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Pasture Puff And The Portable Stall Upgrade · Equestrian Tea Time

0:00
Isabeau: Katie, nice to meet you in person finally.
0:02
Katie: Yes, nice to meet you.
0:04
Isabeau: We've been texting each other about your fantastic, really cool product, Pasture Puff.
0:09
Isabeau: Do you have a timeframe that you wanna spend chatting?
0:12
Isabeau: I don't wanna keep you here forever.
0:13
Isabeau: No.
0:13
Katie: Honestly, I'm appreciative of even having the opportunity to come on and talk about it.
0:17
Katie: Like I told you, I have a, a collection of, five podcasts that I have auto-download, and then they play as I'm out doing horse chores.
0:24
Katie: And so yours is in the lineup, it'll come up.
0:26
Katie: And I love...
0:27
Katie: First of all, let me just say my dad was in radio, so I grew up in the radio world, Cool my entire life.
0:32
Katie: And, you have an amazing voice for speaking.
0:35
Katie: Oh, you're sweet.
0:36
Katie: You're sweet.
0:37
Katie: No, I mean I'm being very serious though, right?
0:39
Katie: it's great listening to you.
0:40
Katie: And so it's been wonderful.
0:41
Katie: I'm really appreciative of having the opportunity.
0:43
Katie: I, and also, Isabeau, thank you for going on.
0:46
Katie: The social media stuff is super intimidating for me.
0:50
Isabeau: After all the work you've put in- Oh to doing this, I bet it is...
0:54
Isabeau: It's pretty- Yeah it's pretty painful.
0:56
Katie: it can be really wonderful, too.
0:57
Katie: it's so funny because something as simple as, I put so much effort into these videos and then this last one was, like, very minimal effort at all, and that one has, I think it's, almost close to 400,000 views at this point.
1:09
Isabeau: Awesome.
1:10
Katie: It's insane.
1:12
Katie: really cool.
1:13
Katie: Also, just kinda nuts.
1:15
Katie: I've had people all over the world contacting me and asking for quotes and shipping and- now we'll see if that translates to sales eventually, right?
1:21
Katie: But
1:22
Isabeau: So why don't we give people an idea that is...
1:24
Isabeau: We can have you tell your story of how you came about, but why don't you give us just a general overview of what is the Pasture Puff horse mattress?
1:31
Katie: Okay, so the Pasture Puff I used to call it a dog bed for horses, because that's the concept, and that's how it was begun.
1:39
Katie: essentially it's four inches of...
1:41
Katie: It's dual density, so two different types of density, foam that is put inside a very highly extraordinarily durable proprietary textile, waterproof cover that is, puncture-proof and rip-proof.
1:56
Katie: And, it's meant to be portable, right?
1:58
Katie: So- originally it was designed for my own laminitic ponies.
2:02
Isabeau: Sure
2:03
Katie: to that.
2:03
Isabeau: for it.
2:03
Katie: So essentially, I had these two cute little ponies.
2:07
Katie: My husband and I adopted our girls, and then not long after that, my sister sent me this picture of this cute little black Shetland pony, and of course I had to have it.
2:17
Katie: And it turned out it was two Shetland ponies, which was a huge surprise.
2:21
Isabeau: They need company-
2:22
Katie: Yeah horses.
2:23
Katie: Yeah.
2:24
Katie: You can't have just one They had a really harsh life before coming to me obviously.
2:26
Katie: and, it was obvious to me that they had been., And they dealt with laminitis, recurring laminitis.
2:31
Katie: And let me tell you something,, the two for one$500 pony deal has I think I'm, like, well over$20,000 in these ponies because- I've done some work, for my vet one time, and I looked and I saw how much my spend was, and I was like,"Oh my gosh, I could have bought a car." But totally worth it, honestly.
2:49
Katie: Essentially they, We tried everything.
2:51
Katie: I did even the, I can't, I'm gonna butcher it, it's like a tert-butyl flunixin, Ergy they call it.
2:56
Katie: Yes.
2:56
Katie: The, this parental drug.
2:58
Katie: I've tried all of the, to bring their insulin down, like we did metformin, we did the Insulin wise, and I don't...
3:05
Katie: I got down to where I found a cube that seemed to work really that was under the total NSC, and I would soak them, and they would get that three times, weighed, and they would get that three times a day.
3:16
Katie: Which honestly was great in terms of being able to control their diet, but it really sucked for them because they didn't get to graze.
3:23
Katie: But that did help.
3:23
Katie: honestly, it just was...
3:24
Katie: And we did reset trims.
3:26
Katie: it was a lot.
3:27
Katie: They both passed- Yeah on now unfortunately.
3:28
Katie: But, we never did really get to resolve, even after all of that, what the root cause of the laminitis and for anybody who has laminitis, like- My heart goes out to them because it's tricky.
3:39
Katie: Every horse seems to respond to it differently.
3:42
Katie: there's a lot of different causes, and in some cases, like in, in my pony's case, we never really did figure out what the root, cause was.
3:48
Katie: but they were so painful, and they would wear, boots.
3:51
Katie: The boots that I had on him...
3:53
Katie: And but they wore them, and they couldn't wear them 24/7 because they would eventually rub, so they had to have a break from them.
3:59
Katie: And I had, I have 14 by 14 stalls.
4:02
Katie: It's really a big run-in shed that also I can close up if I need to.
4:07
Katie: I eventually switched to rice hulls.
4:09
Katie: I really loved rice hulls.
4:11
Katie: I loved the feel of it.
4:12
Katie: Okay.
4:13
Katie: And it worked well in our environment'cause we're in Tucson, Arizona, so we're in the desert.
4:16
Katie: And I really loved it because it provided a lot of that cushion support.
4:21
Katie: It was so lovely.
