Finding a tiny niche, taking a big risk

By Mike Trask

Friday, Dec. 12, 2008 | 2 a.m.

In June, with the recession gaining momentum, Lance and Monica Hibbert did something counterintuitive. They started a small business.

They tucked it into a commercial mall on Valley View Boulevard, sandwiched between the place selling custom car rims and a paint shop, with a dimly lit parking lot. Theirs was a small storefront with an industrial-strength washing machine in the back room.

Welcome to Desert Equestrian, the only place in Southern Nevada catering exclusively to the needs of English horseback riders.

This means no cowboy boots, jeans, big brass belt buckles or 10-gallon hats. Instead it’s tall riding boots, fitted jackets, breeches and black helmets.

And so, about that recession. How is business?

Well, says Lance Hibbert, it’s OK because there’s little competition, which was part of the strategy.

The Hibberts, a Henderson couple with three grown daughters, invested about $100,000 in the business after six months of research — where to locate, what to sell, how to market — with help from the Nevada Small Business Development Center.

They’re still working their primary jobs: Lance is a supervisor at a mail order pharmacy and Monica is a nurse. The business was Monica’s idea. She rode horses as a child.

Now they have finished raising their own children and have free time. They have no visions of grandeur. All the profits have been pumped into inventory.

But, they figure they can eventually make money while having fun. The small-business center agreed, helping them set up a business plan.

“You can’t compete against Wal-Mart,” said Michael Bindrup, a business development director. “But you can compete against Wal-Mart in a niche market. Everybody has a little niche they can fill. If you can find it, it doesn’t matter what’s happening with the economy.”

A niche like a laundry for horses, where the Hibberts wash horse blankets for $25.

The store also offers a wide range of products for people “struggling with the backyard horse to people who buy things without even looking at a price tag,” said Monica Hibbert, still dressed in her scrubs when she closed the store one afternoon last week.

So in the boutique, which used to be a carpet showroom, the couple offer products across the price spectrum: Helmets run from $49 to $306, riding boots from $50 to $239.

The equestrian industry is growing in Las Vegas, according to Angel Pitton, a member of the Southern Nevada Hunter Jumper Association board of directors. The group’s annual end-of-year show drew 130 riders this year, more than double the number it drew in 2001.

She credits American success at the Olympics and the creation of college teams for a renewed interest in the sport. (Her daughter, Amanda Pitton, will be riding for Texas A&M next year.)

She said that even though she sells English supplies at horse shows, the new shop is a welcome addition — especially because 1,200-pound horses still get their blankets dirty, recession or not.

Monica Hibbert, meanwhile, is thinking about buying a horse for herself.