Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> I suspect  there is not enough growth in distance riding to turn a
> decline around. To grow you need to indentify a growth area.
It isn't a matter of just marketing to distance riders, Truman.  It is a
matter of what image is portrayed by our breed.  If you look at the AQHA
stats, a lot of people buy QHs just to ride for fun--no intent to compete
at anything.  This is the market that the Arabs have lost--and they USED
to have it!

So tell me, if you had a little girl who wanted a horse, which would YOU
buy?  Some flame-breathing monster whirling around on the end of a lead,
or huffing down the rail in a lather--or some calm, sensible horse walking
along a trail?

This isn't about marketing to endurance riders--the equine demographics of
the sport already show that riders overwhelmingly buy Arabians.  Selling
Arabians to distance riders is preaching to the choir.

What this is about is the image that the Arabian breed puts out to the
public.  If I were the aforementioned daddy shopping for my little girl,
I'd be FAR more apt to look into a breed where the standard is a sane
horse that can camp out for the weekend and go down the trail with a
little old lady on his back than ones that David Boggs or his riding
equivalents are flying around the ring like kites on strings or pumping
down the rail like crazed, crippled banshees.

Despite the fact that distance riding is the #1 competitive outlet for
Arabian owners who ride, we have a very SHORT line on the bar graph of
Arabian owners who ride just for the fun of riding.  The AQHA, on the
other hand, has a very LONG line on the bar graph for the very same thing,
even though very few QHs are used in any sort of similar competitive
event.  There is something seriously wrong with this picture--and what is
wrong is the image that is representing the Arabian breed to the riding
public.

I'll give you another example.  I was in the Boise, Idaho airport awhile
back, and like many airports, they have rows of illuminated advertisements
along the walkways to and from the gates.  One really nice ad is from the
Morgan association, and it pictures a young girl happily seated on a
nice-looking and alert Morgan who is STANDING STILL, decked out in
informal English attire, and facing a proud mom, dad, little brother, and
the family dog.  When is the last time you saw an Arab portrayed like THAT
by our breed association?  And yet we see little kids and novices and
little old ladies (one of which I am rapidly becoming--watch me use my
mounting block to get on even the 14.1 horse that I'm riding) on Arabs at
endurance rides every weekend.  THESE should be our public images, if we
intend to sell riding horses to the general public--horses that can
actually be RIDDEN by real, amateur people!

Heidi


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We are talking about all the tools we can use to keep our horses safe and
alive at the rides. Training/conditioning is one of the best tools
available. It makes us better horseman and women, it benefits our horses
and could quite possibly be the key to preventing most crashes.
~ Lisa Salas - The Odd Farm

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