Comments on: Ideas to Promote our Breed

By: Sandee Andrews

Sandee Andrews — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:16:04 +0000

I wanted to follow this up and let you know that I have asked Arabian Horse World to send a subscription to my orthodontist in Westlake Village, CA. The response to the magazine in that office is overwhelming. They have patients that have asked several times where they can get the magazine, how they can subscribe and if they can have the magazine when the office is finished with it. I have since asked Arabian Horse Times if they would also be interested in this avant garde way of marketing the Arabian horse to newcomers. While I’ve not heard a response yet, I am still of the opinion that it is a great way to spread the word about our beautiful horse.
I urge you all to donate one subscription to someone that isnt yet involved with the Arabian horse. By donating a subscription to a doctor or dental office, you reach more readers, possibly new subscribers, and possibly new Arabian horse owners. That’s how my journey started.. One Arabian Horse World magazine led to another and another, and my first Arabian horse.
Shows arent any fun with empty stands. Let’s work together to fill them.

Sandee

By: Hanna

Hanna — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:16:42 +0000

Hi, my name is Hanna and i had seen that you were looking to register your gelding and that he was a Malik son. You were also looking for Dawn Secontine. Yes she does live in Washington now, she’s actually my trainer. If you are still interested in registering you gelding, i could give her your phone number if you like. Please let me know,

Hanna

By: allie

allie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:38:30 +0000

I don’t mind paying a fee for the breeding,what drives me insane is those who breed and don’t register the offspring. Example…I’m going through hell to track the sire of my gelding. I’ve narrowed it down to 5 ,I think! He was out of Malik who was owned by Dawn Secontine. At that time she was in Ga. Now I believe Washington state….??? If anyone hears anything,please let me know… I know that this stallion came out of Burt Reynolds and Wayne Newton’s arabs. Anyone???

By: Fiona Purdy

Fiona Purdy — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:12:05 +0000

Even though I don’t own an Arabian, I am very passionate about them.
I am an equine artist, and most of my paintings are of Arabians. At the art shows and events I participate in, I meet so many people who either do not know that much about the Arabian horse or have the usual misconception that all Arabians are crazy & high strung. I use every opportunity to let them that they are wrong (nicely of course!) and I extol their virtues in glowing terms. They can see my passion! I always recommend that they check out an Arabian horse show – since I live in Scottsdale and mostly do shows here – I am always telling people to visit the Scottsdale Show!

I like to think that in a small way I doing my part in promoting the Arabian Horse!

By: deemcreative

deemcreative — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:21:05 +0000

Hi again,

I am a member of the National Sports Marketing Network, and my problem as an equine marketing service is that my horse groups are not really large enough to attract the media buyers to participate in our industry. However, I did set up a website http://www.eqsportsmarketing.com and am trying to offer package deals to my NSMN group. The problem remains, however, that the demographic is small for the price of print or web advertising. Mystikal Marketing also joined NSMN. San Francisco at that time had an RFP out for an international sport to be based in SF. I thought a multi-disciplinary event over a week end might be exciting. In SF they have a Bay to Breakers race, and it would accomodate the Ride & Tie racers. Golden Gate Park has an old polo grounds and unused equestrian facility which would allow us to put on our regular show classes. Then I thought it would be fun to have a race on the beach, maybe with costume horses,at the beach under the Golden Gate, would make great photos. Check your local chamber of commerce and see if there are any similar RFPS. We were not successful in getting our project accepted, but are retuning to see if we can get accepted. Another idea is to have the food vendors have a contest to see what they can create in the front seat of a truck driving a horse trailer. Kind of like the Food Network. Then have the wineries involved, custom label wines promoting the event, individual horses…and maybe an on horseback fashion show? At the Horse Expo we have our horses wearing rose garlands and they look beautiful and easy to identify.

If you have a well known music group, the gate for the music will pay for the equestrian expenses.

If you want to see the National Sports Marketing Network meetings in your area, see http://www.sportsmarketingnetwork.com. The president has consulted with THE HAMPTON CLASSIC show, no other equestrian members.

