Be careful online. This is a reminder to all horse-country.com kids, people might not always be what they seem. Just as horses look sweet but may bite or kick, people online may turn out to be anything from jerks to unsavory characters.

If you run into someone here, or anywhere else online, who says or writes things that make you feel uncomfortable or scared, stop communicating with this person immediately. Talk to your parents about helping you forward the message to your service provider - learn how to report abuse. Send the entire message with complete header which contains date and time stamps to trace the person. Report email the same as if you have a problem with snail mail which you can turn over to the federal postal authorities.

Kids should know how to protect themselves because they have every right to enjoy the internet. Lots of Horse Country families have met in real life, at horse shows or in their hometowns. But don't ever arrange to meet a stranger by yourself. That's pretty foolish.

Mail list software allows plain text only and learning how to turn off html is the start of making you an expert email user!

If you've signed up for Jr Riders Journal digest and want to actually get them, you will have to add the horse-country.com email address to your email browser's safe list or address book.

If you've signed up for Jr Riders Journal individual posts but your email service blocks certain posters that message will bounce to the list owner, who will then change you to digest.

If you are not sure how to add an address to your email safe list, check with your email service provider.

Refer to following instructions if you are using Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, or AOL

HOTMAIL: To ensure that horse-country.com emails are not sent to your Hotmail Junk E-Mail folder, you can add the horse-country.com domain (A domain is the portion of the e-mail address that comes after @ -- e.g. @horse-country.com.com) to your Hotmail Safe List.

1. Go to the Options page. (upper right of screen)
2. On the left side of the page, click Mail, and then click Junk E-Mail Protection.
3. Click on Safe List.
4. 4. Type the domain horse-country.com.com, and then click Add.
5. 5. Click OK.

AOL 7 and 8: To ensure that you receive horse-country.com emails, place an email ID in your AOL 'Address Book'. Here's how:

1. Go to Keyword Mail Controls
2. Select the screen name to which horse-country.com emails will be sent to (e.g. "ponyxyz1")
3. Now choose 'Customize Mail Controls' For This Screen Name
4. For AOL 7.0, include in the section, "exclusion and inclusion parameters", the domains from which horse-country.com email is sent: horse-country.com.com
5. For AOL 8.0, choose "Allow mail from AOL Members and addresses listed"
6. Type: horse-country.com.com
7. Click Add.
8. Choose "Ok" displayed at the bottom.

AOL 9.0: The best way to ensure that you will receive horse-country.com email is to place an email ID in your "Person I know" buddy list. All mail you receive from this email ID will pass through the filters. So, make sure that when you join, it is ADDED to your buddy list.

YAHOO: Yahoo mail uses combination of bulk mail folders and filters. If you are not receiving horse-country.com email, check your "Bulk Mail". Next locate the filtered horse-country.com email, and choose "this is not Spam," next to the "From" field.

Or to create filter for your horse-country.com emails:

In Yahoo mail, click the "Mail Options" link on the top-right navigation bar, and then choose "Filters" located on the left side of the page, under the Spam column.

To create a new filter, click the "Add Filter" link on the Filters page.

1. Choose the field you want to match in the incoming message. For example, select the one of the following headers: From, To/Cc, Subject, or Body to match.
2. Choose the criterion by which you want a match to be made. For example: contains, ends with.
3. Enter the text string to compare. For example: @horse-country.com.com.
4. Choose the destination folder to which you would like the message delivered. For example: horse-country.com. Note you can create a folder by selecting [new folder].
5. If you have more than one filter, you'll also see "up" and "down" arrows to the right of the filter list. Use these buttons to select the placement of your new filter within your existing sequence of filters. Filter order is important because Filter 1 will be the first filter applied to an incoming message, Filter 2 will be the next, and so on until a match is made or all filters are passed. If no filters match an incoming message, it will be delivered to your inbox.

Be sure to click the "Add Filter" button to put your new filter into effect, after you've selected a folder in which to file the e-mail.

Kids should also know that they can be traced by the authorities if they misuse their accounts.

Chain letters waste vital computing resources. Most ISPs (internet service providers) have rules against chain letters. If chain letters are found in a user's account, the account may be closed. Chain letters are the ones who tell you to pass an email around to everyone you know or something bad (or good) will happen. It's just junk!