4:23
Katie: It was really easy to sift through and clean, but it also mixed with the sand, and it got really dirty and dusty really fast, and it also didn't absorb urine very well.
4:32
Katie: The urine did, soak, into the ground.
4:34
Katie: We have really well-draining soil, so never really was a huge problem from that perspective, but it was a lot of work, and the pack rats also loved it.
4:43
Katie: So the pack rats would constantly be getting into all the bags.
4:46
Katie: And I don't have storage where I can lock the bags up out here at my house, so they were out on a, like on a pallet, and then with just, a tarp over top.
4:57
Katie: And it just, it got to be a lot.
4:58
Katie: I'm working full time, raising a small- a young family, and I just it was becoming extraordinarily expensive because literally- every single week I was taking everything out and putting it all back in once a week, and it would look so fresh and beautiful and lovely the first couple of days, and then that was it.
5:15
Isabeau: And then not.
5:16
Katie: And but it was great because they really spent a lot of time sleeping, right?
5:20
Katie: Standing and sleeping on the, the rice hulls.
5:22
Katie: And I got tired, and I was like,"There's gotta be something better." And I was looking into all the traditional things that you see that are available.
5:29
Katie: the, the permanent stall solutions, which would not work in my case just because of how the run-in shed is literally just sitting on top of the ground.
5:36
Katie: It's, there's no foundation- Ah, yeah or anything, right?
5:38
Katie: I was thinking, I had an older dog who in her later years, she would lay in different places around the house.
5:46
Katie: And so I bought an orthopedic dog bed and I put it in every one of her spots, and so that way, no matter where she would go to lay down, she would be laying at least not on the hard ground, but on the orthopedic dog bed.
5:57
Katie: And that was that idea, because they did like to spend a lot of time outside as well, and of course I didn't have shavings outside for them.
6:04
Katie: I didn't have that support for them out there.
6:06
Katie: And I'm like, man, I just, if somebody could make like a dog bed for these horses.
6:10
Katie: They're little.
6:11
Katie: Maybe I can order a really large dog bed, And, so I just cobbled something together, and they loved it.
6:18
Katie: Oh.
6:18
Katie: And I have since spent...
6:20
Katie: Oh, my, ugh, my farrier and my vet were like they thought I was insane.
6:26
Katie: they were just like,"This is the craziest thing I've ever seen," right?
6:29
Katie: But they, but every time they would come over, and they came over a lot because we were, we have, I have a bunch of horses, so they're always...
6:34
Katie: Man, there's always something,
6:35
Isabeau: Yeah.
6:36
Katie: and so they both separately were like,"This is really cool.
6:39
Katie: I think you have something here.
6:40
Katie: I think you should, think about actually taking this to market and packaging it up in such a way." And that kicked off the journey of actually creating something.
6:47
Katie: I went through I can't even tell you how many prototypes, that I've gone through.
6:53
Katie: It's one of those things where sometimes I, had somebody today that was like, I'll just sew some tarps together." And I'm like,"Good luck." Good luck.
7:01
Katie: 'Cause, it'll be good for a little while and then it's gonna get torn and it's gonna get disgusting.
7:05
Katie: And, how do you solve for the waterproof problem, and how do you solve for the seam issue, and how do you solve for it not puncturing?
7:12
Katie: We did have an original material that we...
7:14
Katie: 'Cause I tested a ton of materials.
7:15
Katie: I tested a ton of- of not only fabrics, but off-the-shelf fabrics, but also different types and styles of foams.
7:21
Katie: And let me tell you, there's a lot of different types and styles of foam.
7:24
Katie: Yep.
7:25
Katie: and so very luckily, I got in touch with a foam manufacturer locally, and he helped me trial a bunch of different things until we figured out what they really loved- Okay and that's the configuration we have today.
7:36
Katie: and then the place where I got my fabric from, they've been amazing because they've sent me a bunch of fabrics to trial, and we found out, most of them wouldn't work because either they were too slippery or they weren't waterproof enough.
7:50
Katie: maybe they were spr- oh, I learned a lot about waterproofing.
7:53
Katie: When people say water- When products say waterproof, nine times out of 10, especially if it's breathable waterproof, nine times out of 10 it's spray waterproof.
8:03
Katie: Yes.
8:03
Isabeau: Yes.
8:04
Katie: And then it wears off.
8:06
Isabeau: Yeah.
8:06
Katie: if you have something like a mattress where the horse is pawing at it and they're rolling on it and they're sl- sleeping on it, that wears off fast.
8:13
Katie: Yeah, like a So I needed to have a physical- The other thing I found out is things like, like you can get for regular mattresses, waterproof mattress.
8:21
Katie: They're same thing.
8:21
Katie: They're not actually waterproof.
8:24
Katie: they actually developed Like we had our first style, which was our standard fabric, worked really well, but it only lasted for about, I'd say depending on the situation, and actually barefoot horses were harder on this than shod horses, which was interesting.
8:38
Isabeau: Ah,
8:38
Katie: Because their hooves get chipped, and when they go to push off, either to roll or to stand up, if it's a chipped hoof, it would cut right through the fabric, right?
8:47
Isabeau: Oh, okay.
8:48
Katie: And it would puncture it.
8:49
Katie: it, they lasted, pretty decently.
8:52
Katie: Like I had a couple here that lasted for a couple of years with my horses.
8:55
Katie: But, in my experience, I've just seen too many issues where it would puncture.
9:00
Katie: So we went back to the drawing board, and we actually developed a proprietary mater- first of its kind in the world, specifically for our use.
9:08
Katie: The head of Global Technical Fabrics literally came to my house to see how we were using the mattresses so he could help us develop.
9:16
Katie: He was amazing.
9:18
Katie: and it grew from there.
9:19
Katie: and it's been absolutely one of the most amazing journeys, one of the most terrifying and difficult- journeys.
