized: In a couple weeks, I'll reach my five-year mark as being in business for myself.

I started my career after graduating from the University of Wyoming in 1998, and I spent 21 of the years that followed learning from the best in the business; being mentored by movers and shakers; observing trends come and go; and allowing influence to come from any corner that represented my values of serving an audience, presenting valuable content in many different formats, and helping to push the Western performance horse industry forward for its own betterment and the benefit of our horses.

In the five years I've been on my own, I continue to learn from peers in all phases of their careers, to push myself, to grow, and to figure out accounting and my own budgets (haha).

Thank you to all my teachers and mentors—there are too many to list, but the variety of skills, insights, and backgrounds are what keep me fresh and thinking outside the box.

Thank you to everyone who took a chance on me when I was young and hard-headed. (I’m still one of those things...) Because of your faith in me, I developed faith in myself.

Thank you to all of my clients through Jen Paulson Creative—short-term, project-based, repeat, long-term, and newcomers. I'm pretty choosy about my partners, and I know you are, too.

Thank you to my husband, kids, parents, in-laws, family, and friends for your ongoing support. The wheels would fall off this bus without your help and encouragement.

Here's to 2024 and more exciting projects and partnerships! Let's do big things together!