Air Bags for Riders

One of the many pleasures of editing an equine trade magazine is the vast array of products that cross your desk. Some of them are truly unqiue, some of them are revolutionary, some of them are just strange.

I'm not sure where this latest product falls in those categories, maybe it fits all three.

It's called the Hit-Air shock-buffering system bag vest. Yep, an airbag for equestrians! No I'm not kidding!

The product is being distributed by Triple T Sales of Franktown Colo. and, yes, they are a legitimate company with what they believe is a legitimate product.

The air bag sits under a vest the rider wears. The activiation wires attach to both the saddle and the vest. When the two become separate far enough, an instant burst of inert gas fills the air bag. When you hit the ground, you land on a cushion of air..

Triple T says it will one day be as common as riding helmets.

Early in my career as editor of Tack' n Togs Magazine, I stopped passing judgement on new products that came our way. I used to look at things and say, "This will never sell, " only to have it turn up to be the next greatest innovation in the equine trade industry. Or I would look at a product and think, "Wow, this will sell a million," only to have the company disappear from the scene three months later.

We're not known as an industry that readily embraces change. Anyone bringing something new to the market has to be prepared both the slings and arrows and the time it takes to gain acceptance. If you don't have the funds, fortitude and attitude to stick it out for at least three years, your chances of being a success aren't good.

So will Hit Air Shock Buffinger System be the next better mousetrap? I'm not saying. You can read the material and judge for yourself.

Pets or Livestock?

Other than yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre, if you want to get people riled in the equine industry, just mention horse slaughter. The sides form quickly and the debate is often heated, barbed and a bit nasty.

On one hand, you have the folks who believe that slaughtering a horse is the worst possible thing that could ever happen. I call it the "horses are people, too" concept. These folks want every horse to live out his natural life in as comfortable a setting as possible.

On the other hand, you have the folks who argue that horses are livestock, just like cattle, pigs or chickens. As such, the owners of these livestock specimens have the right to do whatever they want with their own person property.

In the middle are those who believe that there is always going to be slaughter in one form or another because the resources simply aren't there to run equine retirement homes all across the United States. It's just not practical.

This week, a contributor to our sister publication, FeedStuffs, addressed this topic with Charlie Stenholm, a lobbyist for the horse slaughter industry. You can listen to the Loos Tales program with Trent Loos by clicking on this link and then click on Wednesday.

For Stenholm, it's a matter of property rights. If you ban horse slaughter, banning beef slaughter and pig slaughter is next and it becomes a slipper slope. He estimates there are 100,000 unwanted horses in the United States. How would you suggest getting rid of them?

I agree that slaughter performs a sort of survival of the fittest role in the equine society. But I take the issue a step further back. If people would stop breeding horses indiscriminately, there wouldn't be a large number of culls for the slaughter houses.

Responsible breeding will eventually put the slaughter houses out of business, but the chances of that happening appear to be slim to none.

I have a lot of good-natured banter with my fellow editors across the way at FeedStuffs who call horses "companion animals" as if that were some sort of curse word! I constantly remind them, however, that you can't put a saddle on a pig.

If you'd like to check out FeedStuffs, visit their Web site www.feedstuffs.com.

Coming Soon to a Mailbox Near You!

If my entries on this blog are a bit spotty over the next week or so, have sympathy. I'm proofreading the 2006-2007 version of the Buyers Guide. Those of you who are familiar with Tack 'n Togs know this is our annual "big book," which lists all of the companies in the industry and the products they manufacture or distribute.

It runs several hundred pages and is nearly an inch thick. This is our 35th edition, so it's quite a milestone for the publication. We often are told it's the "bible" of the equine trade industry, which is high praise, indeed. We work hard to make sure each edition lives up to that standard.

I think you should qualify as an old-timer when you recognize the name and pertinent people in 80 percent of the companies listed. I remember the first year I did the proofreading. I had to stop and check each listing against a Gold Form or a Web site. This year, I have discovered several entire pages in the directory of companies that contained familiar names and locations.