9:27
Katie: but honestly, it's really been worth it, because I keep hearing these stories of people who were looking for the exact same thing that I was looking for that I've now made, and it's just, it's wonderful to be a part of somebody's journey like that.
9:39
Isabeau: We had been hunting around.
9:40
Isabeau: I'm in New Hampshire, where we have four very distinct seasons.
9:43
Isabeau: Right now we're in the middle of glorious fall.
9:45
Isabeau: It's beautiful.
9:46
Isabeau: But, we do not have a ton of property, and our horses have runouts, but our horses are in their stalls a lot.
9:51
Isabeau: And some of our horses are older, and they get rubs, and we have a ridiculous amount of bedding in our stalls.
9:57
Isabeau: my- one of my personal horses is 17.1.
10:00
Isabeau: He's a Dutch harness horse.
10:01
Isabeau: He, he's freaking huge.
10:03
Isabeau: he has, a ton of bedding, and the bedding is really dusty.
10:06
Isabeau: I'm 55.
10:07
Isabeau: I got my first on the books board manger doing job when I was 16.
10:10
Isabeau: I mucked a lot of stalls.
10:12
Isabeau: I've sucked up- Yes a lot of dust.
10:13
Isabeau: like only in the past several years have I started actually using some kind of face protection.
10:18
Isabeau: Oh, gosh, yeah.
10:18
Isabeau: So I have decades and decades of dust sucking in here.
10:21
Isabeau: And then I have a property to take care of, and right now, like I have leaves that are in the feet deep outside.
10:28
Isabeau: So I need to be- Oh, no doing other things other than just mucking deep stalls.
10:32
Isabeau: And we really wanna get the horses out of all of the dust.
10:34
Isabeau: So we looked at mattresses- I've seen the hard install systems.
10:38
Isabeau: I was like,"I don't know if they should be standing on squishy stuff all the time." I was like,"I don't know." I so I wanted to try something, temporary, that would be movable, that we could move around.
10:49
Isabeau: So then I found yours, and I'm like,"Okay.
10:51
Isabeau: We're gonna give it a shot, and we're gonna try." It comes...
10:54
Isabeau: I'm amazed at how well you get it into a small container.
10:57
Isabeau: It comes in a shockingly small box for something- that's that big.
11:01
Isabeau: So you- sucked all of the air out of it.
11:04
Isabeau: How did you find manufacturing facilities?
11:07
Isabeau: you probably had to put this You had to make your first ones, like, by hand or by yourself out in the backyard- Yes with a Yeah.
11:13
Katie: I made my first prototypes myself, yes.
11:15
Katie: I actually, got in touch with, the first manufacturer I got in touch with, somebody locally, who I gave them my prototype, and then they made them for me.
11:23
Katie: and then over time as I got feedback, not only of my own, using them, but from customers as well, I made some changes to the design over time, right?
11:32
Katie: and then eventually I was selling so many, we were getting really far behind because the single person just could not keep up.
11:39
Isabeau: Yeah.
11:39
Katie: Thank goodness you've experienced the after effects, which you're like- Yeah"Now we're up and humming," and you're getting them fast.
11:45
Katie: Oh, okay.
11:45
Katie: Cool.
11:47
Katie: But, we just shipped, the, your last order was shipped today.
11:50
Katie: Yeah.
11:50
Katie: and your other one is on its way, right?
11:51
Katie: So- Yeah the, we had this transition where I needed to find and scale, and that's tough, right?
11:57
Katie: It's one thing to sell something, it's another thing to actually deliver it, right?
12:02
Katie: Oh, yeah.
12:03
Katie: like, especially when you're paying a premium, and it is a premium, and these suckers are flipping expensive to make.
12:09
Katie: And we're a business.
12:10
Katie: We gotta stay in business, and so we have to have healthy margins and that sort of thing.
12:13
Katie: But, but the transition between the two was rough.
12:17
Katie: And finding somebody in enough time to be able to do that transition was tough.
12:22
Katie: luckily for me, there's a local manufacturer here that I've known.
12:26
Katie: I've known the owner for years and years, and- Oh, okay back when I first started I had asked her if she could do it for me, and she was not available then.
12:33
Katie: and now she was, and so we've been scaling up and ramping up together, which has been wonderful.
12:38
Katie: Nice.
12:38
Katie: I'm so grateful for her.
12:40
Katie: and then I still have my same, my same foam manufacturer who's up in Phoenix so actually up until recently we would have our covers made here in Tucson, and we would send them to Phoenix, about two and a half hour drive from me, and then, they would actually stuff them in the mattress and then they would...
12:57
Katie: They have this giant, I call it the squishy machine, it's a compression machine.
13:00
Katie: Yeah.
13:00
Katie: And they fold it, and then they roll it, and it rolls it into a little tight bundle.
13:04
Katie: but the challenge I was having was I was also having some delays where they, you know, I'm so small relative to what, they produce, they produce for, like actual like mattresses and, and stuff.
13:16
Katie: And so- Yeah.
13:16
Katie: so for me, they'd have to stop their production line, and then go and change over and it, they would end up delaying.
13:22
Katie: So sometimes, and I think this, I don't remember, Isabeau, if it was you or not, but so- some of my customers around that transition timeframe, it was like,"Okay, they're gonna ship it on Wednesday." And then Wednesday would come and go and I'd say,"Hey- so you guys ship this out?" They're like, we didn't get to it.
13:36
Katie: Maybe we'll get to it next week." And I was like,"Nope, that can't happen."
13:39
Isabeau: Yeah.
13:40
Katie: that's a...
13:41
Katie: I'm over here sweating it, right?
13:43
Katie: Yeah.
13:43
Katie: and so we actually, my husband and I actually figured out...
