The United States and its riders won a record number of gold medals at the Paris Paralympic Games, as well as team show jumping silver at the Olympics, but those weren’t the stories that Chronicle readers clicked on the most this year. Instead, it was horse welfare issues—particularly the well-being of individual animals and the behavior of individual riders—that dominated our list of the top 20 most-read stories on COTH.com this year. And for jaded journalists used to seeing bad news make a splash and good news land with a shrug, it was heartening to see that, while our most-read story was about a tragedy, also making the top three was news about the promising initiatives meant to improve welfare which that tragedy produced.
Here’s our annual compilation of the most-read stories posted in the past year to COTH.com:
20. 81-Year-Old Roisin O’Rahilly Wins Beginner Novice Master Amateur At AEC
19. Kent Farrington Out, Karl Cook In For US Team At Olympics
18. Two Riders Sanctioned At Defender Kentucky
17. Eventer Andrew McConnon Under Investigation For Alleged Horse Abuse
16. Liz Halliday Moved Out Of Hospital And Into Rehabilitation Center
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15. Road To The Makeover: Surviving A Nightmare
14. 21 And Twice Retired, Forever Young Wundermaske Makes Olympic History In Paris
13. USEF And FEI Investigating Training Video Of Cesar Para
12. We Showed On Sunday, He Died On Tuesday: An Outbreak Story
11. Marcus Orlob Eliminated In Grand Prix At Paris Olympics
10. Liz Halliday Hospitalized After Cross-Country Fall At AEC
9. USEF Responds To Katie Prudent Clinic Controversy
8. Carl Hester Discusses Dujardin During Olympics
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7. Charlotte Dujardin Withdraws From Olympics After FEI Launches Investigation Of Training Video
6. Dujardin Whipping Video Made Public
5. Owner, USEF Disagree About What Killed Chromatic BF
4. Your Funniest Horse Show Moments
3. USEF Announces Welfare Initiatives In Response To Chromatic BF’s Death
