ReveRsing The TRend of its revenue is directly related to the show industry. The show industry is a very small percentage of the industry in terms of numbers, but it carries a major part of the financial burden, and we have been moving more and more toward showing being the primary focus of AHA. AHA has become focused on its four national shows because that is where the revenue is coming from, but that future is pretty predictable; we have seen what has happened to the Hackneys and the Saddlebreds. They catered to the upper end show folks, and that is not very deep. So we have to understand the financial situation, but remember to fight for the people who are doing all the other activities, because we’re all in this together for the future of our breed. Our Nationals exhibitors are also feeling the financial crunch of today’s economy, and the high cost of competing at our national shows is causing people to rethink the amount that they show. Some are cutting back on the number of regionals they typically have shown in the past, and even choosing between Nationals and Scottsdale. You can’t force the exhibitors to spend money that they have not budgeted. We also have to market to the people who are already in the equine industry. Coming out of Youth Nationals, something that came to mind for me was that the quality of the horses that are competing is exceptional and the kids’ level of riding has improved tremendously. I can remember going to Youth Nationals years ago and seeing so many kids over-mounted. This year, those kids were on very, very nice horses and they were flat riding those horses—they weren’t just being passengers. Those are great things that we need to publicize to the other equine disciplines. We can send out e-mail blasts if we can get on lists that get out of our own network, or do articles that appear in all-breed periodicals. We have a good product; we just don’t let other people know about it. AHA could use this as part of its marketing and development segment, and individuals who are good at writing can put articles in their local magazines and newspapers. Marketing to people in other breeds means we don’t have to start them from the ground up. They already are involved in horses. They just need to know how good our Arabian horse is and become involved with it.
Tim
and
marTy Shea
Shea Stables St. Clair, Mich. Tim Shea. I can understand why people are concerned about declining registrations, but at the same time, there is little demand for the horses that are out there right now. People are just selling horses like crazy. To be honest, if they don’t breed for a while, I think that’s what needs to happen. If you look at the Arabian business, you can see that it couldn’t sustain itself as it was because it brought everybody in as a breeder, so we had all these producers and no consumers. Over the last 15 or so years, we’ve finally got all age groups of adults riding and showing, but we need a lot more of them. We have lost so many people—it has to be built up from scratch. One way to create demand, and what I see beginning to happen, is that a lot of barns have started riding lesson programs. They are bringing in new people, and I think that’s the biggest thing. That is what fuels the hunter/jumper and Saddlebred industries. Historically, Arabians have not had to do that, but we do now.
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