Most people say we have a very small industry, but when you're proofreading the directory of companies, it seems like it's the Yellow Pages for New York City. My complaints fall on deaf ears, however, because many of the true old-timers around the office remember the "old days" when there were nearly twice as many companies in the industry as there are today.

Hopefully, when the publication appears July 1, all my proofreading will not have been in vain.

Another exciting matter to report in regard to the Buyers Guide ... in just a couple months, the content should be fully searchable on our Web site. We've been working on this project for some time now, and we're finally close to launching.

Meanwhile, if you are a manufacturers, distributor or rep in the equine trade industry and you didn't get your information in for this year's edition, it's probably too late, but you can still send your details to me pwahl@tackntogs.com and we'll see what we can do.

In the interim, I'm using eye drops by the gallon!

And the Beat Goes On

I'm proclaiming August Equine Industry Trade Show month. Stanley Market in Atlantic City kicks off Aug. 12-14, the next weekend it's Hopper Expositions Indy and then after that it's Hopper Expositions Baltimore.

The fun continues in September with SPOGA Sept. 3-5, Denver Sept. 9-11, Kansas City Sept. 9-11, Reno Sept. 13-15, Indianapolis (again) Sept. 16-18, along with Toronto and Calgary in Canada.

It's a historic juncture in our industry. It's kind of like the Haley's Comet of trade shows. Obviously, there's no way for our industry to absorb all these markets, plus the AETA market to be added in the coming months. Something will have to give.

From my observation post, I'm hearing a large number of vendors say they will have to do both Atlantic City and Baltimore in August. While it will be costly, most aren't willing to risk that one or the other is going to be the retailers' favorite and they will have picked the wrong one.

We've seen this happen before in the industry trade shows. Remember the Western and English Market in Las Vegas a few years back? I couldn't find one person who would admit to doing well at this market, but vendors kept coming back, thinking the next one might be the one where someone pulls a rabbit out of a hat. And if you're not there, you'll have missed the boat.

From retailers, I still hear a lot of disappointment with all of the East Coast trade show organizers. Retailers feel beat up and left out. It's going to take some major overatures to entice them to attend any of these markets this fall.

From people in our industry who have come from other industry, I hear round upon round of derisive laughter. What's happening in the equine trade industry would never be allowed to happen in the hardware, gift, booksellers, etc. industries, they say, because vendors and retailers simply wouldn't stand for it.

Stay tuned, it's going to get very interesting in the next few weeks.

Gentlemen, start your engines!!!

Horse Expo Season

My wife and I attended the Midwest Horse Fair in Madison, Wis., this past weekend. It provided us with further proof of something we already knew -- the interest in horses and all things horsey remains strong in the central part of the country. The place was packed, with people enjoying everything from just getting to pet a horse's nose to seeing dozens of different breeds in action.A number of companies and retailers in our industry took part in the trade show portion of the event. Everyone appeared to be busy. Between the couple hundred booths, there wasn't a product missed. If you wanted to buy it, it was there!We also heard good reports from vendors at the Midwest Horse Fair about the recent Equine Affaire consumer trade shows and everyone was looking forward to Rolex next week.It's kind of hard to say what's driving the popularity of horses these days, but no one is spending too much time looking for the reasons. They're too doggone busy!!!This coming weekend is the Minnesota Horse Expo, one of the largest of its type in the nation. If you're anywhere near the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, stop by and enjoy a good dose of horse!

Popularity of Horses Continues

My wife and I attended the Midwest Horse Fair in Madison, Wis., this past weekend. It provided us with further proof of something we already knew -- the interest in horses and all things horsey remains strong in the central part of the country. The place was packed, with people enjoying everything from just getting to pet a horse's nose to seeing dozens of different breeds in action.

A number of companies and retailers in our industry took part in the trade show portion of the event. Everyone appeared to be busy. Between the couple hundred booths, there wasn't a product missed. If you wanted to buy it, it was there!

