Horse Radio Network Featured in New Podcast Documentary

The story of how our favorite podcast for horse lovers developed into a globally-recognized network — and how founder Glenn the Geek helped pave the way for podcasters in all fields — will be featured in ‘The Messengers’ podcast documentary!

Glenn at work in the studio. Photo via YouTube.

The equestrian community, for all of its various factions, disciplines and experiences, remains a tight-knit group of people united by our love for horses, in all shapes, sizes and colors. Sometimes our love for horses seems almost like a secret, something the rest of the world simply hasn’t figured out just yet. We’re accustomed to the fact that the leaders, movers and shakers in our industry aren’t necessary well-known outside out secret society.

In one field, however, that last statement isn’t entirely true. Founder of the Horse Radio Network and good friend of Horse Nation Glenn the Geek has worked for years on a truth that the rest of the world is just starting to catch on to: podcasts are kind of a big deal.

Before people really realized what a podcast was — essentially, live-streaming radio about your favorite subjects on demand, whenever you want it — Glenn and his team were building the Horse Radio Network from the ground up, growing from twelve listeners of one solitary show in the first three months to a global listening audience of over 130,000, with eight shows and twenty regular hosts.

Glenn the Geek of the Horse Radio Network. Photo courtesy of Glenn/The Messengers.

But the highly entertaining, educational hour or two we spend listening to Horses in the Morning or the other seven shows produced by the Horse Radio Network doesn’t accurately reflect the hours and hours of preparation and work behind the scenes that goes into developing a sustainable podcast, let alone an entire network. But it’s that behind the scenes story that’s finally going to be told in The Messengers, a documentary about podcasts that’s currently filming in various locations all over the United States.

The Messengers seeks to tell the story of Glenn and podcasters like him, passionate people working at the grassroots level to build their audience and network from the ground up. We’re in what Glenn calls the “dawn of podcasting,” as more and more people realize that podcasts are both a place to find community and a platform to share your own unique voice and tell your story.

At the same time, major corporations like CNN, NPR and the BBC, among others, are trying to harness the power of podcasts themselves, with the arsenal of tools at their disposal that come with having a massive budget. The producers of The Messengers are examining this conflict, the eventual point where these global forces will meet the grassroots podcasters — what will be the landscape of podcasts five years from now? How will individual podcasts evolved while keeping their identity, their own story?

The fact remains that within this changing landscape of podcasts, the Horse Radio Network is recognized as a major player, an example to other podcasters of what a strong network should look like, how a strong network should operate. Glenn with his wife Coach Jenn and the other hosts have put the Horse Radio Network on the global map of podcasting, a world in which a staggering 98.5% of podcasts have folded in six or twelve months.

From this first glance at The Messengers, we’re so excited to see Glenn’s story be told on the big screen. (Horses Scooter and Nigel look like they get some screen time too!)

The Horse Radio Network, in its own words, “unites the horse world, one show at a time.” If the success of HRN as a leader within the realm of podcasting is any indicator of all of the good things that can happen when equestrians work together, what else could we achieve?

To learn more about The Messengers documentary, visit the production website and “like” the project on Facebook.

To learn more about the Horse Radio Network, visit the HRN website. Horses in the Morning airs Monday through Friday at 9:00 AM Eastern; you can listen live or catch replays at the show’s website. Horse Nation’s own Leslie Wylie is a featured guest each Monday. Follow Horses in the Morning on Facebook for more information.

Go riding!