Past Issues

At Full Gallop

• Byline:VICKY HUANG
• Publication Date:12/01/2009

No longer operated by the military, Houli Ranch is open to the public for activities including riding and school outings. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)

The focus of Taiwan’s horsemanship has shifted from central Taiwan to the north of the island, and the number of enthusiasts is growing.

“Around 30 years ago, my friends and I loved to watch horse­racing at Houli Ranch, and at that time there were a lot of racehorses here,” recalls Wei Yu-zhen, who has lived in Houli Township in Taichung County, central Taiwan for more than 50 years. The ranch was established during the Japanese colonial period (1895−1945) in 1936 to help the Japanese military train and breed warhorses. After Taiwan’s retrocession, the Republic of China (ROC) military took over the stable for the same use between 1951 and 1984.

As warhorses were no longer actively used by the military, however, new recreational facilities were built at the ranch and it opened to the public in July 1984. As Wei remembers, Houli Ranch was a crowded place during that time. “Big salt blocks were hung in each stall and the horses were always licking them to recharge their energy since so many tourists wanted to ride them,” she recalls.

Now, Houli Ranch, which is still operated by the government, remains in the vanguard of equestrian development in Taiwan, a role formerly shared by the Taipei Horse-riding Club, which was located next to Youth Park in Taipei and closed in 1994. Like Houli Ranch, the Taipei stable featured comprehensive facilities such as riding arenas that meet international standards. Of the coaches, athletes and judges involved in the sport in Taiwan in the 1980s, some 90 percent were cultivated at these two places, according to Henry Lee, general-director of the Chinese Taipei Equestrian Association (CTEA), the sport’s governing body in Taiwan.

More and more stables appeared around the island after Houli Ranch opened, with the focus of equestrian development shifting to the northern part of the island around 1990. The sport has flourished since then with more than 40 stables island-wide. It has particularly developed in the north at venues such as Beach Country Riding Club and Shan Hai Guan Riding Club in Taipei County and Hannover Equestrian Club in Taipei City.

Lee explains that the government’s initial investment in horses and facilities helped promote the sport in the early days, as private groups did not have enough financial resources to do so. Henry Chiang, now the owner of Beach Country, which is located in Danshui Township, Taipei County, is an example of someone who fell in love with riding through the government-owned Taipei Horse-riding Club.

Starting at the age of 10, Chiang began developing his riding skills and followed the crowd at the famous riding club by becoming a competitor in national equestrian events at the age of 12. During his 27 years on horseback, he has won many medals in international and local competitions, such as the show jumping team title in 2007 at the National Athletic Games in Taiwan. Show jumping and dressage are two popular equestrian disciplines in Taiwan and two of the three Olympic riding disciplines.

Taipei County Mounted Police in Danshui Township. Founded in 2003, mounted police units perform their duties in public spaces and tourist spots on weekends. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)

People who are serious about riding must be either well-heeled or work at ranches and have a great interest in horses, Chiang says. “Being wealthy makes it easier because it’s a relatively costly sport,” he adds. To maintain his life-long interest, Chiang and his partner Lu Tai-nan, who served as CTEA president between 2005 and early 2009, purchased the Beach Country Riding Club in 1999.

Today there are some 43 stables around the island, according to the CTEA, with most providing rider training and facilities for recreational riding. Beach Country, for example, has become one of the largest equestrian clubs in Taiwan and boards around 60 horses, some of which belong to the stable itself. The club also promotes the sport by hosting a slate of equestrian competitions. With two indoor arenas for show jumping and dressage, each year Beach Country hosts the CTEA’s dressage championships, as well as competitions sanctioned by the International Equestrian Federation, the sport’s international governing body.

Boosting Interest

On the other hand, Beach Country also offers a range of products and services to satisfy different enthusiast needs and boost interest in the sport. First-time riders can enjoy a discount price of NT$1,200 (US$36), instead of the usual NT$2,500 (US$76) for a 40-minute riding session. The club also rents out horses for shooting commercials and wedding photos. “Since our ranch is near the beach, there are up to seven couples who come for wedding photos every week,” says Alfred Wu, an assistant to Beach Country owner Henry Chiang.

Chiang says that as “riding horses is a minor sport in Taiwan, we’ve come up with many ‘horsey’ activities to survive in the market, and we stick with it because of our passion for riding.” The equestrian club also holds summer and winter camps for younger students every year, since it boards 10 ponies just for children to ride. With such wide-ranging services, Beach Country is now able to generate enough income to cover its operating expenses, the owner says.

Chiang also helped establish the Taipei County Mounted Police in 2003, one of three mounted police units in Taiwan. He organized the whole training program and provided horses and related facilities, and after a five-week training course and practice, the new unit began weekend duty in public spaces and tourist spots such as Danshui Township’s Fisherman’s Wharf and nearby Bali Wharf.

