It is a given; with horses sh-t happens – and often

If you own or work with horses you end up in trouble of some kind or another, sooner or later. You have heard it before, “It is not IF, but WHEN you will get hurt by a horse.” Did you know that most horse accidents happen when you are not on the horse’s back? That means that there are more horse handling accidents then horse riding accidents.

One end or the other end can get you in trouble with horses – news article – Florida Man In Deep Doo Doo Over Composting Business Thursday, August 2, 2007 (sorry link to news article is gone now).

Please take extra care in all your dealing with horses and learn to be safer around them and on them. If you have a horse business it is an important part of your business to learn and teach horse safety. Also learn about the latest safety equipment and tack like safety stirrups and riding helmets.

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Artist with hooves and whinnies hold brushes and create paintings

Horses are know for running and jumping, but now there are a few that have taken up painting. They hold the paintbrush in their mouth and nod and swing their head while applying paint to canvas or paper. I bet some of these horse artist have sold more paintings than some human artist.

Horse business owners take note that the owners of these horse painters know how to get publicity; publicity equals more sales. Check out the PR news on Romeo and Juliet – newspapers, web sites, blogs, horse magazines to bird magazines. What does your horse or horse business do that is a bit different – news worthy ? – well get the news out with press releases and blog postings!

Meet the four horses that paint…

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How a new equine business is born from noticing a hoof problem

In July of 2006 Bryan Tilghman contacted me about purchasing a horse logo design for a horse hoof product he was working on marketing. The product idea seemed sound to me and I was impressed with the fact that he seemed to have done his homework by researching the available product options and markets.

Too many people contact me wanting to start some kind of horse business, but they haven’t done ANY research at all. I have even turned down logo clients telling them to rethink their marketing plan (like make one in the first place) and then get back with me.

The birth of a business idea

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Too many people over breeding horses. Are you one of them?

Most horse people do not intensionally breed for the horse meat market. BUT everyone in the horse breeding business or hobby needs to realize that any of the horses they sell or give away can end up going to slaughter one day. If not in America, where they are trying to put a stop horse slaughter, then across the border in Mexico. We all have to awake up to the fact that there is an oversupply of horses for the quality-home-horse-riding market. This oversupply ends up in the human food meat market.

I am not against horse breeding, but if you care about the horses you breed then breeding has to be done responsibly — the best horses to the best horses in limited amounts that the riding market can handle. And you should include Read the rest of this entry

I just discovered a highly educational equestrian blog by Renee Swanepoel at EncyclopediaEquestria.blogspot.com

Each posting looks to be a full length article stuffed with equestrian related information that is well thought out and written. If it sounds like I am impressed, that is because I am. Many horse businesses could be greatly improved by the addition of a blog with articles of this quality.

Yes writing good postings takes time, effort, and research but they help show potential customers what to expect from you, your staff, or your product. The ability to type well wouldn’t hurt either.

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Yes, I said smelling roses not selling roses is good for your horse business.

Horse Business eZine – Equine Business Marketing Tips for the Busy Business Owner

Delivering ideas, inspiration, and practical marketing information specifically for Equine Related Businesses.

July 2007; Issue #7 Joni Solis, Editor

Wow, I just discovered that taking the time to smell the roses (literally) can lead to increasing you brain’s power! That doing pleasurable things often enough can stimulate your creativity and actually raise your IQ. Being smart and creative rockets your chances at becoming a more successful business owner.

You have heard or read that stress can cause you to become ill, but did you know that stimulating positive emotions can help you heal and improve your brain’s ability to function more effectively?

OK, so what have you done in the past hour that made you smile or laugh? When was the last time you really stopped and smelled a scented flower? That long ago?

Business life is so fast paced — too much to do and too little time to do it in. I admit it, I try to squeeze the most I can info my work day and that doesn’t always give me a pleasurable day. I toss the emails sent to me with the silly jokes and humorous photos. Too often I sit at my computer for hours on end without taking a break. That is, until my eyes blur and my head pounds with a headache that even aspirins don’t always vanquish. And I love my business, or at least most of it, bookkeeping being one area of stress.

Now I am finding out that I am actually Read the rest of this entry

Many horse poems seem to have a special soul touching feeling about them.

I just found this lovely poem about a man kissing his horse and connecting to his horse’s wonderful spirit. It is good to take the time to find and read a poem from time to time in our too busy lives. It gives us the sweet touch of connecting to a creative person and feeling part of what they felt on a subject that they felt passionate enough to write a poem about it.

Sometimes being business owners we feel that we don’t have the time to read for just enjoyment, that our reading has to be on business subjects only. But studies have shown Read the rest of this entry

Be open to change

Horse Business eZine – Equine Business Marketing Tips for the Busy Business Owner

Delivering ideas, inspiration, and practical marketing information specifically for Equine Related Businesses.

June 2007; Issue #6 Joni Solis, Editor

Sorry for this huge delay in getting my monthly newsletter out to you! My computer which is only three years old (does that equal 85 in human years?) caused me major headaches with serious errors and freezing nearly daily. So I purchased a new Dell computer with Window’s Vista.

Then the fun really began! I had to figure out how to get everything from my old computer to my new one and then I find out that many of my programs need to be updated to work on vista and some will not work at all. Even some of my hardware (printer and scanner) needs to be replaced.

Change, it is not a four letter word but it sure can cause us so much fear, pain, time, and money. I put off buying a new computer because I knew it meant all of this. But change is life and there is no use trying to stop it. I have to make adjustments and learn to go with the flow of change and that in the long run I will see that change was needed and is good.

Are you open to change?

Maybe it is time to rethink your Read the rest of this entry

Equine learning opportunity with Equine Reproduction Specialist Justin Hayna, DMV of BlueMoundsEquine.com

EquineTeleseminar.net has another call scheduled in their ongoing Horse Health series! Check your schedule and clear the evening of May 2nd for a fascinating live phone interview scheduled with Justin Hayna, DMV, of Blue Mounds Equine Center.

The Art and Science of Equine Reproduction

Patricia of EquineTeleseminar.net and Justin will be discussing both horse breeding basics and cutting-edge technology available for mare and stallion owners in the ever-growing field of Equine Reproduction. If you’ve ever considered breeding your horse, or think you might someday, you owe it to yourself to listen in on this call. Read the rest of this entry

Now you can have full color flyers printed from your Microsoft Word DOC files.

My sister’s boss asked her to make and order two different flyers for an upcoming business event. She had ordered color copies from a fast copy place before, but she thought she might be able to find a better price on the Internet because she wanted to order about 250 copies of each flyer design.

She did a quick search on google and found Read the rest of this entry