We also heard good reports from vendors at the Midwest Horse Fair about the recent Equine Affaire consumer trade shows and everyone was looking forward to Rolex next week.

It's kind of hard to say what's driving the popularity of horses these days, but no one is spending too much time looking for the reasons. They're too doggone busy!!!

This coming weekend is the Minnesota Horse Expo, one of the largest of its type in the nation. If you're anywhere near the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, stop by and enjoy a good dose of horse!

Cool, Calm and Collected?

When I began my journalism carrer as a newspaper editor, I used to take pen in hand (okay, typewriter in those days!) and fire at will at anyone and everyone who came into my sights. While it made for interesting reading, I came to the conclusion it was almost always more heat than light, if you know what I mean.

As I grew older and more experienced in my craft, I learned the fine skill of tweaking someone and actually have them thanking me for it after it was published. I also learned that readers respond better to your criticism of someone else if you have a specific plan to offer that appears to be better than the status quo.

The proliferation of Web sites and bloggers has brought a lot of writers into public view who are still in the "fire at will" stage of their writing careers. These people are perfectly within their right to do this, but like me, will eventually discover that being proactive trumps beating someone on the head every time.

The discussion over the state of East Coast trade shows in the equine industry has been animated at times to this point, but mostly good-natured in tone with an eye toward trying to find what's best for the industry.

Yesterday, a piece written by Terry Mercer of MD's Choice arrived in my inbox. You can link to it here. It is clearly labeled as "Terry's Opinion," but I don't think anyone would mistake it for high-brow journalism in any event!

He makes a number of good points, and correctly concludes that getting these issues out in the open and discussing them is the only way they will ever be solved. He goes a lot further in indicting some of the existing trade show people that I am comfortable with, at least without having a long conversation with those individuals to get their side of things.

What Terry's alleging is fraudulent business practices, which is very serious, indeed, if it turns out to be true. If Terry truly thinks he's had been defrauded, I suggest he report the actions to proper authorities and have them investigated. Short of that, it's "he said ... he said" argument. More heat than light.

We welcome the opportunity to serve the equine industry with a number of ways you can respond to the issues of the day. For one, you can add your comments to this blog. Or you can visit our Web site www.tackntogs.com and access a poll that currently asks opinions on the trade show happenings. You can also send responses to my personal email address, which can be found on the Web site.

Have your say today!

How are we doing?

This morning, I got my first glance at the first draft of the State of the Market Report that Tack 'n Togs publishes each year. We poll a large cross-section of our readers to gather a mountain of responses, from which we attempt to chart the current status of the equine industry. More importantly, we try to provide retailers and manufacturers a like with some idea of what's coming in the year ahead.

This year's research is interesting and enlightening. The overall sense you get from reading it is that our once small and often thought of as backwoods industry is growing up. More retailers are launching Web sites, store newsletter numbers have jumped and the number of stores using automated inventory control is way up.

Without giving too much away, I will tell you that retailers' biggest gripe again this year was the same as last year -- cost of freight. That's a tough one to do much about. The price of gas and diesel goes up, the cost of freight goes up.

A trend we've observed in recent months is retailers who live near suppliers drive their own vehicles to pick up items for their shelves and save the shipping costs. "Gang" shipping is also becoming popular and will probably grow in use in the coming months.

The ultimate impact of higher fuel prices is that items retailers purchase cost more and cost more to ship. To what extent it's possible, retailers pass the price increases along to consumers. Consumers will eventually be buying less because it will cost them more to fill up their vehicles with gasoline. The squeeze could eventually get rather onerous for retailers.

But, hey ... it's a free market economy as several of your reminded me when we last touched on this item, so let the price of gasoline go to $4 maybe $5 a gallon and perhaps someone will get serious about alternative fuels.

The State of the Market Report is published in our May edition, which should mail in just a couple weeks. You'll want to be sure to read this one.

