As horse people, we know firsthand just how small the "horse world" is in reality. You might live in central Kentucky, but chances are that you travel regularly all over the United States for shows. The very nature of the equestrian sport makes for a small, tight-knit community.
Despite the interconnected nature of the horse world, we also know just how local it is as well. For example, we will consistently travel between Michigan, New York, and Florida for shows throughout the course of a year. We will then come back to our "home." Our local – and nationwide – equine communities consist of tack shops, feed stores, local shows, local Facebook groups, WhatsApp message groups, and so much more. In short, our interconnected equestrian world is rather – in one word – complex.
Up until recently, there wasn't a social media platform that was tailored to equestrians. That is why we are so excited to feature The Pegasus App in this month's Equestrian Business Spotlight.
Pegasus is a new equestrian platform whose mission it is to empower and connect the entire equestrian community by providing a platform that solves the industry’s biggest challenges.
We recently had a chance to sit down with the founders of The Pegasus App to learn more about their journey, their business, and more.
Meet The Founders:
Jen is a civil engineer by trade, graduating with a Civil Engineering degree from the University of South Florida in 2012. Following graduation, Jen worked as a civil engineer for five years across Mitsubishi, Chromalloy and T3 Design. At which point, she transitioned from engineering to technology sales and specialized in parking technology sales, leveraging her training and experience in engineering projects such as intelligent transportation system (ITS) and traffic flow design. She continued to work in technology sales for several years as the Director of Sales for the technology unicorn, PayByPhone.
Sam has a background in national security and geopolitics having served in the Australian Army. He then moved to Washington DC and attended George Washington University and completed a double masters in International Security and Political economy. Upon graduation of grad school, Sam commenced work in defence contracting and eventually started his own technology company with some friends from the army called WithYouWithMe that won the award as the fastest growing technology company in the Asia Pacific. WithYouWithMe focussed on retraining veterans in technology careers such as cyber security, data science, robotics and cloud computing, and was very active in Washington DC as it served the United States’ industrial complex and government, by providing a pipeline of technically trained veterans to work on national security projects and infrastructure.
American Stalls: When did you start Pegasus?
Jen: We began white boarding Pegasus in May 2020 when COVID began. Sam had just exited his previous company and was looking for something to do next. My schedule had slowed drastically as the conference circuit that consumed a large part of my technology sales job dried up so I had newfound time on my hands. So between May and June, we both began developing ideas for Pegasus and conducting market research. By June 2020, it was clear that there was a need for a comprehensive and more advanced technology platform to serve the equestrian community. We then began to build the technology. The platform launched and became available to the public on New Years 2020 and has been growing a steady user base since.
American Stalls: How did the idea come to be?
Sam: Jen grew up riding as a Three Day Eventer and Pony Clubber in Central Florida. At the peak of her career, she competed at the preliminary level on her beautiful thoroughbred Imp – short for ‘Impulsive’. All through her riding days, Jen tried to build new riding products to improve the rider’s experience but failed to get them to market. This was in the early 2000’s prior to the true globalization of modern markets, which has since made building companies and developing new physical products a lot easier. So while the inspiration and need existed, many of Jen's inventions didn’t succeed.
When Jen began college, her competitive days came to an end. All during college and her young professional days, Jen continued to lease horses and ride and train casually, to stay in touch with the sport. Her mother Lori, a lifelong rider, continued to sign Jen up to all the major equestrian publications, like Chronicle of the Horse, as a means of keeping Jen’s passion for the sport alive. Despite her life taking her in another direction, she continued to receive regular equestrian magazines delivered to her front door.
When COVID-19 hit, we began a three month road trip that stretched from the remote parts of the Georgia Mountains all the way up to the very border of Canada and Maine, and everything in between.
Jen: Along the way, I hoped to find a local barn where I could secure a short term lease or other riding opportunity for a horse. Despite the search however, it became increasingly obvious that finding such places was close to impossible, unless you knew someone local or you were in the right Facebook group, which was difficult as many of them require being approved by a moderator. We were not in a single place long enough to both get approval and make a request for input from the group, before we moved on to the next spot in what we termed our “COVID Quarantine Tour.”
