Thursday December 2, 2004

Marketing – The Missing Link in the U.S. Sport Horse Industry

USDF University Sessions at Annual Meeting Educate and Inform

An interesting and well attended university session held Wednesday at the 2004 USDF Annual Meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, addressed important issues for American Breeders looking to develop their marketing concepts and achieve their goals of promoting their quality breeding operations.

The panel was headed up by Ekkehard Brysch, CEO of the ISR-Oldenburg registry North America and the Federation of Stallion Testing LLC., Scott Hassler, Director of Training at Hilltop Farm in Colora, MD, and chairman of the USDF Sport Horse Committee, and Willy Arts, co-owner and trainer of DG Bar Ranch in Hanford, CA, also a member of the USDF Sport Horse Industry.

The theory of marketing in general is a philosophy of identifying the needs of the buyers, satisfying those needs (the short term) and anticipating them in the future (long-term retention). To apply this philosophy to the Sport Horse Breeders of America, breeders need to network with each other and their Breed Organization by developing and agreeing on certain criteria for advertising, and promoting sales.