The Equestrian Rites of Spring

Is not spring the greatest time of the year for people who ride horses? I spent so much time in the saddle yesterday I finally had a posse looking for me! It was just one of those perfect days -- the sun was shining, the breeze was cool, both of us were feeling good. The time just flew by.

On my way home from the barn last night, I got to thinking, "What do people who don't ride do to get the same feeling?" I suppose you could take a pill or open a bottle of something, but it just wouldn't be the same. I know some people get the same feeling from running, but that's a lot of work.

I suppose golf might come close for some people, but there's hardly anything soul-lifting about a metal club and a tiny white ball in my book.

For me, it's the relationship between rider and horse. Oh, I'll be the first to admit it's not always perfect. There are days I'm not firing on all cylinders and there are days my horse definitely has his mind elsewhere. But on the days it works, it's magic.

Yesterday was one of those days. We were so in tune that to get Jack to change gaits was simply a matter of thinking "trot" or "canter" and off he'd go. And then I'd take a deep breath and let it out and he'd slide to stop. It was like we were one being with six legs, four which were touching the ground.

Even things he normally balks at were easily accomplished. We even faced down a few dreaded cows, which Jack is convinced are horse-eating and smelly, to boot! (Whenever we get within smelling range of cattle, he sniffs and snorts and blows his nose!)

Mind you, one day last week he made me chase him around the paddock for a half-hour before he'd let me hook the lead rope onto his halter. He'd let me get just close enough that I thought I had him, then whirl away and run to the farthest corner of the paddock and shake his head and dance around like a fool. After he finally had enough "tag," it was all over and I had my extremely obedient and likeable gelding back! I won't kid you, I was ready to call the rendering plant there for a couple minutes!

When we finished last night and Jack had cooled out, I brushed every square inch of him, fed him an extra scoop of grain and a couple carrots. I turned him back out into the paddock and watched as he headed for the water fountain and then some hay. He leads a very peaceful life.

I couldn't help think how enriched my life is for having a four-footed friend like Jack. No matter what you do in our industry, whether you manufacture products or own a retail store, always remember that this bond, this connection is a big part of what our industry is all about. The better job we do of celebrating that connection, the better we do as an industry.

Strike up the Band

Retail sales in March were huge, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists, sparking singing of "Happy Days Are Here Again" in stores large and small all across the land.

Buoyed by wage growth, the economy is expanding, even as gasoline prices keep climbing. These reports and surveys never include a specific line for equine stores, but we have to assume that a rising tide lifts all boats. In our industry particularly, Western store owners are nothing short of giddy about things and everyone else is just pleased as punch.

If anyone had any questions about the resilience of the American consumer, that doubt should all but have disappeared by now. If you look at current events, you wouldn't blame Americans for heading into the basement and pulling the door shut behind them. But that's not happening. Americans are buying, eating out, going to concerts and other entertainment venues in near-record numbers. Maybe it's dancing as the Titanic prepares to sink, but no one seems to want to say that ... at least for now.

We all know economics is a cyclical game. With the "ups" come the "downs." How you prepare for the down time says a lot about you as a retailer.

The economic boost comes just in time for an active equestrian summer, which should mean a double shot in the arm for equine retailers. If it carries through, the fall market season should be brisk.

Kids + Horses = Magic

A study has been released that proves what most of us already know -- horses are good for kids.

The Amiercan Youth Horse Council partnered with Pennsylvania State University to conduct research on the topic. Particularly, the study looked at students involved with horses and their ability to develop life skills. The Naitonal High School Rodeo Association, 4-H, Pony Club and American Quarter Horse Youth Association were also part of the study.

A sample of nearly a thousand youth ages 12-18 were selected. They learned how to make decisions, communicate set goals and solve problems through their interaction with horses.

