Behind the Scenes with Piper Klemm of The Plaid Horse

Can you give us some background on The Plaid Horse? 

The Plaid Horse was founded in 2003 and quickly became America's Premier Horse Show Magazine. It has always welcome contributions and viewpoints from all aspects in the sport and it is often the very first place that riders ever find themselves in print. I purchased the magazine in 2014 and modernized the website, social media, and content. We have kept the core mission - to education and to welcome people into our sport. Every single issue I have grandparents calling me asking to send issues of their grandchild's very first photo in print. It is always exciting! 

When you took over the magazine and business what were your short term goals?

In 2014, my goals were simply to survive. I knew what I didn't know about the publication business and I was eager to learn. Many of our ideas and concepts formed over years of listening to what the market was missing and wanted from their sport, their press, and their publications. Most of our story directions have come from trying so many different styles and viewpoints and seeing what people responded to. 

What steps have you taken to grow The Plaid Horse through the years and into the future?

We have taken steps on every front. From the most basic - cosmetic to introducing the industry's first hunter/jumper podcast, to now connecting with higher education institutions to bring academic recognition and achievement to business in our sport, we are always learning and always trying to both grow our sport and grow the people in our sport. 

What are the biggest challenges associated with operating the business?

I think all businesses would say cash flow and knowing your numbers. I have a lot of trouble sitting on my hands when I have a big idea and don't quite have the money to fund it yet. I have taken the approach of retaining control - we have no investors - so it is a double edged sword. I have a lot of autonomy to do what I think is right and what will propel the industry during the long term and not necessarily short term gain, but also I need to have the capital for any project I conceptualize. Also, I think most of us want to use our horse businesses to ride ourselves in some form and that is so difficult for me to schedule and plan and actually make happen. 

What does a typical week look like for you?

Pre-COVID, I was on the road all the time. I think there is no substitute to meeting people and listening and sharing conversation and meals. Now, I have had to reinvent and am on Zoom and the phone most of the days. I try to be diligent about addressing all my email in a timely manner, which is no small feat. Besides that, I'm working on what our next book project will be (currently the Geoff Teall riding Hunters, Jumpers, and Equitation re-release; prior it was the first three books of the Show Strides book series); booking and coming up with interesting Plaidcast guests, mapping out the next issue of the print magazine, and all the normal business of running a team, invoicing, and making sure all our contracts are up to date. 

With regards to your growth, how have you been able to manage this growth and what are the challenges associated with this?

I think like most businesses, when growth really started, it came a little fast for me. I was not accustomed to managing so many people and we got a little overwhelmed. I found more of our sweet spot - we have a small and nimble and extremely competent staff and have a great mix of standard content and ability to test out new ideas. This is where I am at my most productive - being able to both run existing content and be inspired by new projects all in the same day. It's taken a while to find our spot in the industry and we have tried expanding in a lot of areas over the years that were not our forte and backed out of them. I would rather work with fewer really good people than a huge team that needs a lot of micromanagement. 

How do you empower your staff? Can you give some examples of this?

Fundamentally, I try to make a space where everyone listens and everyone is heard. This doesn't mean I agree with you all the time or the project will necessarily go in your direction, but I always let everyone speak up to express how they feel on a project. For example, I'm always hesitant on a Holiday Gift Guide because I personally don't really identify with quite the gift giving culture we have in this country. Every year, the team makes the case for it and I listen and it ends up being wildly successful on a traffic scale and for advertisers - it is a real service we offer. I also don't believe in mistakes - we discuss them and then we make a plan to make things right. We do so much work at such a breakneck pace, sometimes stuff has to be fixed. I tell everyone at The Plaid Horse - I'm probably better at fixing this issue than you are or have the favor that needs to be called up to make something right. So, let's get it out in the open and address it right now so that we can all move on. When there are no secrets in the workplace, there is no anxiety in the workplace. We're all on the same team and people do their best work when they're not worried about getting slammed for some tiny mistake or typo. 

Can you tell us a little about the Plaidcast?

The Plaidcast came about because I wanted to listen to a hunter/jumper podcast, I didn't really want to be a host. I literally asked everyone I knew to host it instead of me and they all declined. I was very uncomfortable for the first year or two - it's hard to know what to share, what to say, and I am a huge podcast fan and felt intimidated when I would listen to thousands of hours of Fresh Air and be like "I don't sound like that." Like most things, however, the more I practiced and studied and learned how to book better guests, the better it got! I'm really proud of what we put out - we've done over 250 episodes at this point on a few different podcasts, which is quite the feat. We bring so many career options to young people - there is so much more to this sport than riding or standing by a jump. There is so much education to be had in all aspects and I love that people can listen while traveling, listen with their kids in the car, and make it a communal activity to discuss and learn. 

How has the "equine media" world evolved in your time working in the industry?

Equine media has gotten so much smaller and larger at the same time. With social media coming around, many print publications have gone out of business and many of the original blogs and news sources have failed to keep up. Following people's personal businesses has led to a rise of hundreds of social media consultants and other jobs within the space. Photographers are booming - people crave new content constantly. 

I think this is a very difficult space to get education into and that is partly why we have been constantly evolving to education in new forms. It is harder than ever to get people to read long form. When you read for what you're specifically looking for only, say you need to learn about the indirect rein and just read those pages, you miss so much more that you would have gotten out of reading that chapter in context in a whole book. I think we all need to inspire people to put their phones down and watch horses go, read books, listen to podcasts, and be less obsessed with the every action of certain people. We need to think bigger again for our sport to grow, horsemanship to reign supreme, and riding to thrive. 

In which direction do you see the horse industry heading in?

I think there is so much opportunity and so much good for people who truly want it, which is amazing. There are so many programs, so many ways to learn, so much more travel, and so much goodness that it can be hard to sort out. There is also a lot of people who see these things and want them without realizing the decades and personal hard work that they take. This sport is so hard, it does humble everyone, and if we can set expectations better off the bat to young equestrians, I think they will rise to the occasion and put their phones down and become horse-people.