13:47
Katie: my lead sales consultant, Morgan, she's brilliant.
13:49
Katie: We were in Florida, and we were talking about it, and I said,"I gotta figure out a way to bring this in-house," because those machines are like 30,$40,000.
13:57
Isabeau: Oh,
13:57
Katie: yeah.
13:58
Katie: And it's a big commitment, and it takes up a lot of space to buy one of them.
14:01
Katie: And so I'm like,"Oh, am I, do I need to do that now?" I'm trying to conserve so, so that way we can, we can grow responsibly.
14:08
Katie: And, she goes,"Katie, they make mattress sealing bags for mattresses that you could just vacuum seal it down." And I'm like,"Oh." Oh.
14:18
Katie: the problem is they don't make them as big as we make our mattresses.
14:21
Katie: Yeah.
14:21
Katie: our most popular, it's perfect for the two smaller sizes.
14:24
Katie: But our most popular size is our largest.
14:28
Katie: And that's what we sell by far the most of.
14:30
Katie: and so we figured out how to origami it in and suck it down.
14:33
Katie: And so the next, mattress you're getting is gonna come in a really cool, backpack case.
14:39
Isabeau: Oh, fun.
14:40
Isabeau: Awesome.
14:41
Katie: so we're- Cool we are still figuring out, so the next phase for us is figuring out how do we...
14:46
Katie: 'Cause right now I'm buying that vacuum seal off the shelf, but we're actually in development of making our own so it fits appropriately, and makes it easy because we have customers that take these to shows.
14:57
Katie: And so right now what they do, I've got one customer who throws it in her trailer, and her horse actually rides on it in the trailer,'cause it's- Oh, wow it's got a lot of friction.
15:05
Katie: Yeah.
15:05
Katie: You, you've seen the fabric, so it's, it's got a lot of traction to it.
15:08
Katie: Yeah.
15:08
Katie: That was a huge part of it, especially if it's wet, it's gotta have traction.
15:11
Katie: We can't have horses slipping on it.
15:13
Katie: And so she rides on, the horse rides on it in the trailer.
15:15
Katie: She's got a camera on him- And she's like,"It's perfect." And then she takes it out when she gets to the show, she rinses it off,'cause of course they always, urinate and poop on it- Yeah in the trailer, and then she puts it in her show stall, and she just puts about a half bag to one bag of shavings in the front.
15:29
Isabeau: Yeah, just a
15:29
Katie: little bit,
15:30
Isabeau: yeah.
15:31
Katie: And it saves her a ton of money in shavings for the stal- the show, and it smells like home.
15:36
Katie: It's familiar.
15:37
Katie: And so if you imagine, like, when we travel, sleeping in your own bed is so nice, right?
15:42
Isabeau: Yeah.
15:43
Katie: Yeah.
15:43
Katie: And, and, and we like to think, at least she, she'll say that she feels like it, it makes the horse more confident and comfortable when they do move in because it's something familiar, right?
15:52
Katie: And she doesn't change her routine.
15:53
Katie: Her routine is always the same.
15:55
Katie: I have another customer who's a barrel racer who she folds it into third, into thirds, but still pretty big.
16:00
Katie: You have to have two people carry it.
16:02
Katie: and she puts it in the trailer.
16:04
Katie: So she's got a three-horse trailer.
16:05
Katie: She takes one horse usually, and she puts it in the, the far back but I was thinking, gosh, it would really be great to be able to, if you wanted to or needed the space, to conserve the space, especially if you have a four-horse trailer and you have four horses and you're all going to a show across the States, which many people do, it would be great to be able to do that.
16:25
Katie: So now we're working through logistics of that to make it easy and, you know- Yeah so it's not, so you're not having to figure out the origami work.
16:33
Isabeau: Gotcha.
16:34
Katie: yeah.
16:35
Isabeau: That sounds very practical.
16:36
Isabeau: it sounds like you're getting some really good feedback from- Yes customers.
16:40
Isabeau: Now, I have known a few people who have tried to bring products to market.
16:44
Isabeau: That was before the internet age now.
16:46
Isabeau: So now- Oh, wow now you get to do it online and deal with people giving you their opinions back.
16:53
Katie: Everyone's got an opinion.
16:55
Isabeau: how is that going?
16:57
Isabeau: Is it you're getting, are you attracting trolls?
17:00
Isabeau: How is, how is it negotiating the whole marketplace online now?
17:05
Katie: I, let me just say I don't enjoy it.
17:07
Katie: It doesn't always bring out the best in people.
17:09
Katie: although there are some really lovely people that I've met and have, have had some really great comments.
17:15
Katie: I will tell you, okay, I'm gonna say, Isabeau, what's the number one question you think that we get?
17:20
Katie: You probably already saw, but, what do you think they-
17:22
Isabeau: People ask about them peeing on top of the mattress.
17:25
Isabeau: Yes.
17:25
Isabeau: They asked about studs on shoes.
17:28
Isabeau: Yeah they didn't seem to get that one video clip you gave where you picked just the one pile of manure.
17:33
Isabeau: They're like,"But my horse poops more than once." I'm like- Yeah.
17:37
Isabeau: all it's hard, I guess it's hard to put content out, out there.
17:41
Isabeau: Yeah.
17:41
Isabeau: People, there's all kinds of, just crazy, somewhat irrational reactions that it's hard- Oh, yeah to wrap my head around.
17:47
Isabeau: It's hard to wrap your head all around.
17:49
Katie: Yes, and I think, for some of the questions, like one was, the most recent one was,"Are there any pictures of horses using this?" And I'm like,"Do the, you could literally open the comments and see."
18:00
Isabeau: see that, yeah.
18:00
Katie: you don't even have to leave this post and you can get your answer,
18:03
Isabeau: Yes.
