DEER PARKThis story is supposed to be about magazine peopleliterary types who create glossy publications with clever headlines and eye-catching illustrations.


On a recent afternoon at Dara Park Peruvian Ranch, however, Alyson Stockham and Rhonda Hart Poe, co-publishers of The Gaited Horse magazine, werent perusing cover art or poring over free-lance pieces. They were in a pasture behind a barn at the Deer Park spread, trying to calm a horse that had been castrated earlier and wasnt happy about his new status as a gelding.


These arent magazine people who just happen to own horses. Theyre horse people who just happen to put out a magazine.


Were a couple of horse-crazy girls who never grew up, Poe says.


While Poe and Stockham havent outgrown their childhood infatuations with horses, the magazine about their first love is maturing. The Gaited Horse is into its fifth year of publication, and its circulation is growing.


The quarterly magazine currently has about 4,500 paid subscribers nationwide, up from about 3,100 a year ago, Stockham says. A one-year subscription costs $19.95. Another 5,000-some copies sell off of magazine racks at ranch-supply stores and other specialty outlets around the country. In all, the company currently sells about 10,000 copies of each issue, and it nets an average of about 100 new subscribers each month.


Stockham says the magazine, which it operates through 4 Cadence LLC, recently inked an agreement with a second distributor and expects its off-the-shelf sales possibly to double in the coming months.


The glossy publication gets most of its revenue from advertising, which markets everything from horse art to the horses themselves.


The magazine isnt self-supporting yet. A Seattle-area investor has backed the publication thus far, but Stockham says, If the growth curve continues, well break even soon, and well be profitable in 14 to 16 months.


Stockham, whose family operates the Dara Park ranchwhich is home to 20 gaited horses25 miles north of Spokane, is the magazines business manager. Poe, who lives in nearby Chatteroy and owns eight horses, is the magazines editor. They work from their respective homes and are the magazines only paid employees. The magazine contracts out its photography, advertising sales, graphic design, printing, and distribution needs. It also relies on free-lance and contributed articles for some of its content.


Always 64 pages thick, The Gaited Horses slogan is that its The one magazine for all gaited horses.


As the name suggests, a gaited horse is characterized by its gait during a variety of movements, whether its in a walk, trot, canter, or pace.


A gaited horse typically has two or three hoofs on the ground at all times while moving. By contrast, other horses are airborne for brief moments during a trot or gallop and land in a manner that can be jarring for the rider.


Gaited horses provide a much smoother ride than other horses, Poe says, adding that riding a gaited horse feels like sitting on a horse thats on roller skates.


Anybody who doesnt want their fanny beaten to a pulp would like a gaited horse, she says.


About 50 breeds of gaited horses are raised worldwide. Of those breeds, about a dozen are common in the U.S. Popular breeds include Tennessee walking horses, Missouri fox trotters, and Peruvian Paso horses.


The Gaited Horse magazine focuses on common U.S. breeds. Its articles include news about horses, horse owners, and horse associations. It also runs how-to pieces for horse owners, personal accounts from horse owners, and horse-related history.


For example, the summer 2002 edition includes a story about the use of Missouri fox trotters by the U.S. Forest Service, a tribute to a prolific stallion in Kentucky that has passed away, and a report on how to brand a horse and reclaim it if its stolen. Regular features include a column called Salute to Sires, lists of horse associations, a calendar of events, and equine book and video reviews.


Poe writes a third to a half of all of the magazines editorial content. The rest comes from stories solicited for or submitted by readers and free-lancers.


In the spring 2001 edition, the magazine ran a story titled Lucky written by a horse lover in Florida named Babette Williams. Williams first-person account was about her purchase of an old nag that was on the verge of death, how she nursed him back to health, then rode him and was startled to see that he knew commands only a trained show horse would know. She had rehabilitated a trophy horse that otherwise would have been on his way to the glue factory.


The inspirational story touched Poe, Stockham, and others. The American Horse Publications Association awarded the national Merial Human Animal Bond Award, one of its most prestigious annual awards, to The Gaited Horse for the Lucky story. The award came as a surprise to Poe and Stockham, since they were up against much larger periodicals.


Poe says the magazine pays paltry sums for free-lance pieces. In many cases, readers submit articles for free, which at first surprised Poe, who has written a number of gardening books and has free-lanced for many years. Over time, however, she learned that horse lovers simply are motivated to share their knowledge.


The submitted writing isnt always as polished as what yousee in other magazines, but Poe says, Our readership isnt interested in writing ability. Theyre interested in information they arent able to get otherwise.


Both Poe and Stockham say the magazine is geared toward the average horse enthusiast, rather than the show-horse industry. It covers show-horse activities somewhat, but it doesnt focus on it like many other publications do, they say.


The business partners both are married, have children, and are in their 40s.


Stockham says about 80 percent of the magazines subscribers are female, and the bulk of them are in the same demographic group as Poe and herself.


The magazine has subscribers in nearly every state, with the largest concentrations in California and Texas, Stockham says. Many readers hail from the southeastern U.S. as well, she says.


Poe and Stockham started the magazine in 1997 with a third partner named Becky Turner. Poe and Turner, a graphic designer, had worked together in the past and were acquainted with Stockham.


Stockham contacted old friend Jim Clapp, of Seattle, for startup capital, and he agreed to invest in the company. Clapp isnt involved in the magazines operations, but has provided a substantial amount of investment capital.


In the early days, Poe says Turner was the driving force for the magazine and made it much of what it is today. She says Turner became ill, however, and moved to Arizona about 1 1/2 years ago, selling her interest in the magazine to Poe and Stockham.


While Poe and Stockham both are into horses, they first became acquainted with the animals differently.


Poe grew up around horses and she cant remember a time when she didnt have a horse of her own.


Stockham says she first fell in love with horses when her grandmother took her on a pony ride at a county fair. From then on, she begged her parents for a pony. They wouldnt buy her one, but said that if she saved up her own money, she could buy one herself. She squirreled away birthday-gift and Christmas-gift cash until she had $50 and spent it on a pony. She was 7 years old.


I think horse people are just born with it, Stockham says of the love of the creatures. Its a genetic defect.