By: AandMEquestrian

AandMEquestrian — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:17:52 +0000

First:When I was a college student in Scottsdale, I got my first arabian horse from the Kale Ranch in Black Canyon City. He was a weanling cull gelding. He was part of a donated group to the local community college. He came gelded and with papers, and I paid $250. I loved that plain old gelding, and he has multiplied into many more Arabian horses since. Many people I know around here started off with those geldings.

Second: The Arabian horse business is the only one I know of that charges the kinds of stud fees we do. If a yearling wins the right halter class, people will pay $2500 to breed to it when it hasn’t proved itself as a sire. If you stand one for a grand, people think there is something wrong with your horse. How many National Champion stallions have been lousy sires (a lot). I applaud Russ Vento for suggesting that in these tough economic times, that people breed to local horses. We have got to get away from the idea that you must breed to a top stallion in order to get a marketable foal. The Brazilian are producing fantastic horses because they don’t just look at paperwork. They actually look at the horse, and what the best combination of two horses will be.

By: deemcreative

deemcreative — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:57:37 +0000

Thank you all so much for promoting the breed. We all benefit from your effort.

If I may, I would like to make one more suggestion for the open barns: introduce a “call to action” which is participating as a sponsor at an Arabian event. This gives these folks an opportunity to make a commitment and have a second experience with the Arabian horse. You might offer them various levels, say a show program ad, a class sponsorship, and then maybe some more expensive options like a national sponsorship (in case some of them are ready to make a splash.)

I was co-chair of the Arabian breed promo at the Western States Horse Expo and we offered sponsor banners which were large outdoor vinyl banners 5 feet x 3 feet. They could use a photo of an Arabian to promote their business. They made about $4,000 in profit each year.

What was disappointing was we did not get a single response to our handouts at this event, even though we had Enzo presented and about 8 other national champions competing in an audience judged competition modeled after American Idol. It was great fun but not good ROI. I like the subscription idea and the idea of the open barns. The customer experience is very important, and keeping good relations with them is vital. I think these are better uses of resources than the horse fairs, although they are a lot of fun.

Thanks for sharing the information and best of luck in your breed promotion efforts.

By: celestialarabians

celestialarabians — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:59:27 +0000

While on a plane one day flying back from a business trip, I happened to sit next to one of our company executives. (We both work for Boeing.) I asked him what he liked to do in his spare time and he told me that he liked to buy exotic cars. I thought quick on my feet and said, “Oh, so you like horsepower, huh? How about some real horses?” Of course, he looked at me oddly, so I begin to explain to him how my fiance and I breed Arabian Horses. I continued to explain to him the Arabian Horse “Lifestyle” which being an executive, he was very intrigued to hear. I spoke to him the entire 3.5 hour from St. Louis to LAX about Arabians. He even took me home in the “company car” just so we could continue our conversation. When I walked in the door, I told my fiance, Sean, about the great conversation I just had with that executive. I told him that I thought it was a great idea if we could create the opportunity where I could speak to more corporate executives. He agreed it was a great idea and so the planning began. We decided to create “flyers” for me to hang across all the bulletin boards in every Boeing building in Southern California. There are 33,000 employees in Southern California but we decided that the target audience would be Senior Managers and Executives. We charged a fee, just to cover lunch and the charter bus. In September 2008, we chartered one bus load of employees to Greg Gallun’s for a private open house and in May 2009, we chartered two buses of employees to North Arabians during their open house. On the way up to the ranches we provided the attendees an “education” on the Arabian horse. We passed out a “goody bag” that had materials we ordered directly from the AHA. We also showed videos of past horse shows and stallions. We made sure to explain the social and financial benefits of being involved in the horses. We have been successful in bringing in several couples into the Arabian Horse industry, who prior to our trip, never even dreamed of owning a horse. Everyone in this industry should take advantage of opportunities to talk to even strangers about Arabian Horses, or be even more proactive, and create those opportunities.

By: Sandee Andrews

Sandee Andrews — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:10:10 +0000

Thanks Jeff. For this relatively little amount of expense (12 subscriptions to one of the leading breed magazines would only run about $600 per year), we (collectively)could be capturing the hearts of many new people to the world of our wonderful horses and what they offer. We may even have the magazines work with someone that plans to implement this- after all, it is in their best interest as well, and they might just capture another subscriber or advertiser or two.

There is NOTHING like the relationship someone will have with an Arabian horse.

Sandee Andrews