Arabian Horse Times

Waseca-based Arabian horse magazine has thrilled enthusiasts around the world for nearly four decades.

You can get a feel for Arabian Horse Times from reading a recent feature article: “Da Vinci is the quintessential Classic Arabian—both in phenotype and genotype. His head is exquisitely short and from the front perfectly triangular; the eyes, set low on a wide forehead, are large and dark, surrounded by pronounced and chiseled occipital and cheekbones. His ears are small and tight; his nostrils are huge; and his expression is one of gentleness and intelligence. But Da Vinci’s most important characteristic is that he looks exactly as he should—and further that he consistently passes on to his offspring exactly what he should, given his pedigree.”

Such was the written praise poured on admirable Da Vinci, a breeding stallion forming a pleasing picture only Renaissance namesake Leonardo could have painted.

Da Vinci was the “cover horse” for the April issue of Waseca-based Arabian Horse Times, a 350-page, 15,000-circulation, monthly international magazine entirely devoted to the princely Arabian, the world’s oldest known horse breed. Developed more than a thousand years ago by Middle Eastern Bedouins, the Arabian later became the saddle horse of battle conquerors Napoleon, George Washington, and Alexander the Great.

Today, upper crust entertainers such as Shakira, Kenny Rogers, Patrick Swayze and Wayne Newton enjoy—rather adore and worship—this unrivaled breed. And since 1970, the premier glossy publication connecting Arabian horse owners and lovers around the world has been Arabian Horse Times. Its 38-year-old owner is fellow Arabian enthusiast Lara Ames.

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In essence, understanding Arabian Horse Times means understanding Ames.

The child of Arabian horse enthusiast parents, Ames was raised from birth on a Jordan, Minnesota, Arabian horse farm named Cedar Ridge. “Our family interest in horses goes back to when my great-grandfather farmed with horses,” said Ames from Arabian Horse Times headquarters in Waseca. “Horses have been in my father’s life for as long as he can remember, and in my life for as long as I can remember.”

Her parents purchased Cedar Ridge Farm about 40 years ago and two years later brought Lara into the world. The farm began with about 25 horses, mostly Arabians mixed with some Half-Arabians.

Within five years, little Lara was starting to compete in Arabian horse shows while her siblings and parents often watched and cheered. The seed money for the Jordan-based horse farm venture came from father Richard Ames’ business concern, Ames Construction, a far-flung enterprise that ultimately built top-tier projects such as interstate highways, Denver’s airport, and the Metrodome.

Referring to being a student at Jordan High School, she said, “At a certain point I had to decide between horses and certain school activities. I opted not to do sports in high school—horses were my sport.” In fact, from becoming so involved, she would miss up to 20 days a year of high school just to prepare for and attend the annual U.S. Nationals competition. Back then, she used to show a horse every weekend.

In high school and college, she had completely different sets of friends to match her social circles: her “school” and her “horse” friends. Her horse friends have proved the most enduring, with her having known many of them more than 30 years, when they were all “little girls,” she said.

Early on, she learned that Arabian horses, ultimately, were strictly business and nothing more. “I’ve had a million favorite horses in my life, but I try not getting too attached to them because it’s all about breeding and selling,” she said. While a University of Minnesota freshman in 1991 and after years of hard work, she won her first national championship in the “Arabian English Pleasure Amateur Owner to Ride 18 and over” category in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Soon thereafter, for the first time in her life, she had an emotionally difficult time selling a horse—her first champion horse. Since then, she has won “quite a few” additional championships.

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“I’ve had only three jobs in life,” she said. Her first was working at a Shakopee boutique at age 16, and the second and most enduring has been Cedar Ridge Farm, where she began doing “secretarial-type” duties in high school. She worked there throughout college. The third, of course, has been as owner of Arabian Horse Times.

She majored in public relations at college. “I’ve always been a talker, though not in a big crowd,” she said. “When I was a teenager, Cedar Ridge Farm always had a lot of functions and my dad was active in the community. I got caught up in planning those events, and that’s why I majored in public relations.”

