Meet Sylvia Schneider, co-host of the Equinely-Inclined podcast for Canada's horse community, and a pioneer of Alberta podcasting.

Sylvia wanted to do a podcast before the concept was even a gleam in anyone's eye — she just didn't know that was the name for what she wanted to do. She started finding fellow horse-lovers on message boards, before the World Wide Web made it so much easier for us to connect with each other. And she started a blog, for which she would interview people in the equine community. 

"I always thought it would be so much easier if we could do it in audio," she says.

Technology finally caught up with Sylvia's ambitions, and in 2007, she started Equinely-Inclined. There have been breaks over the years, as she and co-host Diana Balbar have a lot of balls to juggle, but they keep coming back to the microphones to cover this fascinating but somewhat hidden part of our world.

In this episode, you'll hear more about the technical challenges involved in the early days, and even today; the rarity of windows into rural life in media; how horses are different from people; why Equinely-Inclined went on hiatus and why it came back; misconceptions about rural people and technology; lessons from running a Patreon campaign; and more.

This episode is also available in Apple Podcasts, on Google Play, on SoundCloud or on Stitcher.

Sylvia made these recommendations:

• Let's Find Out by Chris Chang-Yen Phillips, Edmonton's historian laureate
• Alberta Filmmakers Podcast, which did an episode about Heartland, one of Sylvia's favourites (it has horses in it, of course);
• The IABC Edmonton Podcast, produced by Marvin Polis
• And she also mentioned Michael Subasic's YouTube channel, which often talks about Teslas
• Along the way we also mentioned The Stable Scoop and I Don't Get It.

You can find Equinely-Inclined on Facebook, where you'll find lots of horsey videos, and you can subscribe to it in Apple Podcasts. Check out @canadaequine and @sylviaschneider on Twitter, and Sylvia's business at Pondside Digital Media.

Many thanks to Castria for editing and producing this podcast.

This episode of Seen and Heard in Edmonton is brought to you by the Edmonton Community Foundation, which acts as a bridge between donors and charities to help create a strong, vibrant community for generations to come.

The ECF does a monthly show called The Well Endowed Podcast, and it is a delightful window into our community. The September episode features a queer-history tour of Edmonton by Darrin Hagen, and it is not to be missed. 

You can subscribe to The Well Endowed Podcast in Apple Podcasts or Google Play.

This episode is also brought to you by ATB Financial, founding sponsor of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB.

In this episode, you’ll hear me talk to my daughter Elizabeth about her jealousy over her brother's experience with Junior ATB, and her genuine interest in financial literacy.

A lot of good things have come into this world because ATB listens. Find out more at atb.com/listen.

Musical credits: Beethoven’s Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2 No. 1, played by Daniel Veesey, from freemusicarchive.com.