Hello! Some of you may know that I am starting a horse-focused stationery and gift/home goods company. Wondering what you want to see!
In the lineup are gift wrap, greeting cards, and gifts like mugs, ornaments, and hopefully, dinnerware.
If you were gifting for horse people (or buying for yourself), what would you be looking for?
I want to meet the market where it is, so any input would be awesome! Thanks!
I like vases, cloth napkins, and usable things vs things that sit around looking cute.
I don’t use stationary that often unless it’s custom with my name for school/business purposes.
If you can do custom horse stationary, I’d be interested.
Thank you!!! I can DM you the personalized items I offer so as not to violate rules. But this general advice is very helpful! Thanks!
I recently, unexpectedly, lost a horse. I wanted to send thank you cards to those who helped in his final hours, but nothing I found online felt “just right”. I wanted something simple, classy, and slightly horse-y… but also didn’t want to give everyone the exact same card. It’s stupid (I know no one is comparing cards?!) but at the time felt important to me. A variety pack of blank, horsey, tasteful cards was what I wanted and couldn’t find any.
I ended up buying a neutral pack of blank cards off Amazon - which leads me to the next suggestion. Turnaround time is important. I didn’t want to wait a week to receive cards. I’m unsure if the “average” seller is able to create an Amazon storefront, but if so… that would be a neat way to make purchasing easy for the average consumer.
This is cute! It might be neat to offer custom stamps for barns—the kind that self-ink? Could be a cool thing for them to use on their invoices or correspondence and such. I also think novelty buttons with horse-related sayings and iron-on patches could make neat low-cost gifts.
You could also look into selling riding calendars/planners/journals, ie, lightly templated notebooks with prompts like “Today I rode _____ and we worked on _______.” It could even include fun little sticker sheets for show days, ribbons won, or milestones unlocked. I just had a baby shower and someone gifted me the “baby’s first year” version of that idea (complete with the stickers for milestones), and everyone was telling me how much I’ll love it and appreciate having it. I could easily see someone buying it to help motivate a fellow rider, or even just to commemorate their own year with their horse.
@c0608524 I am so sorry for your loss. Sending hugs! (And taking this under consideration! I’m not sure if I could swing Amazon’s turnaround times, but something to look into!)
@dogsbody1 I created a digital riding journal, but haven’t found a vendor with pricing I like for a printed version. Love this idea, though!
Thank you both!
I was recently looking for horse-themed decor for tailgating at horse shows and everything I found on Etsy looked like it was for a 6 year old’s birthday party. Discipline-specific disposable cups, plates, napkins etc that aren’t super childish would be great. Especially if they could be customized to feature a logo or name for a sponsor, barn, venue, rider, or hunt club.
2nd the suggestion for a self-inking address stamp.
I edited my Driving Club’s newsletter & had to send out hardcopy to the fogeys who didn’t have (or want) email.
I got a horse-themed stamp off Etsy for under $20 & it saved me a lot of time.
No longer Editor, stamp is still useful 
ETA:
I had a set of blank cards made for a friend who was raised in a STB Racing family. I used old photos from her childhood/teens of her working horses at the track.
Horsey bookmarks
I recently purchased a birthday card on an Etsy site. Card was blank inside, which I prefer. The card had the specific (dog) breed on the face but was still stylized, which I wanted. The bonus was it came with a vinyl sticker which was a copy of the dog on the card. The sticker was a nice surprise. It’s vinyl, so removeable if the user wants switch it from a water bottle to, say, a laptop cover.
Thank you for all the great ideas!
You got me thinking!
I have a shopping list that only requires you to check off common items that you need, as opposed to writing down each thing. It’s really handy! A template that has activities (leg yields, trotting poles, upward transitions, etc) pre-populated would be great!
Example: https://knockknockstuff.com/collections/all-out-of-pads/products/all-out-of-pad-vegetarian
I also have another journal that has months and numbers 1-31 populated at the top border, so you just circle the day you’re writing. I know it seems silly but it helps me to remember to date things at all!
Example: https://www.amazon.com/Regolden-Book-Undated-Notebook-Journal-College/dp/B0BHSGRYVL/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=55625297883&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.gDH9hAWkyd1pst_90ywNwLt5OMi5PZuIPeW0JnW3-4MX06dPKwrhYjqWOzZG7rlNNac2z2DRH7eO5ITK9VJ-SerQjBGiQXDmqWwxNTJyYPKg2k47_tCiW46UJc2TbCb8b4AtABaP9ZJtm3bOqIdB8WI8gXYNE0H0x_yVqqRVgAf5w9PI8FazdGnSUl0CDgsgU0-n5xxHFXYkzaXSFLfv1Q.0XPfqAqg_ywcetk56SJbMaX8bLR9BzifAdmgajUyfGg&dib_tag=se&hvadid=664596089967&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=1025404&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=11796435624380490359&hvtargid=kwd-517171305272&hydadcr=25378_13642435&keywords=circle+the+date+notebook&qid=1716308418&sr=8-3
I would buy something like this!
Blank horse greeting cards in a, say, 12- pack assortment that could work a range of horse things, such as congratulating someone on getting a new horse or trailer or having a great horse show (with stickers shaped like horse show ribbons), dealing with a horse illness or lameness, or maybe tough times with riding injury or horse training setbacks, or loss. Years ago, an artist named J. Sandor had some watercolor greeting card with themes like stall rest or even muddy horses in pasture just before the horse show that were funny and great for cheering up friends dealing with a rough patch. I had a pack of them, and could send them out immediately when, say, someone broke their leg in a riding accident or had a birthday or was blue dealing with an unexpected vet bill. Would love to replenish them with horsey all-purpose cards. Maybe people don’t send greeting cards much these days, but I find horse friends appreciate them all the more because they are rare. Gift tags also would be helpful.
Not necessarily items but a huge thing for me is that 99% of options are variations of the same handful of stock silhouettes. Accurate, quality, unique silhouettes or horse images is a huge need in the market
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