This frustration led to many conversations between the two of us – prompting questions like, ‘How do people who make their living in this industry get things done? How do they find customers, communicate with customers and get the word out about their operation?’
When our road trip came to an end in late May 2020, we settled for a month at a farmstead in Farmville, Virginia. We then delved deep into market research about what else was out there and why someone had not yet built a modern technology platform to empower the equestrian community and economy. Sam, who had a history with building modern technology platforms and companies to solve problems for niche communities, was amazed at how antiquated a lot of the current tools in the market were, and so was immediately convinced that they could build a world class technology company to help the equestrian community and economy.
American Stalls: So that was the seed of The Pegasus App?
Sam: It sure was. We then began to build. For six months, we worked with key personnel within the American equestrian industry to refine what the product needed to be and the problems it needed to solve. We also worked closely with Jen’s mother Lori Tankel, who is very much still deeply involved and connected in the eventing and show jumping worlds in Florida. She had a lot of feedback as to what she and other riders, businesses, and horse enthusiasts would love to see a modern technology platform achieve. Lori, in addition to other prominent equestrians and businesses in the Virginia and Florida areas, provided feature ideas and tested the product to make sure that the platform really was optimized for equestrians.
By the 31st of December, 2020, the Pegasus platform was ready for launch and at midnight on the dot of NYE, it went live and was made accessible to the public.
American Stalls: Fantastic. Since launching, Pegasus has expanded its features. How does Pegasus help the equestrian industry?
Jen & Sam: Pegasus has a very long road map of features that we are developing. After months of research, it is apparent that there are many modern solutions to old problems that Pegasus can fix.
In the immediate term, Pegasus is trying to solve three very simple problems. Firstly, we are trying to optimize communication within the equestrian community. While tools like Facebook are very well developed technology platforms, they are not a good tool for sharing, trading, communicating, etc. If you have ever posted a saddle on Facebook to try and find a buyer, and then had it disappear from view down the Facebook groups activity feed because it was one of one hundred posts that minute, then you know what Sam and Jen mean by Facebook not being optimized for equestrians.
The second big problem is the buying, selling and trading of horses and equestrian equipment. We focused on this feature due to the overwhelming number of posts you will see on Facebook where people are having to use emoji’s to spell out the price of a horse they are trying to find a buyer for, or worse, are paying to post an add for their horse or saddle on an aging classified site. A seller just then hopes that someone sees it. We set out to solve this problem by creating a beautiful platform where you can post an ad for your horse, business, services, side hustle, whatever it might be. Other people can then find it by selecting what they are looking for and in vicinity of what address. Then an AirBnB looking interface reveals it for you and connects you via private message to the seller so you can immediately trade with one another.
The third and final problem is very simply the challenge of Facebook’s policies that restrict the sale of animals on the platform. We have spoken with a few hardworking equestrian business owners who have had their Facebook accounts locked due to breaching their policies. This has greatly damaged their business and risked their livelihood.
So if you look at these three problems together, Pegasus is a platform designed to provide all the functionality and convenience of Facebook, without the challenges and risks Facebook poses and with a lot of extra benefits due to it being optimized for equestrians.
American Stalls: Those are three very large, but necessary problems to solve. As you build Pegasus, what do you both enjoy the most about building this app?
Sam & Jen: Meeting and working with the people that make the equestrian world go round. From your next door neighbor who keeps a single horse on their small property, through to the heads of USEF, USEA, etc. It is greatly fulfilling to sit down with them and learn about their challenges – whether that be macro issues like how to attract more people to the sport or micro issues such as Facebook keeps taking down my posts. To learn how the community and economy work and take that information back to our engineering team and build technical solutions that solve these problems, that’s the best part of our jobs. At the end of the day, Pegasus is just a tool that serves the community to do things that exist in the real world. So we have to focus on the real world and build technology that makes that easier. Not the other way round.
American Stalls: What are 2-3 tips you would recommend for a traditional equine business (i.e. venue, boarding barn, etc) to go digital and have a solid presence?
