Little Horse Draws Big Crowd

[Stephanie Land]

A few weeks ago my BA 317 marketing professor was lecturing about what gets consumers attention these days. Companies are no longer finding success using traditional advertising and marketing techniques. Consumers have trained themselves to ignore more and more of the advertising messages they see on a daily basis. My professor says that these days, to get the attention of consumers, companies must send out unique messages.
This got me thinking about PR campaigns. If organizations have an interesting angle to promote, it is a lot easier to raise awareness. When something unique happens in an industry, people outside of that industry often take notice. For the United States Equestrian Federation that something is a horse named “Theodore O’Connor.”Standing at only 56 inches-tall, “Teddy” is a pony among horses, and yet he has rocked the sport of three-day eventing. The pony-and-rider’s equestrian discipline—eventing—is a three-phase competition when dressage, cross-country and show jumping are combined to test the pairing in a variety of skills. He, along with his rider, Karen O’Connor (no relation), first caught the worlds attention in 2007 after placing third at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, but it was their double gold medal winning performance at last year’s Pan American Games that solidified their place in history. In January, Teddy was awarded USEF’s Horse of the Year award, capping off a huge year for the little horse.

Teddy did for eventing what Seabiscut did for horse racing. His story is unique, and has sort of an “under-dog,” appeal. Stories about the “little horse who could” appeared all over the country including this one by the Washington Post, and this story by USA Today. All the media coverage succeeded it attracting a new audience to the sport of three-day-eventing.

As the 2008 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event kicked off earlier this month, the world had their eyes on one small horse. It seems the world can’t wait to see what he has in store for us this year.