How many times have you ever seen a dude sitting in a jail cell talking about the good times he had riding his horse through the fields and streams? There's something about youngsters who are raised around horses that brings out the best in them and prepares them to survive and thrive in the real world.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that horses are probably more critical than education in ensuring success. Sometimes, education doesn't do a good job of preparing our youth to face the world as it exists. For instance, the de-emphasis of the competitive aspects of life.

To paraphrase Bill Gates, your school may have eliminated competition, but life hasn't.

Children who have the responsibility of caring for an animal like a horse learn quickly about showing up even when you'd rather be doing something else. Wouldn't you like to have an employee in your business with that attitude?

Getting back to that idea about prisoners and horses, I'm sure you've read the stories about how prisons in the West are using wild mustangs to help inmates go back and learn some of those skills horses teach. One thing most of the inmates comment on is the fact that for the first time in their lives, they've come up against someone who they have to approach as a partner.

Believe me, if a mustang decides he's not going to budget, you can pretty much expend all your effort trying to get him to move. But by building a bridge of communication and respect, the job becomes easier. That's a lesson others besides inmates would do well to learn.

Kudos to the American Youth Horse Council and its partners in the project. And let's all of us pledge to do more to get young people involved in equine endeavors.

The Idea Exchange

Quite a lot has been posted here and forwarded to me personally about the current topics in the equine trade industry, particularly the American Equestrian Trade Association, the Kent Hopper trade shows and the Stanley trade shows. To my knowledge, this is the first place those involved in manufacturing and sales of products for horses and riders have had a place to exchange these ideas.

Some time back when I began this blog, I said that my sincerest desire was for it to be a dialogue and not a monologue. I went through quite a few weeks doing a solo. Now others are starting to chime in. It's great!

Please consider this an invitation to dive in and be part of the exchange of ideas. We don't want anyone to have hurt feelings, but we do want to air the issues of the day.

Someone remarked to me over the weekend whether we'd be debating competing trade shows and trade associations if the economy weren't so good and everyone wasn't doing so well financially. We concluded the answer is "probably not."

A lot of people talking about the maturing of the equine trade industry. Maybe this is a sign of maturity, that we have options and we can discuss them in an open and free format.

Almost certainly when the bottom of the boom-bust cycle appears, everyone will be spending more time in survival mode and have less time to devote to exchanging ideas. It's unfortunate it happens that way, but those of us who have lived through it, know it's reality.

Meanwhile, sit back, enjoy reading the responses, add your own voice and let's get everything out in the open.

Ride for the Brand

I have to take a few lines here to promote the upcoming Western-English Trade Association All Industry Conference in Austin, Texas, May 4-6. Not only is it going to be a good time, but if you attend, you'll also have the opportunity to learn a lot about topics that will help you succeed in business.

I'm particularly proud of the workshop I am producing for the event, "Can Your Business Survive A Disaster?"

After this past year’s hurricane season and several fires that have struck in our industry, many retailers and manufacturers were left wondering.

On Saturday, May 6, during the WETA Leadership Forum at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas, you will have the chance to learn about disaster preparedness from some of the top speakers on the subject.

Here’s who we have lined up so far:

Linda Kennedy, Emergency Management Coordinator for Austin Utilities. Linda’s primary job is helping her company make sure they are prepared for a disaster and she will share what her company has learned with you. She’s particularly skilled in implementing an incident command system for businesses in the event of a disaster. Her most recent project is helping to ensure that Austin residents served by the utility will have service even if an Avian Flu pandemic strikes. She will share what her company learned in that regard and help you begin thinking about planning for surviving this latest threat.

Rick Bondurant, Director of Agency Management Resources, Independent Insurance Agents of Texas. If you’ve ever wondered whether your insurance is adequate, how much is too much and what exactly "act of God" means, Rick will provide insights. He works for the nonprofit IIAT, which services 1,500 independent insurance agency members and 250 associate members. Rick is involved with training agency owners, most of them small business operators like yourself, in all aspects of management. He is an accomplished public speaker.

Additional invitations are still out, so the lineup may be further enhanced.