Sam & Jen: Our first tip would be to stop building your own websites. They are expensive to build. They are expensive to maintain. They cause you stress. And in 99% of cases, they look bad. At this point, unless you do something truly unique, most people know what you do, so all they want to know is how much do you cost and can they come take a look at your location/products/etc. This is all stuff that can be achieved by spending the time to really fill out your business details on Google maps, which most people use anyway.
Now of course, we would prefer that you use Pegasus instead because the Pegasus Directory is essentially a Google Maps optimized specifically for horses and designed for you to run your entire business through it for free. But if that isn’t something you are willing to do, then our one piece of advice is to stop wasting money on an antiquated website and instead use the tools that exist like Google Maps and Pegasus.
Another piece of advice we would give is to talk to each other more. So much of the equestrian economy relies on a small number of repeat customers. Repeat customers come with great customer service and referrals; referrals are the cheapest customer you will ever attract. So we would encourage all equine business owners to talk to each other more. Not just the people in your barn and not just posting a picture on Facebook or Instagram. Find people nearby who have a symbiotic relationship with your business such as an equestrian event business and horse motel, and speak regularly and offer to help one another wherever you can. This will not only increase your referrals but also make you aware of what's happening in the equine economy and give you ideas you can capitalize on.
The last thing is paperwork. We have been blown away to learn how little paperwork exists in the equestrian economy. Deals are all hand shakes and written checks. If a release waiver is signed, it is printed, signed, and then lost in the tack room somewhere. If horses are bought, a check is handed over and you are waived good luck. While we are very fond of the ‘old ways’ and can appreciate the trust in this industry, it is a recipe for disaster. We understand that no one wants to involve lawyers in anything ever, due to it slowing things down and costing money, but that what we are building a portal to automate all that for free so you can get those contracts in place free and quickly to protect yourself.
American Stalls: Those are 3 great tips! If you had to narrow it down to one more tip, what tip would you give other equestrians to succeed in today’s climate?
Sam & Jen: This is perhaps our biggest piece of advice. The equine world needs to get creative. It is full of very experienced people with a lifetime of knowledge in their head, who are then doing lackluster jobs on the side that doesn’t utilize their experience and skill, to make money. There is a drastic need for the equine industry to start being creative with how they monetize their time and skills to better serve one another.
For example, one of the features we are launching soon is what we have dubbed the Horse Inspector. The Horse Inspector is someone who has a lifetime of experience buying and selling horses and knows exactly what they would look for in a horse if they were buying it for themselves. So why not have them go and review a horse for you and write you an objective report on their assessment, and you pay them for the in-person assessment. You can then commission five reports for five horses all over the country that you are interested in and then widdle the list down to two horses you actually want to invest time in going to look at yourself. If you pay each horse inspector $200 for a report, then you have spent $1000, but you have saved at least three times the cost of travel and accommodation on the horse you don't have to go see yourself, not to mention the time, so you end up on top. For the Horse Inspector, they can start a second career, conducting up to ten horse inspections a week and making $2,000 a week in extra income. That’s just over $100k a year doing something you already know how to do.
As for Pegasus, we have built out the technology to make all that happen and standardize the reports, contracts, Horse Inspector profiles, reviews, search, etc.
This is just one example, however, of how being creative can both save people money and make people money. The equestrian industry is a tale of two worlds. Those that are wealthy and enjoy horses. And those that make horses their life and livelihood, and often are not wealthy at all. The wealthy are happy to spend money if you give them a great product and save them some time. The less wealthy have the time and expertise, they just need to be taught what else they can offer the wealthy and be given a portal to get in contact with them.
That’s the bridge we are trying to build at Pegasus.
To learn more about Pegasus and sign up for the Beta version, go to www.thepegasus.app or email Jen Tankel at jen@thepegasus.app.
When building (or renovating) your barn, we will often think about the safety and visual appeal. During this process, we will consider the horse stall style, the barn doors, the amount of ventilation, and thousands of other details. One crucial area that every horse owner pays attention to is flooring and footing.
If you've been to any barn, chances are that you have seen plenty of stall gates and horse stall doors.
