Why is horsey stuff always more expensive?!

SpottedCat

SpottedCat

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Ok, so at Badminton they were heavily advertising 'ride alert' wristbands/saddle tags. Great idea, can't fault it, but it rang a bell in my mind as I was convinced I'd seen a similar product in my local climbing shop last time I'd been in and had thought about buying one as I do a lot of lone working often in remote areas.

So one google search later and I find 'alert id' - which covers people/pets/kit.

Looking at the contacts bit of the websites, it is the same company, which makes sense.

But....and here's the rub....a ride alert wrist band is £8.50. An Alert ID one is £6. A year's family subscription to alert id is £10, ride alert is £11.75. A pet tag is £6, a horse tag is £8.50. A set of stickers for your kit is £6 for five, a set of two stickers for your hat is £8.50.

Why the price difference? Ok, so the ride alert one will alert your livery yard when the horse is found...but then why not just buy a pet tag and put your livery yard in as the emergency contact instead of your own details?!

Would love to know if others feel I am unnecessarily grumpy about this - perhaps I've missed something which ride alert offers but alert id does not? As it stands I can't see why I'd use ride-alert over alert id, which I'd been thinking about getting anyway - could add the horse on a 'pet tag' and have this all handy for lone working too (and therefore through the business ;) ) for less money, surely?
 
I'm not convinced anyway, I thought it was quite expensive! Have already got little purple heart shaped dog tags engraved with phone numbers that go the bridles of our two (about £8 I think in pet shop), if they were injured I'm sure a vet would be called who would know doubt know the equine vets in the area even if the numbers on the dog tag weren't seen.
 
We have a dog tag on each of our saddles with telephone numbers to contact & they were a lot cheaper than any of ther ID stuff mentioned.

Horsey stuff is always loaded price wise. You can buy a fantastic coat that is guaranteed waterproof, breathable & warm at a camping shop for a fraction of the cost of a coat for sale in a tack shop.

Don't you all realise that us horse owners are rich & will buy anything horsey ;)
 
Its like wedding stuff - print a pair of silver bells on a perfectly ordinary item, and double the price!

I don't really buy "horsy" stuff unless its absolutely unavoidable. My mare was washed in Tesco baby shampoo and she was fabulously shiny, even more so than the pony in the next box who was washed in special horse shampoo. Tesco value shampoo is about £1 for 500ml, while the posh Gallop horse shampoo is about £10 !!
 
I had the same conversation with my OH the other day. After watching Oli Townends miraculous survival of his fall we looked online for Point Two air jackets. The riders ones are £426 but a reflective waistcoat designed for motorcycle riders is £369!
 
Beacause people think horse people have loads of dosh to throw about?
I don't know :confused:
Surely you could just wear a medical armband , £3.25 from PC and put a dog tag on your saddle with yard contact details, which you could probably pick up from a pound shop?
 
MB - you could, but I do a lot of scrambling through hedges etc so an armband would really get in the way and paramedics also know to look for medicalert bracelets so would find this easily I think - I often have no id on me at all when at work as valuables get stashed in the boot of the car - so I can be out for 10 hours with only a backpack and a clipboard. Hence I like the idea of the bracelet, I'm just at a loss as to why the horse version is more expensive than the other one. Perhaps green dye is more expensive than orange?!
 
Yep horsey kit is almost always more expensive and often poorer quality too.

Astounds me that you pay the same for a coat from a "horsey" brand that has a waterproof coating (ie will be cr*p in no time) and is not breathable as you do for a goretex one from a non-horsey brand!

I buy as much as I can from hiking and climbing stores and just get hat, boots and jodhs from horsey brands. And I still don't understand why I can get hiking trousers, or running leggings in quick drying wicking breathable fabrics with stretch that are washable but for jodhs the choice is cotton or nylon, so breathable but will stay wet for ever if you get sweaty or quick drying but will make you feel sweaty - great!
 
Hello to Spotted Cat and others in this debate regarding Alert ID and Ride-Alert.

I am the MD of both companies and here is my response.

What was perhaps not so obvious was that the Alert ID products included a £3.50 supplement for postage and packing so in fact they were a little more expensive that the Ride-Alert products.

However Alert ID and Ride-Alert are now aligned in that joining through either route www.alertid.co.uk or www.ride-alert.co.uk costs £25 inclusive of 3 x ID Devices and the member receives 12 months of Live 24/7 Emergency Support Service with 51 people answering emergency calls in our UK location.

Members may then purchase any number of additional ID Devices from the members shop inclusive of all Ride-Alert and Alert ID products and each year there is a single Re-Registration fee to pay of £11.75 inclusive of VAT for the Registration to continue for another 12 months. The £11.75 fee includes all ID devices previously purchased and any additional devices that are purched thereafter. So a family could have 30+ ID devices including any number of horses, dogs, riders, mobile phones, IPods, luggage, houses, keys and family members all covered for £11.75 per annum.

Additionally the Register is somewhere to securely maintain and store details of your holiday travel, insurance docs, general maintainance providers, emergency contacts , medicaction, crisis plans, location of water stop cock at home, gas and electric, serial numbers and electrical purchase details and dates for insurance purposes etc etc etc.

We believe that the service is excellent value for money and provides a worthwhile service to the public and riders alike. Certainly there are approximately 4,000 riding accidents each week where an ambulance attends and the first thing the emergency services want to know is who they are dealing with, how to contact the next-of-kin and what they are suffering from i.e. allergy, medical condition etc. Alert ID and Ride-Alert provides these answers with a simple phone call 24/7.

Of course you can make your own arrangements but we believe that having that vital information to hand and promising to answer the phione every time someone rings is something that a home system i.e. a dog tag with stable details just cannot guarantee.

I would be very pleased to hear what you guys think and if you contact me personally at andy.keats@alertid.co.uk I would be very happy to provide you all with some sample products for you to evaluate.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Andy Keats
 
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