In addition to these panelists and plenty of time for questions and answers, we are also preparing a CD packed full of disaster survival information and resources, which will be given to everyone who attends this workshop. The CD alone is worth the price of your registration for the Leadership Forum!

If you'd like to learn more, visit the WETA Web site www.wetaonline.com and click on WETA LEADERSHIP FORUM.

Hope to see you there!

Planting the Seeds

When I speak with retailers, I often ask them their biggest challenge of doing business. Number one almost always is "employees," finding and retaining good people to work in their stores.

A close second is "shipping costs." That line item, of course, is driven by the price of gasoline in many instances. If you haven't noticed, many parts of the country are getting quite near the $3 per gallon mark.

Yet we don't see retailers -- or anyone else -- saying much about the topic. It seems like Americans have resigned themselves to being at the mercy of the large oil companies and the Middle East oil barrons.

Yesterday, Exxon Mobil surpassed Wal-Mart on the Fortune 500 List. Higher energy prices boosted the company's revenues and profits.

Clearly, the amount we're being charged for gasoline is completely disconnected from the cost of crude oil and refining. The price instead appears to be driven by pure greed.

I think the answer for equine retailers is to strike back. Let's create some sort of "Wag the Dog" story about the pending shortage of English saddles or Western saddle pads. Really get the message out that the shortage is becoming serious and soon there won't be any more English saddles or Western saddle pads to be had anywhere ... at any costs.

Get that word out to the national media outlets, who love a "bad news" story and will most likely pick it up and run with it and before you know it, English saddles will be selling for $10,000 and Western saddle pads will be on shelves for $800 or more.

If we're lucky, we might be able to launch a couple of the manufacturers of those products onto the Fortune 500 list. Hey, if someone is going to benefit from outrageous profit, it might as well be someone we know and love, right?

Maybe someone in the national media will read this blog and pick up on that little tidbit about the shortage and we'll see a report on the evening news tomorrow. All of the morning news shows will chime in and before you know it, a kernel of truth will become THE truth.

I think it could work!

Herding Cats

An organizational effort is under way in the equine industry to create a second trade association, the American English Trade Association. The group hopes to host a trade show, which would make it the third entity aimed at the English sector of the industry. See details here.

Before I go any further, I should state that I am a charter member and long-time supporter of the Western-English Trade Association. While I do not pretend that WETA, as it's called, has done everything correctly or as has been as forcefull as active as it could have been, I will also admit that I don't think two associations is the answer.

The organizers of this new effort look toward the British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA)and its sucesses in the United Kingdom. I have been involved with BETA for several years now and can attest to that organizations efficiency, function and profitability. BETA is one of the premiere trade associations in the world, no doubt.

But there are reasons why BETA works in the UK and WETA hasn't worked as well in the United States. First is the size of the market, both physical and monetary. You can drive from any corner of the United Kingdom to Birmingham, where the BETA trade show is held each year, in a matter of hours. That's not possible in the United States.

That's one of the primary reasons why it's been difficult over the years to promote one trade show for everyone held in one location. And if you understand the history of trade shows in the United States, you know the other reason. Their roots are regional. That mindset may never change.

BETA also enjoys strong support because of its abilities to connect the trade sector of the equine industry to the overall horse pictures in the UK, which is highly organized. Not so in the United States. For the most part, breed associations have very little to do with manufacturers and retailers and other than an occasional sponsorship, even less to do with equine governing bodies.

More synergies have been developed in recent years, but there's still a long way to go before it will be anything close to what the British have developed.

Someone told me recently that organizing in the equine trade industry in the United States was like "herding cats." My impression is that our friends on the other side of the pond are much more willing to be led.

Certainly it is the right of those organizing the AETA to do what they're doing and their frustrations over the entire topic of trade shows is not without warrant. But to further divide the industry doesn't seem prudent.

I can personally attest to the difficulties of organizing a trade association in the United States. Herding cats may be an understatement.