My Once a Month Horse Shopping Fun

Every month at the barn I'm in charge of group-buying an item that we can all use to spruce up our "barn image" at the horse shows. It all started last Fall when Bruce and I were in Scottsdale. I took an afternoon to go visit West World, where our Arizona counterparts were holding a show. Their barns all looked so orderly and their horses had fancy coolers and such. I figured there was no reason why MY barn couldn't be just as nice and classy. When I got home I pitched the idea of one new item a month to Kari, and she was just as excited as I was about it. So now I've got a monthly gig. It all starts with a consultation with Kari. We talk about the cool things we could get, and narrow it down to a few great ideas. I go home and research on the Internet, finding the best deal etc. Then I make up a big framed poster board sign to advertise the items in our "locker room", and I make flyers that people can take home. The whole process has it good and bad points- the good being that I am getting all that cool stuff I've always wanted! I have a good core of about 5 or 6 riders at the barn that faithfully buy every Item of the Month, with others picking and choosing what months they participate. I think it's made a big difference in our barn pride- we're "All That AND a Bag of Chips!"For June we are ordering hoodies. Shannon was the guinea pig/model- I thought this was a very cute picture.Other items we've done:Kari and Lon posed for the month we did polo shirts:These coolers caught everyone's eye at the 1st show this year! I got lots of comments from the other barns and trainers on how nice these look. Rocko is very handsome, don't you think?All of my efforts are paying off, I think. I've noticed that the other barns we compete against are starting to get spiffied up too! We are a competitive lot, and will always try to outdo everyone else, I'm afraid.