18:04
Katie: and that's the other thing, is that people will ask the same question over and over again without actually looking.
18:08
Katie: It is, I find it very difficult because this is new.
18:12
Katie: It's radically different than- Yes anything that's been on the market, and you and I both know that we equestrian people, we are not bleeding edge or even really leading edge type of people.
18:22
Katie: We like to be safe and know that somebody else has tried it first before- yes we're willing to do it, right?
18:28
Katie: I'm in that phase right now, right?
18:30
Katie: so all of the people that are daring to give it a try, you're one of them, right?
18:34
Katie: you're the pioneers out here- giving it a try for everybody else.
18:38
Katie: The thing It's hard for me to really And I'm struggling with that a little bit, right?
18:41
Katie: I am struggling with how do I showcase the value, because I know personally, and I know for my customers, and you get it- of what it frees up in terms of time.
18:52
Katie: So we're talking about that video which I put very little effort into, which is me,"Come along with me while I clean my stall," and there's one pile of poop, right?
19:00
Katie: Yeah.
19:01
Katie: and of course, my horses have access to an outdoor run.
19:04
Katie: They pee and poop most of the time outside.
19:05
Katie: Like- they don't hardly ever pee or poop in the stalls anymore.
19:09
Katie: But for me, it was that freedom of I still have deep bedding right here, and I don't have to sift through it after I've cleaned all the rest of the poop up out of the turnout, right?
19:18
Katie: Yeah.
19:19
Katie: I get to come in here and be like, I don't have to fluff it, I don't have to none of it.
19:24
Katie: I don't have to go grab another bag of shavings and walk through the mud,'cause we've had five inches of rain in the last three days.
19:30
Katie: I don't have to do any of that.
19:32
Katie: I don't have to dump my manure cart every single day.
19:34
Katie: Like, all of those things to me, time is so precious.
19:38
Katie: Time is, the hottest commodity I think we have, right?
19:41
Katie: and so I'm in, I am struggling to explain that.
19:43
Katie: Also, horses don't really like to lay down in their own feces or urine.
19:47
Katie: Some of them do because they've been, unfortunately, raised in an environment where they maybe didn't get cleaned and they were stuck that way, right?
19:54
Isabeau: Yeah.
19:55
Katie: But that's not the case for the vast majority of horses.
19:57
Katie: They're, the horses are smarter than I think we give them credit for.
20:02
Katie: Like- Yeah they will pick their feet up and step onto it, they're not, they're not gonna trip over it, that sort of thing.
20:07
Katie: And I've come to peace a little bit with I'm just gonna have to do a snippet and let people ask their questions, and try to answer as best I can.
20:16
Katie: But I am trying to figure out, like, how do I do all of that in one?
20:20
Katie: I don't know if it's possible.
20:22
Katie: Or maybe I'm just not creative enough, right?
20:24
Katie: I'm wearing all the hats in this business right now,
20:26
Isabeau: Yeah.
20:27
Isabeau: we've been chatting back and forth by text, and one of the reasons why I'd started doing the podcast was, one, so that I could have better conversations,'cause it's hard to talk to people online because it's a mess-
20:36
Katie: Yeah
20:37
Isabeau: online.
20:38
Katie: Yeah.
20:38
Isabeau: But also because I've been in this industry my whole life.
20:41
Isabeau: I made a decision- long time ago that I didn't wanna do anything else but horses.
20:46
Isabeau: And there's a lot of stuff in the industry that doesn't go well, that could go better, and one of the things is that everybody who runs a barn, a lot of these people are exhausted, overworked, over-threshold, and so financially in a wreck, and doing so much work that their brains have shut off and they cannot think.
21:04
Isabeau: Yeah...
21:04
Isabeau: and so anything that I happen to stumble across that I think might really make a significant help, the mattress that you've come up with here, I like a lot, and I think if we, if you just, if we lay out some numbers, where I am, we pay for manure haul away.
21:20
Isabeau: It's 285 bucks per container.
21:23
Isabeau: I have to get that truck in here in the winter, in January, It's extra time for me to make sure that, we have a loop driveway.
21:29
Isabeau: The guy's gotta come in- I gotta make sure he can get up and down both hills twice with, you know- and out with the loaded dumpster on the ice.
21:37
Isabeau: That takes time.
21:38
Isabeau: It's a pain in the butt.
21:39
Isabeau: The more often we fill that dumpster up, right now I'm paying$7,000 a year to have my manure hauled away.
21:46
Isabeau: That's a lot even though the mattresses are not cheap, it starts adding up pretty freaking quick because I'm already paying for bedding and for time, plus, prepping the driveway in the winter.
21:59
Isabeau: Yeah.
22:00
Isabeau: It doesn't take much time for these things to pay for themselves.
22:03
Isabeau: in my setup, it's a year and a half, and it's gonna be zero, that these things have cost me.
22:09
Isabeau: and I'm gonna get the time back, The time doing stalls, it takes me the first couple hours in the morning, it uses up a lot of my energy.
22:15
Isabeau: I still then have a bunch of other tasks on the property that I have to, to do.
22:20
Isabeau: And even though I'm lucky enough that I have, actually have a really nice job right now, working for really nice people- it's still plenty work.
22:27
Isabeau: We have the property.
22:29
Isabeau: We have fence lines.
22:30
Isabeau: We have trees falling down.
22:31
Isabeau: Everything, all four seasons require a whole schedule of care.
22:36
Isabeau: And- Yeah I would like our horses to have a nice squishy place.
22:40
Isabeau: Yeah and if I didn't have to sift through seven jugs of shavings every day, that would be awesome.
22:45
Katie: I can't wait for you,'cause you're just gonna be like,"This is the best thing ever." you'll find other ways to fill your time, though.
22:51
Isabeau: no, there's plenty,'cause we've got an infinite amount of projects to- Yeah to do here.