Although stall gates are usually the final piece in a horse stall, they should never be an afterthought. This gate securely keeps your horse in their horse stall. This gate can also go a long way in promoting ventilation and allowing sunlight into your horse barn.
Stall Gates – also known as "stall screens" and "stall guards" – are one of the most versatile products for any horse barn. Their versatility is why they are one of our favorite products to recommend to clients. Each barn is different, but here are 3 ways to use our stall gates for your horse stall and horse barn:
1 – Use it as a standalone stall door
We can't say this about every stall gate in the market, but we can confidently recommend our stall gate as a standalone door for your horse stall. Our clients use our stall gates in every type of barns – including everything from a large boarding barn to a backyard hobby barn.
Our stall gates are perfect for those who want to add a modern aesthetic and ventilation to their horse barn. Clients often will pair our stall gate then with other pieces of hardware and grillwork to complete their horse stall.
2 – Install as a complementary gate to an existing sliding stall door (interior of stall)
Many customers have older horse barns that were built in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. These horse barns usually have heavy sliding stall doors that are tough to slide open. These older horse stalls also tend to limit ventilation.
In this particular case, many horse owners add much needed ventilation and updated look by adding our stall gates. This also allows our clients to continue using their sliding stall door. This option can often save barn owners thousands of dollars in upgrades.
3 – Pair our stall gate with a Dutch Door or sliding paddock door
This option, again, focuses on promoting ventilation and sunlight in your horse barn. Often times, horse owners want to simply open their Dutch Doors or exterior paddock doors to bring in some airflow into their horse barn. That being said, they still want to safely contain their horse in their horse stall.
In this case, a barn owner can pair our stall gate with their Dutch door or paddock door. The stall gate allows a barn owner to open up a Dutch door or sliding paddock door while having the stall gate in place. This not only allows the horse to hang their head to get fresh air, but also allows for sunlight and ventilation to flow into barn while the horse is safely contained in the stall.
Do you have any additional questions? Please reach out to our design team at (855) 957-8255 or email us at sales@americanstalls.com. Our team of expert consultants would love to sit down, understand your questions, and provide our 16+ years of experience.
StableComfort offers an innovative sleeping solution for horses with its patented, multi-celled mattress system. Designed to provide the equivalent comfort of at least 6 inches of traditional bedding, these rubber-filled mattresses come with a durable rubber top cover. Placed wall-to-wall in horse stalls and securely fastened to the walls, StableComfort creates a seamless, one-piece flooring system that ensures optimal comfort and stability for your equine friends.
Although there are many options in the industry, the basics of a safe horse stall are consistent across the board. That includes standard best practices for horse stall sizes, heights, and safety standards.
For this article, we'd like to discuss the basics of a horse stall's size and dimensions – particularly the horse stall partitions.
General Dimensions
To begin, the size of your horse and the amount of time he spends in the stall will largely determine the stall size. Our standard recommendation is a 12' x 12' stall for a 1,000-pound horse. This recommendation varies though as we get into specific breeds of horses. For example, larger horses require more space than smaller breeds. This includes space to move around, lie down, and get up comfortably. For this reason, we usually recommend the width of a horse stall front and horse stall partition to measure 12' from end-to-end.
Note: In the rest of this article, we will cover specifics that pertain to stall partitions. Please visit this article for more tips and best practices regarding stall fronts and stall doors.
When considering the height, it's useful to know that horse barns are usually built with a ceiling height of 10' to 12'. Please also consider that horses can often kick as high as 7'. For this reason, we recommend that stall partitions' should be 8' tall. That being said, 7'6" tall stall partitions can work in older barns with smaller ceilings.
Design of Stall Partitions
In addition to aesthetics, it's important to consider the following when deciding on your horse stall partition's design:
The first point and second point are especially important in deciding the design for your stall partitions. Are you operating a boarding barn where you have clients' horses have different temperaments? Do you have a training and sales barn where you regularly have new horses? In these cases, we often see customers choose full privacy (full wood) or partial privacy partitions (wood on first 1/3 and 1" round bars on 2nd 2/3 of partition) to handle different personalities.
