Saddle up, horsemen, they’re going to try to take us for a ride.

The government has found a new crisis…one dairy cow was identified as having BSE, mad cow disease…..and now it is absolutely necessary we have a national livestock identification system—which will include horses--so we can track animals throughout their life cycles.

In other words government will have a system in place to tax, to create new and bigger agencies at greater costs, to regulate the movement of horses and to put the “out-of-pocket costs” of identifying each horse directly on the horse owner.

Big Brother is watching.

Of course, I’m not saying any of that would happen.

The whole “wave the flag and give us a drum roll idea is to “ensure there is a system in place for horses in case of a major disease outbreak,” Dan Fick of The Jockey Club is quoted as saying. Fick is a member of the American Horse Council’s National Equine Identification Plan Task Force and chaired its second meeting in Dallas, TX. The results of the meeting: “The task force reviewed and highlighted specific details that must still be worked out,” according to Fick. Now there’s a surprise…the meeting accomplished nothing; but probably had some nice expenses attached to it.

Just asking, but what in the world is a system of horse identification going to do to protect horses from a major disease outbreak? If giving flu shots can’t stop the flu, how is giving a horse a number going to stop West Nile?

What needs to be done in the case of a major disease outbreak is notification of horse owners. You can do that these days in a matter of hours---we have the Internet, cell phones, faxes and e-mail. Wake up; this is the age of technology!

Identifying a sick horse is relatively easy—no need for an electronic transponder inserted in his neck. If there are a lot of sick horses in the same place, then get the word out; horsemen who have had horses in that area will know they had their horses in that area. No need for a national task force to tell them they had their horse in that area.

Horsemen aren’t as stupid as government thinks. Horsemen check on their horse’s health; they get medical attention if needed.

The touted benefits of a national identification system for horses include “protection of equine health, reductions in the number of disease outbreaks and the ability to limit the effect so that the commercial and recreational segments of the industry could continue to operate both domestically and internationally.”

Just asking, but how does a national identification system protect horse’s health? Most horses in the U.S. today are already identified—they are registered with a breed association…they have papers, markings, numbers and DNA samples. I have yet to see all that protect a single horse from any disease.

How is an identification system going to reduce the number of disease outbreaks? Will viruses have to check in with the task force to be assigned the identification of the horses they can attack, and then be told to limit their attack to only those horses the task force has listed?

The first two claimed benefits for a national identification system are ludicrous. The third claimed benefit is even worse. By the time a governmental agency gets through the paperwork of getting started, any long lasting disease will have run its course and be over. That’s about the time the government is going to scrap the identification system and start calling horse owners to ask: “Do you know where your horse was seven weeks ago about 10:30 p.m.?”

The task force is made up of representatives of about 30 organizations who are supposed to evaluate and determine guidelines for such an identification program. Surely one or two of them will wake up and identify this crisis as another “phantom” without substance.

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Make Money With Horses
By Don Blazer

If you want to make your business grow, increase your profits, have a better understanding of client needs and be prepared for the constant challenges of change, then all you’ve got to do is “ask”.

Here are the seven questions you should be asking again and again.

1. Ask for information. Ask your clients, your business associates and your competitors, “What is the biggest challenge you see today in the horse industry?” (Of course each answer will be a reflection of the specialized interests of the respondent—stabling problems, or owner/trainer relationships, breeding soundness, etc.)

2. Ask for business. No matter what your business, you have got to ask for the sale. If you are selling horses, ask when they want the horse delivered…if you are in the boarding business, ask which stall they prefer….ask for what you want.

3. Ask for endorsements. No matter your product, nothing is better to establish its value than an endorsement from a happy customer. When a customer says something nice about your service or product, ask if they’ll “put it in writing.” Tell them their opinion is important to you; important enough you would like to share it with others.

4. Ask for referrals. There are a lot of horse businesses in which it is customary to pay a commission. Be sure you do, and do it quickly when you make a sale from a referral. If it is not customary, a surprise gift for anyone referring a new customer is a great way to say, “thank you.” The surprise gift will long be remembered.

5. Ask for more business. No matter what your product or service, there is usually something which compliments and can be added to the sale. If a person buys a horse, they may need lessons, tack, insurance, or trailering. Be creative; the second sale is usually very lucrative.

6. Ask to renegotiate. No matter what you are buying or leasing or renting, there is always the opportunity to “renegotiate.” You can often get better deals when renegotiating; and if you can’t, you can often find a better deal somewhere else. Be creative and open minded to widen profit margins.

7. Ask for feedback. Feedback has often been called, “the breakfast of champions.” You can find plenty of positive ways to expand your business and increase profit margins from the feedback offered by customers and clients. Put the feedback to work, correcting the weaknesses of your business and making the strengths even better. Feedback is the quick way to becoming the best.