The CTEA’s goal is to promote equestrian culture in Taiwan, where there are more than 6,000 people participating in the sport. The association is also responsible for overseeing and evaluating riding teachers. Those who want to teach are required to complete courses provided by the association, including classes in professional equestrian techniques, safety and services. “We teach coaches about riding techniques, but knowledge of riding safety and services is also important for qualified coaches,” Henry Lee says. Aside from coursework, those who want to coach are also required to have at least one year of work experience at a ranch. Finally, after completing their training, prospective teachers are required to sit through an interview conducted by the association to test their coaching ability.

Things have not always gone smoothly for the association as it pursues its mission of promoting riding in Taiwan. “Most people here consider riding horses to be a dangerous sport, and lots of them also believe the cost is too high,” Lee says. This perception is not completely without basis, given the standard 40-minute-ride fees of NT$2,500 at Beach Country or NT$1,600 (US$48) at Shan Hai Guan Riding Club. However, Lee argues that the sport is completely dependent on the condition of the animals. Unlike a sport such as golf where the “equipment” can be used almost indefinitely, “horses can only work for a maximum of three hours a day,” he says. “They’ve also got to be fed, and we can’t control the price of horse feed.”

Those looking for a less expensive choice have the option of visiting Taichung County’s Houli Ranch for an occasional ride on weekends and holidays. A half-hour ride at the ranch costs NT$400 (US$12), which is possible because Houli Ranch is supported by the government and does not focus on turning a profit. Chen Zhen-ping, vice president of Houli Ranch, says that with this relatively cheaper price, many visitors just stop for a ride after bicycling on the Hou Fong Bike Path, a popular scenic biking trail near the ranch.

Henry Chiang, the owner of Beach Country, has won many medals in international and local equestrian competitions. (Courtesy of Beach Country)

For All Ages

Lee stresses that horsemanship is a sport for all ages, since riders use only the reins and the position of their body, legs and feet to control their horses. The evidence shows that many riders can compete for decades. “Athletes in many other sports confront the problems associated with aging, whereas equestrians can enjoy the sport for life. The oldest rider to participate in the Olympics so far competed at the age of 67,” Lee points out.

Every year, the CTEA allocates competitions to interested equestrian clubs, which provide arenas and host events. In turn, the clubs gain exposure and attract more members through the competitions, Lee says. Houli Ranch, however, is an exception, as the ranch only hosts the Chung-Cheng Horsemanship Championship in March or April each year, even though it held many equestrian events when the military operated the facility. One reason for the decline is that outside groups wishing to hold competitions at the ranch, which is now operated by the Taichung County Government, must surmount many administrative hurdles when applying to use the facility, and therefore competition organizers prefer hosting events at privately owned riding clubs, Houli’s Chen Zhen-ping explains.

Chen adds, however, that the ranch could do more on the competition front. “It’s wasteful for such a high-standard venue with two arenas—for show jumping and dressage—to host only one competition yearly,” he says. When the Taichung city and county governments are integrated into a special municipality next year, Chen says he hopes the administrative process for utilizing the venue for competitions will become easier.

On the international front, Taiwan has seen mixed results. A team of Taiwanese riders won the bronze medal at the 14th Asian Show Jumping Championship in Tokyo in March this year, and Taiwan’s Chen Shiao-man was the silver medalist at the 2006 Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar, observes Cary Yen, a long-time riding advocate who has run an instructional website on horsemanship since 2000.

Nevertheless, Yen points out that among Asian countries, both Japan and Korea won slots to participate in equestrian competitions at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, while Taiwan’s athletes failed to qualify. Beach Country’s Chiang also notes that the mainland Chinese government has given a high level of financial support to its equestrian competitors and therefore the sport has developed widely there in recent years.

The CTEA receives just NT$2.5 million (US$75,760) from the ROC government each year, most of which goes to cover airline tickets and accommodation for top riders. Training expenses are another matter, however, a situation that Chiang, as an accomplished equestrian and owner of Beach Country, is all too familiar with. “It’s tough to become an experienced rider in Taiwan, because most of the athletes face the financial burden of training and taking care of horses with a relatively low level of government support,” he says.

Cary Yen says a lack of corporate sponsorship hurts local riders, observing that South Korean teams have improved greatly in recent years under the sponsorship for national athletes by Seoul-based Samsung Electronics. The company has sponsored international and local equestrian competitions for many years, backing events such as the Samsung Super League, one of the most prestigious Grand Prix Show Jumping series in the world, from 2003 to 2008. “If we had the support of such an enterprise, our competitors would be able to concentrate on improving their technique without so many financial worries,” Yen says.