In contrast, private hobby barns and private commercial barns also love our half-grilled horse stall partitions for socialization and airflow. This brings us to the third point - your area's climate and temperatures. It goes without saying that ventilation is crucial in any horse barn. It is even more important as you get into warmer and more humid climates. For this reason, we recommend that clients choose our partial privacy design and preferably our half-grilled partitions for superior ventilation.
Although there are countless options in design, the basics are often all you need in your decision for your horse stall partitions. Below is a chart that helps outlay our recommendations, considerations, and key benefits associated with each type of horse stall partition:
Do you have any additional questions? Please reach out to our design team at (855) 957-8255 or email us at sales@americanstalls.com. Our team of expert consultants would love to sit down, understand your questions, and provide our 16+ years of experience.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 6, 2021
Contact:
American Stalls, LLC
(855) 957-8255
sales@americanstalls.com
American Stalls, an industry leader in custom equine equipment, is proud to announce its sponsorship of STRIDER.
As Title Sponsor for STRIDER’s Spring 2021 Giveaway, American Stalls will also be featured in the popular StriderRewards program to provide a unique benefit for STRIDER platform members.
"Many of our members have diversified their businesses over the past year, which has created opportunities for facility expansion and improvements. We look forward to connecting STRIDER users to the exceptional design and craft characteristics throughout the American Stalls product line," said STRIDER CEO, Tara Swersie.
"American Stalls’ commitment to quality, safety, functionality, and customer service is very much in line with our mission here at STRIDER," Swersie continued.
"Our American Stalls team always strives to innovate and bring state-of-the-art solutions and products to our equestrian clients. We found that same drive for innovation in STRIDER’s services and culture," added Yash Balasaria, CEO of American Stalls.
"We look forward to our partnership with STRIDER to provide equestrian facilities with the highest quality products, services, and customer service together."
About STRIDER:
From enabling riders to discover and book the perfect opportunity, to helping equestrians across the industry grow and run their businesses, STRIDER fosters connections to top tier experiences. Please visit www.striderpro.com to explore the Strider Platform for equestrians and learn more about STRIDER’s suite of available software products and services. Connect with STRIDER at ww.striderpro.com or on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
About American Stalls:
With its range of world class equine equipment and top-notch customer service, American Stalls clientele spans both residential and large-scale equestrian venues. From stall and barn doors, to flooring options, temporary stalls, and more- American Stalls designs and manufactures the industry’s most durable, elegant, and safe equine equipment. Visit www.americanstalls.com to explore the full product line or schedule a consultation. Connect with American Stalls on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
Creating your dream horse barn starts with smart planning. Whether you're building from scratch or renovating, these 9 essential tips will help you design a barn that’s safe, efficient, and tailored to your needs—while keeping your budget in check.
Any products that go into your barn are large capital investments. This includes any horse stalls, barn doors, barn windows, and flooring. The right horse stalls, barn doors, barn windows, and other products go a long way in your barn's long term success.
Although the environment inside any working horse barn is tough, you can still keep the finish looking beautiful with a few simple steps. In this article, we'd like to talk about our materials, but also some best practices to ensure your American Stalls products stand the test of time.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR MATERIALS:
Our steel-based products include two main components to consider: the steel and the powder coat finish.
All of our horse stalls, barn doors, barn windows, and steel-based fencing uses pre-galvanized steel at the minimum. We do not use any black carbon steel on any components. We only use pre-galvanized steel (at the minimum) for increased longevity and durability. This is especially important for clients that are close to coast lines where salt exposure is high.
In addition to the steel, most products are finished in a polyester powder coat finish. Our polyester powder coat finish provides fantastic weather resistance and UV resistance. Our powder coat finish is also especially designed for agricultural use. This ensures that your finish has a longer gloss retention and sticks better to all surface area. This means that our powder coat finish will adhere beautifully to corners and edges. Lastly, we choose a powder coat as opposed to wet paint to ensure that your finish is uniform, smooth, and resistant to chips.
