Outdoor Trail Challenge

Hey everyone,
I thought it might be fun to share some pictures that I took this weekend at the Outdoor Trail Challenge.

There were about 10 men and women who stayed at the ranch with there horses to participate in the clinic with Lynn and Cyrill. The purpose of the clinic was to help riders gain confidence and skills on the trail. Fox Grove Farm has one of the only outdoor trail courses on the east coast and they host around three clinics a year. Outdoor trail has become hugely popular in the Northwest with my hometown, Eugene, OR, being the unofficial birthplace for this type of competition. Back home, HUGE indoor trail courses are constructed out of natural objects like rocks, logs, water and dirt, and contestants are judged on their ability to navigate their horses through a course. It is a pretty cool to watch even if you aren’t into horses. Check out the Oregon Horse Center’s website for info on the Northwest trail championships.

Don’t Forget the Boomers

I have learned a lot during my internship so far, but one of the most interesting things has been that our target audience is older women. So much of my education was geared toward marketing to 40 and under that this feels like new territory for me. Now I wish I could have taken a class in marketing to the baby boomers (although to be fair, at the time I probably wouldn’t have taken it). Hypothetical hindsight aside, I wish my old professors could start a class teaching the future public relations professionals that there is more than one age group out there. One statistic I read said over 75% of all UK and American wealth is now owned by those over the age of 65 and most of them are women. So while marketing to the young is very important for establish future brand loyalty, the baby boomer generation is certainly not done influencing the market.

One of my main objectives is to increase the fan club membership and while my initial instinct was to launch a Facebook and Twitter campaign, I am now looking at direct mailing and television to reach our audience. In order to reach our customers, I have had to take a step back and think about what media our customers actually use.

What other tactics do marketers use to gear messages toward mature audiences?

A Quick Life Update

It has been an exciting two months since I left Texas. I flew from Amarillo to San Jose (leaving my poor car to be buried by the snow) to spend the holidays with grandma. Good times as always. Then I hitched a ride with Mom and Dad back to Oregon where I spent all of January. It was the first time I had been home in so long, and the first time in years that I had lived with my parents. I did not enjoy the last part, but it was good to see my friends and have a little down time before I jetted off again.

February 4th I hopped on a plane back to Amarillo, which had been covered with a foot of snow since I left. It was good to be back, and I was excited to hit the road for Florida. After spending two days in Amarillo, I left on Superbowl Sunday with the goal of reaching New Orleans by the time I stopped that night. I only made it to Sherevport, but it ended up being bett that way because I got to see the Louisiana country side in the day light. Even though it was about two hours out of the way, I HAD to visit New Orleans and it is great. I will definitely have to stop there on my way back.

I thought the drive would be so boring, but it was so beautiful. Seriously poeple, if you ever have the opportunity to drive along the southern US coast do I will try and post pictures soon.

I finally made it to Florida and it is beautiful! It is, however, much colder than I expected. I am so glad that I brought all my warm winter coats down here.

My job working for Lynn Palm has been pretty great so far. Lynn is a very nice lady, and is so willing to listen to my ideas and suggestions. My first big project was to rewrite all the web copy for lynnpalm.com, so be sure to check that. More updates on projects soon.

So that is a quick update on everyhing that has happened. I will elaborate more soon.

Big News

Ok, so I have been a really bad blogger, AGAIN. Sorry to the one or two of you that actually read this. For you my dedicated fans I do have some exciting news: I got another internship! In Ocala, Florida, working for the world famous Lynn Palm.

Here is Lynn’s Bio:

One of the foremost and respected horsemen in the world, Lynn Salvatori Palm of Palm Partnership Training is a pioneer among women in the horse industry. For more than 30 years, Lynn Palm has championed the partnership of horse and rider, bringing her unique perspective to hundreds of thousands of horse enthusiasts around the world.

One of the few clinicians available today with a proven competition record, Lynn Palm’s list of accomplishments include:

• Named 2007 AQHA Horsewoman of the Year
• Named one of the top clinicians in the United States by Horse & Rider magazine
• Featured clinician at Equitana USA
• Named the AQHA Female Equestrian of the Year by the Women’s Athletic Association
• A Record “4 AQHA Superhorse Wins“
• Over 34 World and Reserve World Champions
• Over 50 Bridleless Dressage Exhibitions to Music throughout the United States at such prestigious events as the National Horse Show, the Washington International and the International World Cup
• Chosen to Perform Exhibitions during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games with the Quarter Horse Ambassador “Rugged Lark”

• Chosen as the 2003 Equine Affaire Exceptional Equestrian Educator Award winner

I think that working for her will be one of those one-of-a-kind opportunities that I can’t really pass up. So even though it might be more wise to try and get a “real” job, I am going to use up a little more of my savings to spend some time with this legendary horse woman.