22:56
Isabeau: Since we've got property, and trees, and leaves, we have more than, enough stuff to do.
23:00
Isabeau: So there was a little bit of a l- learning curve to get this figured out.
23:04
Isabeau: Yeah.
23:04
Isabeau: I unfortunately picked my personal horse to start with, and he turned it into a very, a large stall toy, which- Yeah which he then proceeded to do very entertaining and creative things with.
23:16
Isabeau: But we're like, all right, so we just tried it to the other horse.
23:19
Isabeau: And our two smart horses got it immediately.
23:22
Isabeau: We got- Yeah two smarter but braver horses, and they were like,"Ha." Foomp.
23:26
Isabeau: They're like,"Yes.""Thank you.
23:28
Isabeau: Sold." Yeah.
23:29
Isabeau: Took one day.
23:30
Isabeau: They were on it the first night.
23:32
Isabeau: Yeah.
23:32
Isabeau: the third horse, it took a little while.
23:34
Isabeau: He laid down next to it, and then he kinda laid down half on top of it.
23:39
Isabeau: And then he got fully on it, then we kinda realized he prefers to face the door, so we just rotated it, and now he's on it.
23:46
Isabeau: And you know what's interesting?
23:47
Isabeau: He lies down four or five hours, a night on it.
23:49
Isabeau: Oh, wow.
23:50
Isabeau: Which is so cool.
23:52
Isabeau: It's really cool to have them laying down.
23:54
Isabeau: So we got three out of our six horses who have signed on.
23:57
Isabeau: so now we will start trying to work on the other three.
24:00
Isabeau: But I'm very motivated- Yeah because it's gonna make my life a lot easier,
24:05
Katie: Yeah, no kidding.
24:07
Katie: Are you using shavings right now, right?
24:08
Isabeau: We're using shavings, and I've tried buying all around town.
24:11
Isabeau: I've tried getting, big flake ones from Tractor Supply.
24:15
Isabeau: So we thought about using the hemp bedding.
24:18
Isabeau: I was like,"You know that stuff's like$80 a bag?" It's
24:21
Katie: so
24:21
Isabeau: expensive.
24:22
Katie: I had no idea that was a thing until I had a customer whose horse is allergic to everything, and she told me,
24:27
Isabeau: And I know even though your mattress, the most popular one are 3,500 bucks.
24:32
Isabeau: I have a saddle I paid$6,000 for, I bought- Yeah I spent almost$5,000 on two new saddles this year.
24:39
Isabeau: So these animals are really expensive.
24:41
Isabeau: The cost of the mattress is really, to me it's, I'm one of these people who pays for their iPhone up front as opposed to paying for it over time.
24:48
Isabeau: Yeah.
24:49
Isabeau: Because why would I pay 2,500 bucks for an$1,100 phone when I could just pay$1,100 up front?
24:55
Isabeau: Sure.
24:55
Isabeau: So I would much rather pay for the mattress now instead of paying- Yeah for shavings, and the dust, and the delivery, and everything else.
25:03
Isabeau: Yeah.
25:04
Isabeau: So if I can get a better product, even if it costs me more up front, if it's gonna be a much better deal in the long term, I am on board.
25:10
Katie: Yeah, that's great.
25:11
Katie: and I think that's a really wise way of looking at it.
25:14
Katie: there's a lot of people I think that they get stuck on the,"Oh, I'll just keep doing shavings," and I'm like, you're gonna spend that amount of money every single year, There's One of my customers, she bought it because sh- she boarded her horse, and the owner of the barn would not even put enough shavings in the horse's stall, and so it was getting bedding sores.
25:31
Katie: and this was a great compromise because then it didn't cost the barn owner any additional money, but then, the owner was able to give her horse a nice soft place to stand and sleep.
25:40
Isabeau: Yeah.
25:40
Katie: I think, for people who board, it's a really great opportunity.
25:43
Katie: For boarding facilities even, I would think that you could still pretty much charge the same, and now you've increased your margins because you're spending less money on time.
25:50
Katie: Cleaning stalls takes a lot less time.
25:52
Katie: You're not, buying all the shavings.
25:54
Katie: You're not disposing all, right?
25:55
Katie: All of those costs go into it, and that increases your margin as a barn owner.
25:58
Katie: it makes sense to me, but
26:00
Isabeau: It does.
26:01
Isabeau: Yeah.
26:01
Katie: And you know what, things are very expensive right now.
26:04
Katie: it's been really hard for us.
26:05
Katie: Our margins have definitely gotten squeezed too because, the cost of fuel has gone up so much- which means shipping, and we cover the cost of shipping, right?
26:13
Katie: Like shipping in the United States- Yeah is free.
26:15
Katie: We do charge shipping outside of the United States.
26:17
Katie: but it's free inside of the United States.
26:19
Katie: The shipping has gone up.
26:20
Katie: Guess what foam is?
26:22
Katie: It's a petroleum product.
26:23
Katie: Oh, That has gone up twice, right?
26:26
Katie: and it's tough.
26:27
Katie: And I think that too, if you're living paycheck to paycheck, for example, or if you're, the horses are very expensive, it can be difficult to then make that payment.
26:36
Katie: we do offer the Klarna and all that.
26:38
Katie: I personally struggle with that because I agree with you.
26:41
Katie: I feel like you're gonna end up spending more in the long run.
26:44
Katie: So we developed a...
26:45
Katie: Developed.
26:46
Katie: we have an in-house layaway program-
26:48
Isabeau: Oh,
26:48
Katie: No fees.
26:49
Katie: No, it's, there's no catch.
26:51
Katie: It literally is like you pay what you can pay when you can pay, right?
26:54
Katie: Like you tell me monthly, every other month, how much, whatever.
