I can’t ever truly express how complete my life has become since is so strong and you see such an amazing quality of horses. To we became a family. be successful at one of these shows is very difficult, and if you achieve success, it’s a lot more rewarding. What percentage of your livelihood is derived from marketing horses and what percentage from training? What are your thoughts on the status of the Arabian What kinds of horses are selling best in this economy? breed today, both in terms of the health of our breed and The economic situation has affected the marketing of the European/Middle Eastern show scene? Arabian horses for sure. The main problem today The market for the straight in my opinion is that What you see me doing with my horses at a show Egyptian horse seems to there is not enough support stay strong no matter what for the small breeders and when I ask them to be better than ever is not what — there are always people the newcomers. We need to the journey to that moment has been like for that looking for good Egyptians. I remember our roots and the find it very difficult to market fact that the industry is fueled horse in training at our farm. the medium quality horses in by the small breeder. We this economy — you either should also encourage new have a real superstar that can horse owners no matter what be marketed with reasonable ease and the middle-tier are very level they buy. This is incredibly important. We all know when difficult to sell. This is an area that we as an industry need to you sell that one great one but still have ten at home you can’t work on. We need to attract new Arabian horse owners as these sell (and they are eating up the profit), it’s not long before you are the horses that a new horse owner is comfortable paying realize the “big sale” was for nothing. I noticed this show season
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for in the beginning. I believe if we address this we will see an answer to this marketing dilemma. How many shows do you go to per year, and what are the “never miss” shows on your calendar and why? Sometimes I think it’s crazy, but we go to nearly 35 shows per year. There is no break anymore. Shows happen all year round because as the European show season ends, the Middle Eastern show season starts. There are several shows I never miss, but the two I enjoy the most are the All Nations Cup in Aachen and the International show in Dubai. The competition
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that the small breeders who used to go to small C and B shows in Europe are not present anymore. Even there they have to face the tough competition of the very high-quality horses from the Middle Eastern owners. If you think about the important breeding stallions of today, many of them are too expensive or their books are closed, and the small breeders can’t possibly afford the high stud fees. But I am very excited about some things going on at my farm with some special fillies and great stallions that are still owned by the “little guy” and winning the big shows and being offered at stud to the European breeder! This year at our Open House we organized a lottery where
6 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b NOVEMBER 2009