Writing
Industry analysis &
honest gear reviews
I write about the business of the equestrian world: gear economics, industry dynamics, and what the horse market looks like through the lens of twenty years in consumer marketing and a recent return to the saddle.
Featured Series
The Adult Amateur Equestrian — A Three-Part Series
The personal argument, the market data, and the brand playbook. Read in order or start anywhere.
The Adult Amateur Equestrian Is the Industry's Best Customer. She's Also Its Most Ignored One.
Read Part 1 → Part 2 / 3 Industry AnalysisThe Adult Amateur Equestrian: A Market the Industry Is Leaving on the Table
Read Part 2 → Part 3 / 3 Industry AnalysisHow to Win the Adult Amateur Equestrian: A Brand Playbook
Read Part 3 →20% Off Is Not a Sale. It's a Debt Recovery.
Dover Saddlery is closing every physical location in the country. The going-out-of-business sales are not a turnaround. They are a liquidation managed by Gordon Brothers, calibrated to a lender's recovery math. The 20% discount is not a deal. It is a data point.
Your TAM Is Not Your Barn
The American equestrian customer is real, she is spending, and the demand is there in a $5.7 billion market. Independent tack shops cannot capture Dover's displaced customers without building the infrastructure to be found: an email list, a Google Business Profile, a website, and a directory listing.
The Adult Amateur Is Not a Segment
USEF, FEI, and the barn aisle each use the term to mean a different thing. Beneath the single label sit five distinct archetypes: the Re-rider, the Legacy Amateur, the Circuit Amateur, the Access Rider, and the Prime Amateur. Brands marketing to a regulatory classification are speaking past their customer.
Not Just a Tack Shop: What PADD Is Actually Building in the US
PADD opened in Wellington without a press release. It is the US foothold of EKKIA Group, a French company that owns the brands and the multi-brand retail network that sells them: 100 PADD stores, 2,800 wholesale resellers in 70 countries, 61.6 million euros in revenue at a 13.7% net margin. A model the US equestrian market has never had.
What Canada Built That the US Didn't, and Why It's Coming Here
Greenhawk Equestrian Sport has run Canada's dominant equestrian retail since 1985: 50+ locations, a franchise network, a catalog, and a pet store chain acquired as a strategic adjacency. In May 2024 they opened their first US store in Natick. A look at the model that worked there, and what it has to find out here.
Can Private Equity Be Good for an Equestrian Brand? LeMieux Says Yes, If You Read the Fine Print.
In March 2021, LeMieux took a minority investment from LDC. Four years later, revenue is up 160% to $75 million, EBITDA margins held above 25%, and the founders are still running the business. A close read of the deal structure that made it work, and the five conditions other equestrian founders should look for.
Horses Are Having a Moment. The People Who Produce Them Are Not.
Five horse industry events in ninety days, treated by the trade press as five separate stories. They are the same story. Capital is concentrating in the brand and IP layer. The supply layer is contracting. Horses are having a moment. Horse people aren't. Lead Change, Part 1 of 6.
The Derby Economy
Churchill Downs made $2.93 billion in 2025. The actual racetrack contributed $8.4 million of $175 million in segment growth. Historical Racing Machines did the rest. A look at what the Derby economy is really measuring, and at the contracting sport underneath the spectacle.
The Real Reason Someone Paid $10.5 Million for a Two-Year-Old Horse
A two-year-old Flightline colt sold for a record $10.5 million at OBS in April 2026. Race earnings cannot justify the price. The stud premise can. The genetics math behind the headline number, and the cautionary tale that haunts every record bloodstock sale.
When a Category Goes From 2 Brands to 200
Charles Owen's CEO described the structural squeeze on UK legacy equestrian manufacturing as an aside on a sponsored podcast. The Wrexham factory closure is the visible case study. The Companies House trail shows what the consumer-facing communications do not.
English Equestrian Built Its National Retail Around a Single Point of Failure
Dover Saddlery is in transaction again, the third in eleven years. The story is not the ownership change. It is that 37 stores are the only national English equestrian shelf in the US, and no backup chain exists.
Has Private Equity Broken Dover Saddlery?
Dover Saddlery turns 50 this year. It is also closing stores, converting managers to hourly, and facing reports of vendor non-payment. A look at what PE ownership has done to the largest equestrian retailer in the United States.
Who Owns Equestrian: The Map
An ownership map of twelve major equestrian brands. Which ones are PE-backed, which ones sit inside corporate parents whose primary business has nothing to do with horses, and which ones remain in the hands of the families who built them.
The Equestrian Retail Landscape Is More Broken Than You Think
Who owns equestrian retail, who captures the margin when you buy a pair of breeches, and why the system serving riders was built by people optimizing for the wrong things. A structural analysis from State Line Tack to Dover Saddlery.
What We Actually Know About the Top Equestrian Apparel Brands
Verified revenue, web traffic, and price positioning data for the brands riders know best. Most are privately held and disclose almost nothing. Here is what the public record actually shows.
How to Win the Adult Amateur Equestrian: A Brand Playbook
Four frameworks for earning the trust and business of the equestrian industry's most commercially valuable and most underserved customer. The practical answer to Parts 1 and 2. Part 3 of 3.
The Adult Amateur Equestrian: A Market the Industry Is Leaving on the Table
The data on adult amateur equestrians tells a clear story: high income, high spending, structurally underserved. The full market case for the industry's most overlooked customer. Part 2 of 3.
The Adult Amateur Equestrian Is the Industry's Best Customer. She's Also Its Most Ignored One.
The adult amateur equestrian is the sport's highest-spending and most financially independent customer. She is also its most systematically ignored one. Part 1 of 3.
Ariat Built Its Brand on the Horse. Now It's Betting on Everything Else.
Ariat sponsors Stagecoach, an NFL quarterback, and rugby clubs. Here's what the investment data says about where the world's largest equestrian brand is actually building, and what that means for the equestrian customer.
Why Equestrian Brands Are Underinvested in DTC and What It's Costing Them
A $5.7B market with 61% still flowing through wholesale. An industry analysis of why equestrian brands are leaving DTC revenue on the table and what the fix looks like.
What to Consider When Buying an Equestrian Helmet
A framework for evaluating riding helmets across design, function, and value. Covers what safety certifications actually mean, when MIPS matters, and what premium pricing really buys you.
Is the Antares Signature Worth It? A Buying Guide for Adult Amateurs
The Antares Signature sits at the top of the French saddle market. Here is whether the price is justified, what you actually get for it, and how to think about the decision if you are a serious amateur.