26:58
Katie: And then, but you don't get your mattress until the end, right?
27:00
Katie: 'Cause I do have to- Yeah make sure the mattress gets paid for.
27:03
Katie: and we've had a couple people use that because I think that's helped them to once the money is gone, it's gone.
27:08
Katie: They don't have to think about it or worry about it.
27:10
Katie: And at the end of it, then they get their mattress, and they haven't spent anything extra.
27:14
Katie: But that also means that if they have a month where,"Oh crap, I've overspent or we had an emergency or whatever," they can just say,"Hey, can we skip a month?" And I'm like,"Cool, no problem," right?
27:23
Katie: Like it's, it's, it was really just meant to help for people who do struggle with that.
27:27
Katie: because there's also, it's, more than just the deep bedding, like the time and all that, which is really great, but when you think about why it was actually made, it was made for the ponies with laminitis so they could be outside, so they could be inside, so they could be wherever these mattresses are and have that support system.
27:45
Katie: you'll have people whose horses are injured, DSLD, ring bone, all these things that, the horses really seem to like and be attracted to our bedding, for that type of standing support even, right?
27:59
Katie: Michigan State University and the University of Vienna in Austria, they are both separately doing scientific studies.
28:05
Katie: Because, what I can tell you is the horses seem to like this configuration.
28:10
Katie: Why do they like it?
28:13
Katie: I can just tell you based on observation, and the vast ama- vast majority of horses will take to it the first night, just like the, the two that you have, or three, I can't remember, I'm sorry, that you said were like,"Yep, I'm on it.
28:23
Katie: I love this thing.
28:24
Katie: Thank you." We have a few that are like, they need a little bit of warming up, and then some of them that are like,"Oh, hell no." And then you gotta really spend some time getting them used to it.
28:32
Katie: 'Cause it crinkles, right?
28:34
Katie: Yeah.
28:34
Katie: It's loud, or can be loud, right?
28:36
Katie: sorry, I forgot where I was going with that, but, Oh, I was
28:39
Isabeau: saying- Oh, I was saying 30s
28:40
Katie: So we're doing them because I am curious, right?
28:44
Katie: everything I've seen is feedback that the horses tell us, and that my customers tell me that their horses are doing.
28:50
Katie: it's been really, a very interesting journey.
28:52
Katie: I cannot wait to see what comes out of this, because also I'm hoping to use these studies to make it even better, right?
28:59
Isabeau: Yeah.
28:59
Katie: Ultimately, the goal here is to help horses and help their people as well.
29:04
Katie: talk about being in a career with horses, it's a dream come true to be part of this, story, Yeah.
29:10
Katie: and taking, taking something like this forward into, i- into an industry like this.
29:15
Katie: I just love being in, that we have an option for people.
29:19
Katie: Yeah.
29:19
Isabeau: It is really cool, and it's given me some, crazy i- ideas.
29:22
Isabeau: I wonder if I would be bold enough to pursue it.
29:25
Isabeau: I'm a big supporter of the New York City carriage horses, and, I know people have a lot of complaints about them staying in the city and walking on, on the asphalt and stuff.
29:33
Isabeau: But, it would be so much fun to try to do a fundraiser or to try to get some of these mattresses to those horses.
29:40
Isabeau: Oh.
29:40
Isabeau: yeah.
29:40
Isabeau: Because I know that the bedding and the maintenance is work, and disposal, and just to even have the image out there of those horses who are on pavement all day being able to-
29:51
Katie: Yeah
29:51
Isabeau: I'm like, that would be really cool.
29:53
Isabeau: I don't know if that's something That's possibly outside of my scope of something to pull off, but I know the carriage people are looking for a lot of support,'cause their life is so tight right now.
30:03
Isabeau: So maybe they would- be open to somebody who wanted to try to help them do some kind of fundraising things to buy a bunch of those horses these mattresses.
30:11
Isabeau: that's a place where these mattresses could, really shine and be amazing.
30:15
Isabeau: and you have the...
30:16
Isabeau: I read on your website, are you still doing the fundraising program for rescues and stuff?
30:20
Katie: Yes.
30:21
Isabeau: Okay.
30:21
Isabeau: Yeah.
30:21
Isabeau: Cool.
30:22
Katie: So- I was gonna mention that.
30:22
Katie: Yes.
30:22
Isabeau: Okay.
30:23
Isabeau: Tell us more about that.
30:24
Katie: Okay.
30:24
Katie: so I do have, my lead sales consultant, Morgan, she's worked in with nonprofits for, I don't know how many, 20 years or something crazy, and she's done a ton of fundraising.
30:33
Katie: And so we've been working with nonprofits to help them fundraise.
30:37
Katie: We, I have, I will donate mattresses as much as I can.
30:41
Katie: and so next year I'm hoping to actually start, as we're s- expanding,'cause we are growing, very crazy, it's wonderful, but once we get to a certain point, I want to start actually donating mattresses.
30:51
Katie: have people apply and then being able to choose somebody and donate, every month or something.
30:55
Katie: That's the goal.
30:55
Katie: Oh.
30:55
Katie: That's the dream.
30:56
Isabeau: Nice.
30:56
Katie: Nice.
30:57
Katie: But in the meantime, we do help.
30:59
Katie: I give a discount.
31:00
Katie: it's actually the majority- usually is the majority of my profit margin, right?
31:04
Katie: Yeah.
31:04
Katie: Because if they can raise the rest of it, it makes sense to me to- Yeah for my portion to at least go.
31:09
Katie: and these are the horses that need it, right?
31:11
Katie: Yeah.
31:11
Katie: These people working in rescues, they work so hard, and they are constantly trying to fundraise and get money and help, keep these horses' lives, make their lives better And we do have where they can add their, nonprofit to our website, and people can go and fundraise there.