Henry Lee agrees, but believes there is still work to do. “We should demand our regional events reach an international level, because improving the level of competition would draw more local enterprises and spectators,” he says. However, Lee cautions that enterprises typically only invest in providing sponsorships for athletes in sports with many participants. One way around the problem would be to turn the sport’s exclusive image to its advantage. Thus, the perception that riding is an upper-class sport could help attract sponsorship from manufacturers of high-end products such as Rolex, he says.

Meanwhile, with or without the sponsorship of such big brand names, enthusiasts such as Henry Chiang and Cary Yen will continue to pursue the sport. Being a horse lover may be a bit more expensive and difficult in Taiwan than in other places, but for those who have experienced it, the unique bond between riders and animals is too strong to ignore.

Lami-cell’s product line includes saddles, pads and girths. [Courtesy of Eastwest International (Taiwan) Enterprises]

From East to West

When Olympic dressage gold medalist Anky van Grunsven took her place on the podium at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the moment was also a cause for pride in Taiwan, as the Dutch rider won the individual dressage events using equipment produced by local manufacturer Eastwest International (Taiwan) Enterprises. During the 1970s, Taiwan’s industries tended to focus on original equipment manufacturing (OEM), and this was the case for Eastwest, which was founded in 1974. Initially based in Changhua County, central Taiwan, the company first manufactured belt buckles made of stainless steel and iron for the apparel market. Since the techniques and materials for making belt buckles are similar to those used for making equestrian products, the company decided to expand into that market, says Alex Tsou, general manager of Eastwest wholesaling and warehousing subsidiary R&G Equipment. Today, Eastwest manufactures an array of riding goods including horse blankets, riding helmets, leather and synthetic saddles, saddle pads, bridles and reins.

Around 1995, most of Eastwest’s upstream suppliers moved their factories to mainland China, and Eastwest followed by founding its first factory in the mainland, in Xiamen province, that same year. After the move, the corporation decided to shift all aspects of its operations in-house, from manufacturing basic component parts to running its own distribution network. Business flourished and the company established Partrade Trading Corp. as a subsidiary handling wholesaling in the United States in 1995. In 1997, Eastwest opened another mainland factory, this time in Shanghai. Eastwest bought Belgium-based R&G in 1998 to increase its presence in Europe. Today, Eastwest is headquartered in Taichung City, central Taiwan, runs factories in mainland China, Vietnam and Thailand, and sells products around the world.

In 1998, Eastwest departed from the OEM model and began selling equestrian products in Europe under its own brand, Lami-cell. However, the entrance of Lami-cell in the market did not always sit well with Eastwest’s OEM customers, who sold Eastwest’s products under their own brands. “This caused some difficulties in our relations with international customers, since they didn’t want their OEM to compete with them,” Tsou recalls. Eastwest eventually resolved this problem by only selling Lami-cell products in areas where dealers do not carry Eastwest goods.

As an enterprise based in Asia, Eastwest also faced many challenges in its quest to acquire the confidence of European clients. “In the beginning, they thought merchandise from Asia would be cheaper or of lower quality than products from other places,” Tsou explains. To convince its European customers and increase its exposure, Eastwest began to sponsor major equestrian events and riders and published advertisements for Lami-cell products in magazines for riders.

Today, sponsored riders and retailers provide valuable feedback on Lami-cell’s products. Shop owners advise Eastwest on what kind of equipment receives the most customer attention. Riders comment on the products and inform the company about their preferences in designs and materials, which ones should be avoided and what adjustments should be made to provide more protection for horses and greater performance in competition. “With this kind of input, our products have been improved,” Tsou says.

Sponsoring well-known riders with Lami-cell’s saddle pads and bridles has also helped business. “The cooperation with these high-visibility riders helps us attract more customers,” Tsou says. Lami-cell has sponsored riders including three-time Olympic gold medalist Anky van Grunsven, a Dutch woman competing in the individual dressage events, as well as Belgian rider Jos Lansink, the show jumping gold medal winner at the FEI World Equestrian Games in 2006.

Eastwest has now become one of the largest equestrian product suppliers in the world with production of nearly 1 million bits and 300,000 horse blankets each year, according to Tsou, who attributes the company’s edge in the market to R&G, which is still based in Belgium, and to Partrade in the United States.

The Belgian subsidiary in particular gives the company a large amount of flexibility in its distribution channels. For large bulk orders, European distributors and retailers are able to purchase products from Eastwest’s factories in Asia at lower prices than for similar products made in Europe. Eastwest’s subsidiaries in Belgium handle smaller orders, a just-in-time distribution system that allows retailers to avoid carrying excess stock but also obtain more products quickly when they run out.

“Taiwan isn’t a big market for equestrian products because it doesn’t have a long tradition of riding horses,” R&G’s Tsou says. “But after years of hard work, our company has still managed to become one of the top equestrian product suppliers in the world.”

Write to Vicky Huang at powery18@mail.gio.gov.tw