Zilco Tack / Thank you

[guest@endurance.net]

John Baker/Advanced Equine products advancedequine@att.net
To Our Endurance-Riding Friends,

As a sponsor of the recent PAC, and having been forwarded some of the
postings after the ride which involved our Zilco tack, I would like to
follow with a comment or two from our viewpoint as a new kid-on-the-block
vendor.  As new as we are, the Endurance world people already seem like
old friends.  It might be interesting for those of you who have Zilco
tack, or are considering it, or if you’ve never heard of it, to know with
whom you are dealing in order to ask questions, give ideas, direct
criticism or problems, etc.  Your world is our world.  If we don’t hear
the good, or the bad, how will we know if we have it right for you and
your horse?

There is lots of great tack out there.  Some of it comes from small
cottage makers, some from the big boys.  Linda Merims’s Sept 2 comments
about our products, competition and capitalism, were perceptive and
interesting; however,  I’d like to dispel the concept that our tack comes
from the larger "corporate world"  by explaining a little more if you’ll
indulge me.

When you hold in your hand a piece of our gear, which you entrust to your
horse for her/his comfort over miles of terrain, it is the result of a lot
of design work by just a few people, plus the material technology and
experience of an old-line company.  The people are Tarrah Baker of
Advanced Equine, Steve and Pat Hallmark our reps in California, and Marcia
Smith.  These people designed the tack, and we (Advanced Equine) took the
design to Zilco in New Zealand, whose driving harness we have been putting
on the top Combined Driving horses in the U.S. for 10 years.  Zilco is not
a big company either; it is a third generation saddler, having started as
a clipper ship rigger.  Shortage of leather in the 50’s prompted them to
move toward synthetic or die; now they lead the way in synthetics, (in our
opinion, as an independent distributor).  Their material is considered the
best in the driving world where there is tremendous stress as well as the
challenge of competing against the design and look of leather in a very
traditional, stuffy discipline.  Unlike BioThane® belting, a material
which is sold to many makers, Zilco will only make its own products from
this material, thereby accepting responsibility for its quality and
workmanship.

We started Advanced Equine in 1990 to sell Zilco New Zealand’s driving
harness, which has been used now by almost every top U.S. driver in world
competition   Then the Hallmarks, who were friends through driving,
introduced us to Marcia Smith on the hunch that Zilco’s material would
make great endurance tack and offer an alternative to other synthetic.
Marcia and others tested our gear for about a year before we felt ready to
offer it.  Now the MS Bridle is our signature piece along with the
Eurotech® breast collar which came out of a bunch of us sitting around a
hotel lobby in France (at the 2000 Worlds) looking at equipment with two
New Zealand riders.  But interestingly, Zilco had never made a piece of
endurance gear until Tarrah, Pat and Steve, and Marcia put their heads
together.

I can’t say enough how gratifying it is to see some of you using our tack,
and for us to be able to help sponsor the Pan Am as well as the USA East
team.  This is not big corporate sponsorship.   Zilco was kind to help
with the USA East Team red-white-and-blue custom tack, but Advanced Equine
puts our own cash up to help sponsor rides such as the PAC, and does all
the marketing and advertising in the U.S., including selecting our
dealers, whom we hope you will approve.  Please support them—they are
listed on our website at www.advancedequine.com.

After finishing 1st (Marcia Smith), 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and Best Condition at
Tevis, as well as with many of the USA riders at PAC, we would like to
thank everyone who has welcomed us in the Endurance and Trail world.  We
remain open to comments about our products, which may be directed to
either us directly at 425-391-1169, or to Steve Hallmark, 916-652-1313 or
treedoc@jps.net.

Wishing you great riding,

John Baker
Advanced Equine Products