Please note that the only exception is when we hot-dip galvanize our steel for clients on coastal areas. Hot-dip galvanized steel is the only instance where we do not apply a powder coat finish because of issues with adherence.
THE BEST WAY TO CARE FOR YOUR STALL FINISH
For starters, we recommend that you keep an eye on items that hang from your stalls including halters, feed bags, blanket bars, bridle hooks, and more. Over time, the constant wearing can mar or scratch the powder coat finish. If you do see any scratches, it is crucial to address scratches and scrapes as soon as possible. This is important to make sure that the exposed steel is touched up before it becomes a bigger issue. Please kindly contact our American Stalls team for touch-up paint to fix these small scratches.
Next, let's talk about how to clean and wash your powder coat finish. After all, simple and consistent maintenance will reduces the damage done to your power-coated stalls. Consistent care will also prolong the use of your stall and door products – potentially doubling or tripling the powder-coatings’ effective service life. Below are a few recommendations when you wash and clean your powder coat finishes.
Pressure Cleaning:
Pressure cleaning (low pressure) is one of the most efficient methods in cleaning steel products with powder coat finishes.
When pressure cleaning, it is important that low pressure be used. This is because the higher pressures can potentially be strong enough to damage the finish. In addition to the pressure, we recommend to be mindful about the cleaning agent of choice. Never use chlorine or any other cleaning agents with harsh, corrosive chemical properties. We recommend to only use mild detergents.
Cleaning Agents of Choice
As mentioned above, we recommend to only use mild soaps as a cleaning agents. This mild detergent should be pH neutral and used with warm water to improve the cleaning effectiveness. All powder coated products should be cleaned with either a soft cloth (or soft sponge) and a solution of mild soap and warm water.
One extra tip is to avoid using Clorox wipes and other alcohol-based wipes to clean stalls and latches. In the age of COVID-19, our clients have cleaned their stalls more than ever. This is especially true at busy commercial horse barns such as boarding barns, training barns, and horse show facilities. We recommend against Clorox wipes since they include chemicals that are not friendly to powder coat finishes and steel galvanization. Over time, excessive use of Clorox wipes can eat into the finish of your powder coat and the steel's galvanization.
To summarize, we recommend to only use soft clothes (or sponges) with a solution of warm water and mild soap to clean your steel horse barn products. Lastly, keep an eye out on your stall, door, and window products to address any chips and scratches as they arise to avoid long-term issues.
Contact our American Stalls if you have any other questions on how to best care and maintain your products. Contact us at (855) 957-8255 or email us at sales@americanstalls.com
Our story began in 2006 when Niraj Balasaria founded American Stalls in Chantilly, Virginia. Niraj founded American Stalls when his family business group won a Request for Proposal (RFP) to build 1,500 horse stall systems for HITS Horse Shows in Saugerties, New York.
Although this was our first equestrian contract, we brought decades worth of experience in steel fabrication, logistics, and global customer experience.
This is because American Stalls is the fifth business in a group of companies that specialize in steel manufacturing. These businesses – all family run and operated – include industry leaders such as:
Niraj Balasaria founded his first business in 1994 to serve the construction and fencing industries in the United States. Over the span of 27 years, the family business ownership group expanded into a wide variety of high tech steel applications. Our products now include:
In 2006, Niraj Balasaria officially entered the equestrian industry with the initial deal with HITS Horse Shows. When we won this RFP, our goal was to bring our expertise in high-tech steel manufacturing and corporate leadership into the equestrian industry. Our mission was – and remains – to build the best horse stall equipment and deliver the best possible customer service experience.
American Stalls has grown tremendously over the course of 15 years. In the past two decades, American Stalls has built world class equine equipment for some of the nation's best facilities. Our projects include everything from backyard pleasure barns to Grand Prix training barns to the best polo clubs to large county fairgrounds.
Although we have grown tremendously in the past 15 years, our mission and commitment remains the same. Our mission is to build the safest and most elegant horse stall equipment in the world for equestrians across the globe. Learn more about our core values, our commitment, and our key people below.
