Thought Leaders In the Horse Business

I googled the title of this post.  You won't be surprised that the results were disappointing.  The horse industry, deep in tradition, seldom offers innovation at the scale most other industries do.

Sure, new products show up from time to time, but new concepts, marketing ideas, predictions for revenue streams, rising feed and bedding costs, changes in demand and customer needs are topics as hard to find as a $ 2.00 bale of good horse hay.

Who do you consider to be Thought Leaders in the business of horses?  Leave a comment for the rest of us. 

Comments

[Lisa Munniksma]

Thought leaders...You mean aside from Doug Emerson?

A pair of women I'd like to point out are Beth Cross and Pam Parker, the founders of Ariat International. Who would've thought you could put the comfort technology of athletic shoes in equestrian footwear? Thank goodness, they did. They also took the marketing and product positioning know-how that they gained while working for a major athletic-footwear company and applied it to the equine industry, really changing the way people thought about advertising in our magazines.

[Doug]

Thanks Lisa. Great example of great results!

[Scott]

Hi Doug,

What a great question and now has me thinking ... (where "thought leader" is "used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights" from Wikipedia)

how about :

Natural Horsemanship:

Xenophon - for his treatises On Horsemanship

John Solomon Rarey - "Original Horse Whisperer"

Tom and Bill Dorrance - founders of the modern Natural horsemanship movement

Stacy Westfall - for her Open Freestyle win at the All-American Quarter Horse Congress riding bareback and bridleless

Each of these people had/have a certain amount of marketing prowess to them and their ideas.

I would agree that more modern examples are difficult to find, but how about:

Angelea Kelly Walkup and HorseGirlTV.com for utilizing video podcasts and internet technologies.

Joni Solis at ALove4Horses.com for her blog articles helping horse businesses.

I'd sure love to hear if you have any one else who could be considered a thought leader.

Scott