Looking to the future.

Today, my friend and co-worker, Julie asked me what I plan on doing when my internship is over. I haven’t even unpacked my clothes trunk and now people are asking about my plans for leaving!

I am feeling a little stressed out about this because after this internship have no job to go home to. I am not sure what I am going to do about that. I guess the only thing to do is start the long process of looking for a new job.

I hate the process. Truely hate it. Updating my resume, website, and social media sites; researching companies, and trying desperately to network with the right people, it’s almost enough to make me want to move back in with Mom and Dad. Well, ok, it’s not THAT bad! The biggest problem is that with the current “bad” economy, my hometown is pretty desolate. I am not opposed to moving I guess, if this this process has taught me anything it’s that I am pretty flexible. I moved to a city I have never been to, managed to make some friends and even found some horses to ride. I am quite proud of myself for this especially since people used to make fun of me for never leaving Eugene.

I already have a few sort of “crap shoot” ideas for jobs and all would involve me moving FAR away. I don’t want to give anything away just yet, so I will save that for another day.

I will keep you all updated as I go along on my journey.

Trashy Texas

I grew up in Eugene, Oregon. A place where littering will get you yelled at by patchouli oil wearing hippy ladies; and I haven’t seen a styrofoam cup since I was around 10.

Here in Texas, people are not very environmentally conscious to say the least. There is absolutely no recycling anywhere and “re-useable” is not part of anyone’s vocabulary. I hypothesize that it’s because there is so much open land here that landfills aren’t really that big of a deal.

It kind of pains me to throw away cans and paper, especially when it’s considered a sin where I come from,  but there are no other options anywhere. Today, I went to McDonald’s today for lunch and ordered a large soda hoping that I would get one of those nice, big, re-usable, plastic cups, and was shocked when the guy handed me a giant styrofoam cup!

I have decided that while I am here I would like to start a recycling program at work. The HR woman who I talked to didn’t seem to think that would work. Apparently, people have tried it before with no success, but I think that if we start really small, like REALLY small, I might be able to make a difference.

WTAMU FEVER

What do people do in Texas you ask? Football is the answer I say. On this particular day the Aqha journal intern, Julie, and I attended the West Texas A & M Homecomming Pep Rally.

Since I went to the University of Oregon with about 20,000, it was quite a shock to go to a school with only about 7,000 students. The school basketball gym was packed with buffalo fans and there was a very sweet presentation of the homecomming king and queen candidates.

After the pep rally the whole crowd marched over to a field about a mile away to watch the biggest pile of wood I have ever seen burn to the ground. It was kind of wierd to stand in the freezing wind, stone cold sober, watching this giant bonfire, but I guess that’s what you do in a dry town.

When the cold got to be too much we went back to the house and watched a movie. I don’t think I will go to the actual game tomorrow, since it is not suppose to get over 30 degrees.

First Day…

Today I had my first day at the American Quarter Horse Association. This is not technically a picture of the association, but the museum. It was the best I could find though, and it is right next door to the association.

It went better than I could ever expect.  People were so nice and welcoming. I didn’t do a whole lot of work today because I spent most of the day touring the building, but I think I will get to do some pretty exciting stuff. We shall see.

I work on the third floor in the marketing department with my own desk and everything!

Fun fact about the AQHA: They keep the office building at a brisk 60-ish degrees, so no cute little office skirts for me. I will probably never even take off my jacket

Made it to Texas

So this Northwestern girl recently packed up her Birkenstocks and headed down south to texas, (more on why later).  My Bff, Katie, and I packed up my little Chevy Cavalier and drove 30 hours total to make it to the lone star state. We saw some interesting things along the way. Maybe if I can ever find my camera cord I will show you some pictures of it all. We took the I-5 south through California and the the I-40 over to Amarillo. Amarillo is in the 2 section of the picture. I will be living 20 miles south of Amarillo in a little town called Canyon. I moved here for an internship with the American Quarter Horse Association. It has been a long time goal of mine to work for the AQHA, so I will keep you all updated on how it goes.

My Horse and Me Sequel

Can the new Atari game, My Horse and Me, for Nintendo DS and Wii do for horses what Guitar Hero did for musical instruments? Probably not. But, never the less, it is great to see video games for horse lovers making there way to the market. Has anyone played it? What do you think?