According to research, it's known that there are over 9.2 million horses and 2.1 million horse owners in the United States. Aside from the equestrian lifestyle, fellow horse owners can attest to the magic associated with our beloved horses. From a young age, many equestrians learn intangibles and ethics that horses indirectly teach. These ethics include discipline, self-control, confidence, and more.
In today’s small community spotlight, we’d like to feature a non-profit organization that strives to teach children these very ethics through involvement in horses. This organization is Detroit Horse Power.
"In 2015, Detroit Horse Power incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and launched two pilot summer camps serving 18 youth. Since then, Detroit Horse Power has brought over 400 at-risk urban youth to partner horse barns outside Detroit for free summer horse camps and an after-school program.
We recently had a chance to sit down with DHP's Founder and Executive Director: David Silver. He has a background in urban education after teaching at Burns Elementary & Middle School and earning his Masters in Teaching in 2014. He launched Detroit Horse Power and has overseen the program’s growth in the last five years while pursuing the long-term vision of bringing horses to the city. He has a competitive riding background in Three-Day Eventing and has received the highest horse management certification from the United States Pony Club.
In this interview, Silver shared more about his journey, more background regarding DHP, and their future plans.
American Stalls: What is your background relating to horses?
David: I grew up in the suburbs of New York City and am really lucky that my mom grew up with horses. She passed that love on to me and my younger sister. We started in hunter and jumpers. We then transitioned to Three Day Eventing where I had amazing experiences traveling and competing from Montreal to Ocala where I eventually worked for Olympic rider Boyd Martin. I took a step back from competitive riding during college at Dartmouth and joined Teach For America after I graduated. That brought me to Detroit to be an elementary school teacher in 2012. After two years, I decided to leave the classroom after reflecting on the life lessons horses taught me and seeing how those opportunities could open doors for young Detroiters like my students.
American Stalls: Can you describe Detroit Horse Power (DHP) and its short term and intermediate term vision?
David: Detroit Horse Power provides free summer horse camps and an after-school program. These programs teache Detroit youth how to ride and care for horses as a way to develop valuable skills. Everything we do focuses on research-based social-emotional skills that we all learn from horses: Perseverance, Empathy, Responsible risk-taking, Confidence, and Self-control (PERCS). This currently takes place through partnerships with existing horse barns outside the city that donate the use of their space and horses for us to implement our program.
As we look to the future, we are currently on a three-year timeline to construct a new urban equestrian center on a 14-acre demolished Detroit school site. This transformational vision will allow us to scale the number of youth we can serve, the depth of their experience, and strengthen the communities they grow up in by turning vacant land into a community asset.
American Stalls: What is a particular story that touched you at DHP and drives your team?
David: Our staff, board of directors and volunteers are constantly inspired as our students move through our program, learn the PERCS traits, and translate those lessons we learn from horses into their successful journeys. We have one outstanding young lady who has moved through the DHP program, recently graduated early from her high school program, received scholarships to three different colleges she is selecting between, landed a job related to animals while waiting for college to begin this fall, and has been a tremendous asset to our DHP family and motivation for what we do!
American Stalls: What do you enjoy most about DHP?
David: I have great memories from my competitive riding career, but I get far more satisfaction from seeing our students learn and grow through working with horses. I am always overjoyed to see our students in the horse setting and getting to watch the amazing community that has grown between our students and the adults who guide our program. Most of my energy these days goes into our progress toward the long-term vision of constructing a new urban equestrian center for our youth impact opportunities to scale. I can’t wait for our program to reach its full potential in that transformational future state.
"I have great memories from my competitive riding career, but I get far more satisfaction from seeing our students learn and grow through working with horses."
American Stalls: How has COVID-19 affected DHP?
David: Detroit Horse Power has used the “pandemic pivot” to continue to wrap our students in a network of support during these trying Covid-19 times. Since the pandemic began, we’ve held after-school sessions every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday via Zoom. This is where we focus on applying the PERCS traits in our everyday lives. We were all thrilled to be able to hold two limited weeks of in-person summer horse camps for the advanced students in our year-round cohort. Our season of fall barn trips for our after-school program was put on pause after new public health guidance. That being said, depending on developing conditions, we look forward to resuming barn trips again soon. In the summer months, our plan is to be back near as full capacity as we can, with plans for eight weeks of summer horse camps for the summer of 2021.
