I have been a fan of Trafalgar Square Books for many years. When I was a very young girl my parents instilled a love of reading. I would visit the library and always take out the maximum number of books. I constantly got free Pizza Hut through the reading program they did. I grew up hooked on Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley books.
As an adult reading is a luxury when I have time…but in recent years I have been MAKING the time. Reading about horses is just one of the many ways I learn about this wonderful world of horses. I found I most enjoy reading the biographies and memoirs. Learning about a profession or the sport through the eyes of someone who has lived it gives you so much perspective. I think of Dr. Seamans in Never Trust a Sneaky Pony, Jimmy Wofford in Still Horse Crazy After All These Years….Tik Maynard in both In the Middle are the Horsemen and Starting in the Middle.
I also love to read about my sport of choice; in lessons I am being instructed but in order to truly understand the training you need to understand the theory. Theory is taught to some degree in lessons but books and literature go further in depth into the ideas and they can give some useful imagery that translates to the saddle. Sometimes a book presents the theory in just a way that it clicks once I’m in the saddle and in front of my trainer. The light bulb goes on. For those I turn to Beth Baumert’s When Two Spines Align or How Two Minds Meet….or Jec Ballou’s 22 Strength and Fitness Workouts For Horses (as well as 55 Corrective Exercises for Horses), and Ali Kermeen’s Working Equitation Training Manual.
I became an affiliate with Trafalgar Square Books a few years ago and in 2024 I was invited to become a review partner. Martha would send books that seemed suitable for my reading interests, and I have been busy reading and reviewing them!
I have read, bought, and reviewed many books through this company.
Check Out My Book Club
As involved as I am with TSB, I was surprised to learn in May 2025 from a clinician that Trafalgar Square had been sold. There was no announcement. No email blasts or website announcement (that I am aware of). Things seemed the same for a while. Then review books stopped coming in. No sales were announced. I checked the website and I could find traces of the new owner’s influence. On the contact page it now said Trafalgar Square Books is “an imprint of” the Stable Book Group. Email addresses and numbers changed. No longer Vermont. Now Brooklyn, NY. They were absent from Equine Affaire. Less books were getting published.
I reached out to the group to learn more about the sale. No word. I reached out again. Nothing. I tried a new email address I found. After a couple more follow ups I started to get a response.
I was put into contact with Neleigh Olson. We have talked back and forth briefly throughout the year and finally at the beginning of December we had some time to sit down and actually TALK. I wanted to know more about the new company that has taken over our beloved publisher and what to expect in the months and years to come. I wanted to get to know the NEW Trafalgar Square Books and Stable Book Group.
History
Let’s start at the very beginning. In 1983 Ted and Caroline Robbins founded Trafalgar Square Books in Pomfret, Vermont. The first release, Centered Riding by Sally Swift celebrated its 40th anniversary just last year having sold almost 1 million copies in 16 languages. Over its 40 years of publishing Trafalgar Square released over 600 titles. What an incredible accomplishment!
In 2025 Caroline decided to retire. The Stable Book Group was selected to come on as the buyer. Martha and Becca hired Neleigh to join their team as they began to restructure. Neleigh is the new Managing Editor for Trafalgar Square Books.
Training the Successor
Neleigh is a horse person through and through. As a child she was a 4H kid and competed in western games. She spent 15 years as an exercise rider on famous tracks such as Churchill, Keenland, Saratoga, Santa Anita, and Hollywood Park. Today she owns two OTTBs and calls Louisville, KY her home. She loves to visit the horse park nearby in Lexington. Neleigh obtained not one but two Master’s degrees in both Creative Writing and in Music Studies and taught writing to undergraduates at the University of Louisville.
As I spoke with Neleigh I was in awe at how much she has on her shoulders as the main point of contact for Trafalgar Square Books. She reads the manuscripts and book pitches. From there she has to make the difficult decisions on whether or not to proceed. If she wants to proceed, she then needs to run the numbers and pitch the book to the Stable Book Group for approval.
Neleigh has two others on her team who help. Claire is TSB’s associate publisher. Lizzie is the team’s assistant editor.
The Take-Over
I asked Neleigh about the transition. As an outsider, it felt abrupt and I felt like we were left hanging for a long time, so I wanted to know what actually happened. I wasn’t wrong. The transition shook things up a bit internally. By the end of April 2025 Martha decided it was time for change and retired from the company.
I don’t know that the take-over was hostile but the way Stable Book Group does things are vastly different than what Trafalgar Square has done for the past 40 years. As I understand it, this stark difference was a driving factor in Martha’s early resignation.
Today: The Stable Book Group
The Stable Book Group is a collective of many publishing groups. Some publishers include Trafalgar Square books, Montague books, She Writes Press, Skybok Press, Ulysses Press, VeloPress Books. The publishers all encompass a vast variety of genres and interests. The Stable Book Group offers hybrid publishing where the author and publisher share both costs and profits.
The Stable Book Group is still considered a startup…and as a newer company it is still finding its way. Martha and Becca were champions in their field and they had a system that worked for them. They were horses people and knew what horse people want. They honored the variety of interests within the hose world. They embodied the “for the good of the horse” culture. They were a well-oiled machine. The new company is drastically different, so it is still “working out the kinks.”
For one thing…Trafalgar Square used to EASILY publish 20 books in a year. The Stable Book Group’s production schedule dictates fewer books. Now we are not seeing NEARLY as many books coming through. This means Neleigh is forced to turn away some great writers and great ideas.
The Trafalgar Square website has changed. Or it doesn’t change enough. For example I recently read Finding Purpose (review coming in February) but it is still listed as “Coming Soon. On the bottom left side of the website, it still claims to be a small independent women-owned business publishing from a farm in the mountains of Vermont.
The Stable Book Group is not doing as many sales. It is not doing any marketing. It simply exists. I know some authors who are distressed by their book sales because this new company doesn’t do anything to advertise or market their products. It doesn’t go to tradeshows like Martha and Becca did. It doesn’t interact with its community. It seems very…hands off.
Finding the Way Forward
Despite the changes, we have one thing going for us. Neleigh. Neleigh’s goal is to create a better and safer place for horses and humans. The mission is to protect and maintain Trafalgar Square Books…lead the conversations about horses, and to keep the Trafalgar Square culture alive and strong.
Neleigh reviews books and manuscripts, runs the numbers, and pitches the book to her Stable Group partners. There may be LESS books, but she’s steadfast in providing a quality that is aligned with the heart of Trafalgar Square Books.
My Words For the Stable Book Group
I sincerely hope that the people running this company can find their way. I hope they learn to recognize what a powerful and diverse group horse people are.
As a TSB fan and outsider to the company I see the Stable Book Group taking a path that pushes away its consumers…and it’s also upsetting the authors, too! I don’t feel the decision makers have any idea what they are dealing with when it comes to horse people. I can’t claim to know all the inner workings of the company above Neleigh but it has the corporate feel…distant…unfamiliar…removed.
I don’t know that this article will cross the desk of a decision maker at the Stable Book Group…but if it does…please do take note. You can do better. There are millions of people counting on you to step up. Trafalgar Square has been the leading Equestrian Publisher for many years. We are more than a statistic. We are horse people, we are a community. We all have different interests and disciplines and yet at the same time there are so many things we all have in common…to do good for our horses. There is so much you don’t know about us. Become part of the community…. hear from the community…listen and engage.
I’m mourning the Trafalgar Square that once was.
I am also hopeful that when the dust settles, with the careful guidance of Neleigh, Trafalgar Square can once again be a powerful publisher of equestrian books.
The Green Horseman 
Leave a comment