Second Annual Horse Nation Halloween Short Story Contest

In partnership with the Horse Radio Network, we’re hosting our second annual Halloween spooky short story contest! Give us goosebumps and we’ll publish your story, plus perhaps read it on the air!

Pixabay/hannsbenn/CC

From the haunted steed of the Headless Horseman to the ghost riders in the sky, horses have always figured prominently in our favorite hair-raising tales we love to tell this time of year. Horses have the power to invoke our deepest emotions, and when you take a horse with mane and tail a-blowing in a chill October breeze as the sun dips down beneath the horizon and the air grows suddenly cool, the shadows playing tricks on your eyes, you have the perfect recipe for a ghost story for the ages.

And we want to hear yours! Whether you have an old tale that’s been passed down in your barn family or you conjure up the best spooky story in your mind and put it down on paper, we’re calling for your best horsey Halloween tales for our second annual short story contest. We’ll publish the best around Halloween, and we’ll be reading our favorites on the Halloween episode of Horses in the Morning, the horse world’s first and favorite daily podcast!

How to enter:

1. Send your story, either in the body of the email or in an attachment, to [email protected]. Include your full name (or penname!)
2. Stories should be limited to about 2500 words. If you’re under that limit, that’s fine; if you’re a bit over, we’ll use our discretion. Stories selected for publishing may be edited slightly for length if necessary.
3. Multiple entries are welcome!
4. “Spooky” suggests a true good old-fashioned goosebump-inducing ghost story, but we’ll also welcome lighthearted spoofs. That means you can write “The Curse of Hunter’s Hill Farm,” or “The Horse Who Was Too Fat For His Girth To Buckle.”
5. Entries are due by midnight on Wednesday, October 24!

We’ll publish the best 5-8 stories on October 29-31, and we will read our favorites on the October 31 episode of Horses in the Morning.

Go writing! And go riding.