31:27
Katie: I will be straightforward, I've never had anyone use the website to donate mattresses yet.
31:32
Katie: Got it.
31:33
Katie: But I'm hoping that over time that will grow.
31:36
Katie: and if anything, it will help to, when I add the...
31:39
Katie: And they're 501[c][3] so they are real nonprofits, right- that will add to it.
31:43
Katie: a- if anything, it helps, expand their visibility too, right?
31:47
Katie: so if somebody comes to my website and they see that, maybe you find a nonprofit that's near you or is doing something that you're very passionate about, right?
31:55
Katie: Like- I just, I love it being a, a connector like that.
31:58
Isabeau: Yeah.
31:58
Katie: Honestly, if I were a bazillionaire, I would just give all these things away for free.
32:05
Isabeau: Yes.
32:05
Katie: Because, the first time you see your horse snoozing on one of these it is the best moment ever.
32:10
Katie: Or your horse that's pit sore and they're standing on it, and they...
32:13
Katie: that sigh.
32:14
Katie: I just- I want that for everyone.
32:16
Isabeau: Yeah, That's what cloud boots are, right?
32:18
Isabeau: It's basically a cloud boot for the whole horse, That's- Yes a pretty simple, straightforward- It's a cloud boot for the body.
32:23
Isabeau: yes.
32:23
Isabeau: if you have time, do you wanna share a little bit, you said you made a few mattresses for some zoo animals too.
32:29
Isabeau: Did you say a giraffe?
32:30
Katie: Yeah.
32:31
Katie: So we are in a pilot program right now with a local zoo.
32:34
Katie: we've made, for the zebra.
32:35
Isabeau: Yep
32:36
Katie: we've also made for the giraffe.
32:38
Katie: Unfortunately, the giraffe has recently passed away, and I don't know that they've been able to introduce it yet to, to that one, but they do have other giraffes.
32:44
Katie: So I believe they'll be introducing, I don't know.
32:47
Katie: but we did make, basically it's two of our largest, our horse mattresses side by side with a massive cover- Oh that essentially holds them together.
32:56
Katie: It's a, it is amazing.
32:58
Katie: And so that way they can break it down and they can use it, separately if they want to.
33:02
Katie: By the way, if you've never seen a giraffe sleep, Google it now.
33:07
Katie: Because it is the, most precious thing ever.
33:10
Katie: Because they take their big head, their heads, their long necks, and they twist them around and they lay them on their back.
33:16
Katie: It's insane.
33:16
Katie: It's amazing.
33:17
Katie: It's super cute.
33:17
Isabeau: Oh, wow.
33:17
Katie: and then what we're very excited about is, we're making a mattress for the oldest white rhino in captivity, for the Arizona Zoos and Aquariums.
33:28
Katie: she's 53 years old, I believe.
33:30
Isabeau: Oh, wow.
33:30
Katie: Okay.
33:31
Katie: And it's, and what's interesting is that they sleep on mounds.
33:35
Katie: And so because their short little legs I think, s- so they can be propped up and get up- Ah real fast, right?
33:40
Isabeau: Gotcha.
33:40
Katie: And essentially we're making one that has a mound included in it.
33:47
Katie: and they also have breathing issues, right?
33:49
Katie: so right now they've been using, pelleted bedding, which of course under these very massive animals, that just crushes down to nothing.
33:56
Katie: And so we're, we're trialing this.
33:58
Katie: We're- we've got a big prototype that's being made right now, and, it's very exciting to go into this, also into that industry, right?
34:05
Isabeau: Cool.
34:05
Katie: Yeah, it's
34:05
Isabeau: it's not easy to develop a product and bring it to market.
34:08
Isabeau: it's terrifying.
34:09
Isabeau: I'm really am- impressed that you got it up to here, and I think it is a great idea.
34:14
Isabeau: Thanks, Susan yes.
34:15
Isabeau: So it's been awesome to talk to you.
34:17
Isabeau: I don't wanna hold you up.
34:18
Isabeau: I know you've got, farm, and family, and all type of stuff.
34:21
Isabeau: I hope maybe we can do another recording again in a couple months- Yeah if I, hopefully, get all six of my horses, going.
34:27
Isabeau: And I do have cameras in all their stalls, so I will be able to- Yeah
34:30
Katie: send,
34:31
Isabeau: get plenty of pictures to you of them-
34:33
Katie: As I said to you on text when you were telling me,"Oh, this horse, he pulled it out the stall.
34:38
Katie: Oh, this one, he's scared of it.
34:39
Katie: This one, you know- this one really liked it," right?
34:41
Katie: I said,"Gosh, Isabeau, you have all of the...
34:44
Katie: your horses are representing the entire, you know- Correct th- all the horses that have ever used this." And so I think it really would be cool to go through your journey, right?
34:53
Katie: And- Yeah,
34:53
Isabeau: it would be.
34:54
Katie: Yeah see what you've done and...
34:55
Katie: Yeah.
34:55
Katie: So I think that'd be a lot of fun.
34:57
Isabeau: Yeah.
34:57
Isabeau: We've got a nice variety pack of horses, and they've all got some really different personalities, Thank you for talking to me.
35:04
Katie: thanks, Isabeau, your support really means the world.
35:06
Katie: it's, getting all the raw feedback is so wonderful and so helpful, and just I want nothing but the best for you, right?
35:14
Katie: I, I can't wait till you have them in all your stalls, and your horses are loving them, and you're loving it.
35:18
Katie: it's gonna be amazing.
35:19
Isabeau: A- awesome.
35:20
Isabeau: Have a good evening.
35:21
Katie: Yeah.
35:22
Katie: Thank you.
35:22
Katie: Bye, Isabeau
35:23
Isabeau: Take care.
35:23
Isabeau: Bye-bye.