Friday, December 23, 2005

Happy Holidays From HorsesDaily.com

Our greatest gift is you our readers, our loyal audience which have made us one of the leading websites for reporting news from the equestrian world.

We couldn’t do it without the best staff and friends a company could hope for. Founded in 1997, when the internet was a very new concept for most, 2006 will mark our 9th year on-line. We have a big year in store for our readers, with over 25 shows on our schedule, the road to the 2006 Aachen World Equestrian Games, Dressage in Florida, the addition of a new Dressage Show Series at Lamplight, our newest client The Florida Horse Park, and much more.

We have expanded our company with the recent purchase of an enchanting property in Kentucky, where we have begun construction on our new office, just in time for the announcement of the 2010 Kentucky World Equestrian Games, and the grand opening of the new USDF Building this April during the National Dressage Symposium.

We continue with our coverage, on the road, on the scene, and on the net. With over 35,000 pages of timely news with timeless information, we have over 3,500 daily visitors and over 450,000 page views monthy. Google loves us, and horsesdaily.com and dressagedaily.com are often on the front page of many related google searches. In fact the folks from google called us this year when they launched their new search feature, inviting us to add it to our websites.

We had a little office party here, and for the first time managed to get most of the people responsible for the success of our company together. Many pictured here have been with us for as long as we have been on-line since 1997, and I would like to introduce you to them;

JJ. Hathaway: My husband, partner and soul mate, who was the only one who believed in my driven vision in 1996 to develop and create a website which would offer free access to news, photos, and information for the equestrian world. He never complained when we financed our lives, changing his career of a life time in law enforcement to join me in my quest. JJ. manages our busy lives on the road, where over 200 days of the year we are traveling to events across the country and throughout Europe.

Penny Peck: I first met Penny over 10 year ago when I took her class in Quickbooks to better understand accounting. At the end of the first class, I hired her to be our bookkeeper, which she did for many years. When the websites were underway, Penny took over management of our busy News sections posting press releases for all disciplines to HorsesDaily.com. Penny also works managing the books for a Langford Funeral home, and developing websites for companies in our region of Florida.

Margaret (Maggie) Heroy: Margaret began working with us last winter, when taking a sabbatical from college, she headed to Florida with her horse to train with Robert Dover. She began as an unpaid apprentice, but her talent and skills around the computer soon made her a valuable asset. Maggie manages the hundreds of thousands of images we shoot, our photo database, and other data. Maggie traveled with us to Aachen this year, and without her we would still be organizing the 525 ponies we photographed at the USEF Pony Finals. Maggie had all the images done and in folders the Monday after the event.

Tracey Scharf: Our office and life manager, Tracey is also a liscenced Insurance CSR, and keeps our lives and our clients on track. Tracey began working with us in the pre-digital days, stuffing photos into albums working while in the beginning stages of labor with her son Hayden, who is now six-years-old. Always upbeat and positive and fun, Tracey who is also our next door neighbor, handles our busy insurance business, and managing the office staff. When her son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 2, requiring seven shots of insulin a day, Tracey showed her true strength and character, taking on a huge life challenge, while still maintaining the challenge of running our company.

Lisa Singufield: The newest member to our photo operation, Lisa came to us this past summer with considerable computer skills in photoshop, as well as photography. With all our photo orders done in-house, Lisa has helped keep our orders moving quickly out the door. Lisa worked for several years photographing and order processing a busy company covering Ballroom Dancing competition. After photographing competions from 8AM-11PM, and organizing images of over 8 couples on the dance floor at one time, handling horse shows for us will be a breeze.

Mary Phelps-Hathaway: That’s me, the “Boss Mare” with Gizmo (Trooper above with JJ) My corgis keep me company as I work often in the early dark morning hours, and are the best travel and horse show companions. I can truly say in all honesty I love my work, and the people I work with. I can’t wait to get up in the morning to jump onto the computer and manage all the news, e-mails, insurance questions, horsemarket entires, and new ideas. Soon we will be hitting the road beginning our 2006 season, and I am looking forward to seeing all our friends and customers at the shows.

Stacy Gormley: Stacy is our rising star reporter, who came on board this summer with gusto and talent. An accomplished FEI Level rider, Stacy manages a small training operation new Wellington Florida, and was our featured reporter at the North American Young Riders Championships, and the Junior Riders Championships at Devon. Stacy will be helping me manage our busy Who’s Who section, with updates and new additions, as well as news reporting from many of the shows and events of 2006.

Astrid Appels: Our soul-mate and Euro-Partner and reporter, Astrid Appels owns and operates the very popular eurodressage.com, as well as currently working on her doctorate in Linguistics at the University of Brussels. We met on-line in 1997 when our websites won an award, and have been working together ever since. Astrid was 15 years old at the time! Brilliant and talented Astrid is fluent in 4 languages and understands several more. Astrid owns a lovely mare currently working at the Prix St. George level, and has recently purchased an exciting young foal in Denmark. She is a brave voice for dressage, often challenging issues which need to be addressed.

Mary Lou Weiner: Mary Lou, a talented artist and wildlife photographer whose work can be seen in many Audubon Society publications, rounds out our photo production operation. Mary Lou, who boards her dressage horse just down the street from our home offices, often comes to work in her riding clothes, and applies her artistic talent as well as knowledge of horses and dressage to her work. We are lucky to have Mary Lou, who manages to fit us into her busy life each week.

Not pictured, and important in our daily business operations are our support crew from the corporate offices of Markel Insurance Company, Kelly Chambers, Linda Lee, and our mentor John Seger. Also there is Miriam Morgan of equestriangraphics.com who does our advertising work, and collaborates with us on work for clients. And our all star reporters Diana DeRosa, Charlene Strickland and contributing photographer Cealy Tetley.

Happy Holidays From all of Us
Home for the Holidays, and we'd love to hear from you too!
e-mail us: info@horsesdaily.com