After college, she began working full-time at the farm. Five or six years later she became the person in charge, a position she has kept to this day. Cedar Ridge became one of Minnesota’s largest Arabian horse farms.

Presently, her parents’ training and breeding facility houses about 250 Arabians and Half-Arabians in addition to a handful of quarter horses and Percherons. Within the Arabian “family” are different classes of show horses, including English, Western, Reining, and Hunt. Their training barn has about 50 horses, and another 100 to 150 horses run their pastures. Cedar Ridge also has a breeding barn that includes mares, foals, and breeding stallions.. The facility has a riding lesson program engaging up to 75 children and adults for weekly lessons.

About 18 months ago, Ames learned of Arabian Horse Times being up for sale. Its owner was retiring—Walter Mishek, whose sister Mary and brother-in-law Wayne Denkert co-owned Walter’s Publishing before selling a couple years ago to Taylor Corporation. “My family and the Misheks are very close,” said Ames. “We are all good friends. We spent a lot of time together and have always had a close connection. Cedar Ridge had always advertised in Arabian Horse Times and I had been instrumental in handling the advertising. So I already had a good rapport and connection with everyone working there.”

Concurrent with Mishek retiring, Ames had an itch to “do something a little different,” she said, in addition to running Cedar Ridge. “In essence, I was in the right place at the right time.” Before purchasing the business, Ames personally talked to each employee.

Mishek sold the business to her last July.

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“To me, it’s always been a very well run magazine,” said Ames. “Our ad design compared to other horse publications seems to me to be better than what else is out there. Walter had his personal flair and I wanted to continue that, but also wanted to put my own individual stamp on it. To me, the editorial content was important. I have my own ideas, but I don’t write for the magazine.”

But she has become a public face for the magazine. Recently, she just returned from an industry event in Las Vegas. Before purchasing the magazine, she was more a behind-the-scene worker at these events, but now is in the public eye promoting the Arabian horse and Arabian Horse Times.

“My family has been in the Arabian horse business for 40 years,” she was saying, “and there aren’t many people that can say they’ve been in it that long. Even in my lifetime, the 30 years I can remember attending horse show events, it’s been amazing watching the industry change.”

Arabian Horse Times publishes thirteen issues a year, which includes two in September that feature the U.S. Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Each full-color, glossy edition has more than 350 pages. Ames and her staff of fifteen, including long-time general manager Mike Villasenor, strive to have the Arabian Horse Times match the Arabian horse in terms of its upscale image.

A magazine subscription runs $40 a year. Approximately one-third of its subscribers are outside the United States, including the Middle East, Central and South America, and Europe, a growing market.

Ames said, “I’ve always been hands-on, am pretty hands-on here at work, and I like overseeing what everyone is doing. I’m not the person to design an ad, but I can offer insight. With editorial content, I love to read and am always bringing in (for comparison) another magazine with a great editorial—something edgy, for example. We are an artistic magazine and the Arabian is an artistic horse.”

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Nearly all the magazine’s colorful advertising content features people either breeding, selling and/or training riders. Cedar Ridge, an Arabian Horse Times advertiser, breeds its Arabians to sell for various disciplines. Other advertisers, for example, are trying to entice people to buy a halter horse for its pure beauty.

“Some Arabians are marketed when they are weanlings and yearlings,” said Ames. “Everybody loves a cute baby. With the yearling, there is an excitement about seeing raw talent. With Cedar Ridge, we don’t do any of the breaking out of the horses until late their second year. Our goal is to turn around and then market the horses in their third or fourth year—that is when most marketing is done. Some advertisers also market older horses to people interested in buying a horse for their daughter or son to show.”

