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Letter From the Publisher 27 Years: What an amazing ride. Thank you


Dear Readers: Happy New Year! As you know by now, the Maryland Horse Council is the new owner and publisher of T e Equiery. T e MHC Board of Directors approved the acquisition in November, and we announced it in the December issue. T e January 2018 Equiery is the last issue to go to press under my stewardship. To say the last month of 2017 was crazy-busy and bittersweet is an understatement. Our December issue had not even hit the streets when the industry was slammed with the news: Maryland Horse World Expo - can- celled! T e shock was immediate, as the cancellation impacted a vari- ety of businesses and associations. Everyone scrambled. T e Equiery’s January issue had been the Expo program for 22 years.


Holy crackers! Suddenly, with just a few weeks before press, we had no editorial, no advertising. We regrouped, and the results are now in your hands. Well done, team! Simultaneously, there was now a yawning calendar void where Expo had been. T e Maryland Horse Industry Board scrambled together meetings. Maryland will now host the national tour of the EQUUS Film Festival in the same location on the weekend left vacant by Expo. Likewise, a fl urry of hasty meetings were held to re-jigger activities that surrounded Expo, such as the quarterly MHC meeting. Meanwhile, with the Maryland Horse Council set to acquire T e


Equiery on January 1, 2018 – and boy, did MHC president Neil Ag- ate and I had a lot to do to ensure a smooth transition. Meetings and meetings and more meetings! We are now less than 24 hours from press. All ads are in production. All editorial pieces, except for this letter, are in production. Staff is tying up the usual loose ends: Tracy making sure clients have


approved their ads and tidying up distribution lists; Emily laying out fi nal pieces of the book, such as the Ad Index; Carolyn cross-refer- encing the book to make sure we have not overlooked a submitted ad; Cass, Peggy, and Kristen are pitching in on fi ne-tuning art. Katherine is adjusting the fi nal fl ow of the book, fi nishing laying out editorial, and whipping us all in, making sure we are all working as a pack, on the line, and will put this issue of T e Equiery to bed (or to ground, if we are going to be consistent with our foxchasing anology). All crises resolved. All clients cared for. All news research done. T e time has come. It’s now time to fi gure out how to say goodbye.


1990: A Foal is Born I was 24 and Mercedes Clemens was 23 when we shared a moment


of frustration followed by the eureka moment. Each of us was looking for a new stable; each was frustrated that, in 1990 at the dawn of the in- formation age, there was no central source of Maryland equine-business information. We realized that if we needed the information, others did too, that we were immediately struck with the vision of how to solve what was clearly a common frustration. And thus was born T e Equiery: “equi” the Latin root for horse; “ery” the Latin suffi x for “a collection of ” and for “a place to buy and sell.” We created a new word, we trade- marked it, and we were off to the proverbial races. T at was September. By December 1990, our fi rst issue of 12 pages was in almost every


tack and feed store in central Maryland. In that issue, we pledged “to be your guide to fi nding anything and everything having to do with horses in Maryland …if you can’t fi nd what you need in an issue of T e Equiery, call us and we will fi nd it for you!” It is January 2018, and


8 | THE EQUIERY | JANUARY 2018


our pledge is the same. In our fi rst issue, and in this 315th issue now in your hands, we off ered


the free listing services for Coming Events and Riding & Boarding Stables. T en, there were 43 stables in three counties; in this issue there are 838 stables in all 23 Maryland counties and Washington DC. Over the years, we have had the privilege of knowing and serving thousands of customers and tens of thousands of readers. As I prepare to turn the reins over, there are so many things for which I am grateful. I will forever be grateful to the kind and wise souls who owned and managed all those farms I visited in those fi rst few years. Every one of you was gracious and supportive of the concept. Some of you ad- vertised, others became contributors – all became fans, followers and faithful readers. T ank you. Since 1990, T e Equiery and I have crisscrossed Maryland thousands of times, met the most amazing horses and fascinating people, seen beautiful farms, and marveled at innovative businesses. Advertisers be- came clients, colleagues, friends, confi dants. T ank you for your faith and for allowing me to help you grow your business. T e Equiery and I have traveled the globe with Marylanders, both


fi guratively (via our Marylanders who travel abroad) and literally. Be- cause of T e Equiery, I have encountered or crossed paths with folks I would have not have met otherwise. From the beginning, T e Equiery and I have been fortunate enough


to have been mentored or cheered on by the best in the equestrian publishing world, legends, including, but not limited to Peter Wi- nants, Margaret Worrall, Rich Wilcke, Ross Peddicord, Tim Capps, Susan Harding, Rob Banner, Cappy Jackson – and more. “T ank you” is an understatement; “undying gratitude” is more apt. Because of T e Equiery, I have made lifelong friends, expanded my


family circle, found my farm, discovered my equestrian passion (fox- chasing) and have enjoyed a life not to be taken for granted: no matter how challenging, frustrating or heartbreaking, every day spent in the Maryland horse industry is a unique privilege.


The Way We Were In 1990, there was no “world wide web,” no Google, no social me-


dia. A mobile phone was a cordless landline or a black bag toting the iconic “brick” analogue cellular phone. Fax machines were a nov- elty eschewed by tradition-bound owners of horse-related businesses. Most retailers still wrote sales tickets by hand and totted inventory with a pencil. T e fi rst Equiery was produced on a Mac Plus; we had a fax and an answering machine. We were state-of-the-art! In 1990, the horse world was fractured. Each sport, breed, increas-


ingly isolated in its solitary silo. T e State of Maryland saw publicly owned equestrian facilities as a burden, a perq for the privileged. Show and event organizers were looking to other states for sites; top trainers were migrating elsewhere. In 1990, Maryland’s traditional T oroughbred breeding and rac- ing community had the only publishing resource, which was (and still is) owned by the Maryland Horse Breeders Association. In the 1990s, we saw the stalwart Maryland Horse migrate into the Mid- Atlantic T oroughbred to better serve its membership. T at migration paralleled the growth of T e Equiery, as we sought to encompass the remainder of the equestrian community outside of the MHBA um- brella. T e two publications continued in tandem, ultimately develop- ing an outstanding working relationship. Other than fl at and harness racing, equestrians had no presence in Annapolis. T ere was no Maryland Horse Industry Board. T e Mary- land Horse Council was less than a dozen scrappy, strong-willed and


To every thing there is a season, 800-244-9580 | www.equiery.com


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