Blenheim starts online entries
By Paula Parisi February 10, 2012
Robert Ridland is helping take the horse show business into the 21st century.
Blenheim EquiSports today announced that it will allow exhibitors to submit horse show entry forms online via the website Equestrian Connect.
Equestrian Connect is a two-year-old service used by more than 6,300 members to populate data and print entry forms for over 800 USEF A and AA hunter/jumper shows nationally. Until now, though, it hasn’t been possible to actually click a “submit” button to register and pay online.
Blenheim, based in San Juan Capistrano, has for the past few months worked closely with the Menlo Park-based Equestrian Connect to take things up a notch, and becomes the first company to offer the new service (for its cancelled Winter Classic―which was to have run Jan. 13-15, but was sidelined by an eve-of EHV-1 scare―and the upcoming Spring Classic series of three, March 28 through April 15).
Blenheim EquiSports president Robert Ridland said his company has been “pushing for this for some time. It’s an obvious next step that, while it sounds simple is actually a pretty big deal, because different shows have different entry forms, and there are legal issues and all kinds of things…”
Simone Coxe, co-founder of Equestrian Connect.
Until now, Equestrian Connect entry forms still had to be printed out and mailed with a check, requiring the data be re-entered by a show secretary. Show managers can now log on to Equestrian Connect to receive and review entry information. “We also supply an export file, eliminating the need to rekey data,” said Simone Coxe, who founded Equestrian Connect with fellow rider Barbara Phillips.
Coxe said the new feature will roll out to other horse shows through the spring. “The Langer shows are going to use it, and we have been in talks with a number of others. Barbara went to the USEF convention in January and got a very strong reception.”
The value-added feature will be free to show management through the first half of 2012, after which time “they will be required to pay a small fee,” Coxe noted. Exhibitors are charged $50 per horse for unlimited entries per year. For those with more limited show schedules, or a sale horse, Equestrian Connect also offers a per incidence fee of $8. There will be no additional charge to exhibitors for registering online.
The service was launched in California, has 2,500 Zone 10 members, and generates an average of 250 entries for each of the 120 California shows it posts.
“Most people have no idea what trainers do on Mondays,” Ridland said. “They are not playing golf, they’re doing everything it takes behind the scenes to make the business run, like filling out the paperwork for shows.” Ridland, who in addition to managing competitions is a rider and a trainer,” said “We want to help things run more smoothly. That’s our philosophy.”
Blenheim Equisports was also one of the first to begin posting ride times online, Ridland noted. “What used to happen is people would show up two hours early and miss a tennis game or a business meeting or whatever. Now owners can be there to see their horses go and grooms can have it all in writing. It makes things a whole lot more organized, and online entries is an extension of that thinking. If we can do something to make a rider’s life easier, a trainer’s life easier, a groom’s life easier, we’ll do it.”
Equestrian Connect offers a "guided tour" online, as well as a 45-day "free trial."
“We’re bringing the horse industry into the 21st century,” said Coxe, who owns Mr. Whoopy, a grand prix horse ridden by Duncan McFarland of Outwoods Farms. “This is a pretty small industry, so some big company isn’t going to come in and automate the hunter jumper world, but for us, we love the sport and wanted to make it better.” Coxe’s background in public relations and Phillips’ in computers made them well-equipped to do just that. The two women hatched the idea over lattes in a Silicon Valley coffee shop.
Susie Hutchinson, of Susan Hutchison Stables in Temecula, CA, is one rider who swears by the service. “I started using Equestrian Connect last spring, and have been thrilled with the convenience,” she said, adding, “Electronic entries will be even better.”
For more information, and a “guided tour,” visit www.equestrianconnect.com.
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