American Stalls: Thinking ahead, what does DHP look like in 2025 in an ideal world?
David: In our current model, access to horses is fairly limited based on our partner barns’ capacity and the long distances we have to travel. We are on track to open our future urban equestrian center on a 14-acre demolished Detroit school site by 2023. We know that reaching this milestone will contribute to Detroit’s renewal by turning vacant land into a community asset and be a game-changer for the students we currently serve and many more who will be able to participate. This is a truly unmatched opportunity to weave horses into an urban context at a scale other cities can only dream of. We can’t wait to make the skill-building power of horses available right within our city.
American Stalls: Is there anything that our followers can do to help? Can you tell us more about the capital fundraising plan?
David: We completed conceptual design for our future urban equestrian center during 2020 through the assistance of a steering committee composed of neighborhood residents, city government officials, and equine experts. We will be developing construction documents and going through municipal approvals in 2021 as we prepare for a ground-breaking in 2022. As our capital campaign ramps up this year, we expect that individuals, foundations, and corporate sponsors will be the key champions to provide the resources to turn this vision into reality. We thank supporters like American Stalls not only for voicing our mission, but also for the eagerness to partner with us in the future.
To learn more about and contribute to Detroit Horse Power, follow the below links:
Website: Detroit Horse Power - Home
Facebook: Detroit Horse Power
Instagram: @detroithorsepower
Youtube: DHP Successful Journeys - YouTube
Horses are built to move, but with more stall-bound time, it’s essential to ensure their flooring promotes comfort, safety, and health. Learn about the crucial steps for building the perfect horse stall floor, from site analysis to leveling and compacting, to help your horse lead a happier, healthier life.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2021
Contact:
American Stalls, LLC
(855) 957-8255
sales@americanstalls.com
American Stalls, an industry leader in custom equine equipment, is proud to announce its sponsorship of Stable Style
The Sponsorship will start effective immediately on February 1, 2021 and extend through the remainder of the 2021 calendar year.
“I am looking forward to working more with Yash and American Stalls this year. Behind every brand is a leader who wants the best for their company. Together, American Stalls and Stable Style can offer practical and inspiration solutions for horse barn owners.” - Raquel Lynn
The move to sponsor the Stable Style was a natural transition for American Stalls. The company has worked with Stable Style on multiple occasions in the past in a marketing capacity. In the past, American Stalls has featured many of its products on Stable Style including custom horse stalls, portable horse stalls, and stall gates. The relationship, to date, has been met with great success. This sponsorship demonstrates the strong alignment between American Stalls and Stable Style to promote elegant, safe, and functional design in horse stables.
About American Stalls
Established in 2005, American Stalls is a leader in supplying luxury horse stalls and barn doors to private and commercial facilities across the world. American Stalls is a family owned and operated business to this day. We have more than 30 years of experience in the global steel industry – supplying high-quality products to the construction, electrical, and steel making industries. The American Stalls combines this steel background with our 15 years of trusted experience in the equestrian world. Over the past 16 years, we have worked with thousands of clients across North America.
Today, American Stalls designs and manufactures custom made equine equipment including luxury horse stalls, barn doors, barn windows, portable horse stalls, and equine flooring solutions. Our mission is to supply high-quality infrastructure that enables sustainable, long-term growth at equestrian facilities.
About Stable Style
Founded in 2015, Stable Style is a website dedicated to inspiring you as a reader with beautiful barns and stables. The goal is to excite you with barn and stable tours, celebrity stables, and more. Our articles offer a look into stables across the globe, all with the intent to impress and amaze you.
Stable Style was created by Raquel Lynn of Horses & Heels and is based on the original Stable Style series from Horses & Heels. This feature was so popular on Horses & Heels, Raquel wanted to build a dedicated website to share barns and stables regularly.
For more about Stable Style, click through to stablestyle.net or follow them on Facebook & Instagram @stablestyle