Even with U.S. and world economies off peak, the sales of high-end Arabians up to $1 million each haven’t been affected, said Ames, but middle-range horses in the $20,000-$50,000 range have been. On the high-end, demand still outpaces supply. Arabian horse owners and potential buyers meet at various auctions and private treaty events. Cedar Ridge Farm has its own auction in which buyers fly in from all over the world, including South America and Europe. Some potential buyers breed Arabians as a hobby, others show their horses, and still others buy as an investment.

“We are in the entertainment industry, and anyone liking that kind of lifestyle could be attracted to buying an Arabian horse,” said Ames. “People go to horse shows and horse events on vacations. Event organizers have to make an event exciting and fun.”

The “Super Bowl” of Arabian shows is the annual Scottsdale All Arabian Horse Show staged over ten days in February in Arizona. A couple thousand competitors enter and tens of thousands more visit to ogle the next Da Vinci or other show horse. It’s the world’s largest Arabian show, and the event itself has the feel of a major state fair. Many larger Minnesota sellers either own or rent horse farms in Arizona for most of January and February. Their goal is to sell horses—as many as 25 or 30 for some larger Minnesota sellers.

“February in Scottsdale is a huge market time for the Arabian horse industry,” she said. “A lot of horses are sold. This last winter, the high-end horses were selling for high-end dollars. There were a couple around a million dollars, and one for more than two million.”

That said, Ames predicted the Arabian industry eventually could return to its ‘70s and ‘80s roots, two decades that had a larger number of Arabian horse owners—versus the present day era composed of a more select group. Though some people have purchased Arabians solely as financial investments, she believed owners really should be around firsthand to “love them” for the horses to prosper. Even yet, she said, high-end Arabians lately have been a “pretty good” investment over stocks because great horses seldom lose their value.

Investing in a Arabian was not unlike buying an exquisite piece of Renaissance art, she said—such as a genuine Da Vinci.

Horsing Around

“These horses are pampered to death, much like a runway model,” said Arabian Horse Times owner Lara Ames in a Connect Business Magazine interview. “We do to them what a manager would for a super model. You pay close attention to their diet, spend lots of hours making sure their hair coats are in good shape, you are careful with their makeup, and you clip them just like they are going to a hair stylist.”

Intelligent Athletes

Though known for beauty, an Arabian also can be extremely intelligent and athletic. “I spend time now riding on the weekends,” she said. “They are so intelligent. It’s amazing the bond a rider can develop with a horse. Even though they can’t talk, you can still communicate and relate. They communicate through their mannerisms.”

For instance, a horse with ears up is paying attention and probably happy, but one with ears back “isn’t paying attention or is very angry or upset at something,” she added. “And their eyes—I can see a lot in a horse’s eyes to know how they are feeling physically or emotionally. Also, something could be wrong when a normally high-strung horse is having a quiet day.”

Horse Race

Arabian Horse Times has a competitor in California that focuses on another segment of the Arabian market. Though different in content, they still fight for some of the same advertising dollars.

“We target the everyday person reading and showing Arabian horses,” said Ames. “In September, for the U.S. Nationals, a lot of people involved will purchase up to ten pages to advertise their horses that will be competing. We typically get about 75 percent of those advertisers.” She said there are a few overseas Arabian magazines and a quarterly published by the Arabian Horse Association, the 45,000-member organization sanctioning all the U.S. Arabian horse shows.

Web Hoofs

Arabian Horse Times debuts a subscription online version this summer, in part to open up fresh avenues and options for advertisers and make the subscription cost more pleasing to Europeans, a competitive market. Advertisers will have a choice of being in print, online or both.

“I’m a person that likes to read a print magazine,” said Ames, “and I like having a beautiful magazine sitting on my coffee table. I still read the newspaper every day. I’m not ready like some people to read everything online. To me, reading online is not the same as having it in your own hands.”

Ames said the shipping costs of sending a 350-page magazine overseas has become prohibitive to some readers, and “even when you ship there, sometimes it may take a month to arrive,” she said. “With the Internet, a reader can have the latest edition for viewing within minutes.”