Zilco & The Little Shop Around the Corner (was My PAC part 3)

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@naisp.net>]

At 09:44 AM 9/2/01 -0800, Tiffany <dvirgilio@mindspring.com> wrote:
>on 9/1/01 7:35 PM, Rides 2 Far at rides2far@juno.com wrote:
>
>> Thanks to Zilco for the beautiful tack.  I highly
>> recommend to any of you who have the urge to try this out
>
>Angie what a great story! I had tears in my eyes several times.
>Anyone else have comments on Zilco? I just ordered the trailtech
>breastcollar from them-thinking about getting a bridle too, but wondered if
>anyone else could share pros or cons.


Actually, I do, but it isn't going to be quite what you were
looking for.

Zilco is based in New Zealand.  Their main product is harness
racing equipment:  they are one of the two or three largest
manufacturers of harness racing harness in the world.

They have now branched out into other areas, including endurance
equipment.  One distributor in the US distributes their harness
racing equipment, while Advanced Equine Products of Washington
state has secured the exclusive US franchise for importing
and distributing carriage driving harness and trail/endurance
equipment to local US dealers.

Yup, their stuff is nice.  The first time I saw it was at last
November's Equine Affair in Springfield Massachusetts, and I
immediately bought an MS bridle and reins for my old mare.

Advanced Equine Products/Zilco had a major presence at the
PAC.  They provided many pieces of tack as prizes and goodies
to the teams.  They sponsored the "finish line."  They advertised
in the program.  And they were one of the vendors selling their
equipment in the trade show.  I don't know whether these various
forms of sponsorship were actually paid for by Zilco, or whether
Advanced Equine had to foot the bill all by itself.

So what I am getting at here?

There were three endurance tack vendors at PAC:  Animal Tacker
of Texas (who also sponsored two of the vet checks),
Higher Mark Performance Tack of Florida, and Adv Equine/Zilco.
(I don't remember Neigh-Per-Say selling tack, and the local
vendor was not selling much in the way of *endurance* tack.)

Both Animal Tacker and Higher Mark fall into the category of
"cottage" industry.  They are small businesses owned by sole
proprietors who have been catering to the endurance market for
many years.  They hand-make their own bridles, breastplates,
lip chains, what have you.  They frequently do custom work
to answer the special needs of their clients and their horses
(Jean of Higher Mark is going to be making me a hack noseband.)

*Most* of the vendors currently catering to the endurance market
fall into this "cottage" industry category who either make their
own tack or job it out to individuals.  And they are all
members of the endurance community whose names everybody
recognizes:  Teddy & Running Bear, Gail Hought of Hought
Endurance Tack, Jan Pfeiffer of Animal Tacker, even
Len Brown of Ortho-Flex, and many more.

Enter Zilco.

Now if capitalism works the way it does in idealized models,
all of the Endurance community's cottage manufacturers will
respond to the challenge of competition and improve the
materials, workmanship, and inventiveness of their products
to equal or surpass Zilco's, and that, added to their superior
customer service, will keep them in business in the face of
corporate competition for what is, after all, a small market.

But it has been my observation that capitalism only rarely
works the way it does in idealized models.

Tiffany is responding just exactly the way Zilco hoped she and
others would respond when they helped sponsor PAC.  Hell, *I* bought
another Zilco bridle at PAC for Night Star (I just liked the
workmanship and particularly the hardware on the Zilco better
than the other vendors at PAC.) 

I'm not saying stop it.  I'm not saying you *can* stop it.  I'm
not even necessarily saying you should try to stop it.

But if you're going to do it, do it with your eyes wide open and
understand just exactly what it is you are doing as you do it.

Sermon complete..  :-)

Linda B. Merims
lbm@naisp.net
Massachusetts, USA