The Princess's Carriage: 2014

Monday, October 13, 2014

FYI- The real cost of doing business the right way. What customers need to know.

This post is one of a series we will be doing titled FYI. (for your information)

What I have found in most cases between those that do it right and those that don't is that all too often the cost of your service will be the same. However... what your getting for that price rarely is. While they say that imitation is the purest form of flattery, for those of us that incur the cost to play by the rules it is at least disheartening to find yourself competing with some neighbor down your road who's winging it. For you the customer the potential for problems with that can be much more than just disheartening. So with that said I am going to give you some things to consider.

What you need to know.

1) Do they have liability insurance is probably the number one thing you need to be concerned about should you find yourself considering hiring anyone for horse drawn carriage service. The equine liability laws in no way protect you, your event, or your venue in the event of an accident. Posting it does not protect the uninsured provider from lawsuit either. What posting that sign usually means is that the carriage service does not carry liability insurance and thinks that by posting that sign they are exempt from lawsuit. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Equine liability laws only protect a horse owner if a horse causes harm to someone in the act of being a horse. i.e. kicking, biting, pawing, bucking, etc, and that is only in cases where there was no known prior history of misbehavior. The law presumes that if you get near a horse you should understand that these things could possibly happen and that there is a level of inherent risk from being near, or getting on the animal. The sign is to make sure you understand that.

However...lots of things can happen that could cause loss, damage, or injury and do not in any way absolve the carriage service of being responsible for it. In fact a great many things that have contributed to accidents are not even remotely related to what is covered by state equine liability laws. Some examples would be, broken tack resulting in an accident, a horse or its carriage causing damage to someones property, a person getting hurt by a carriage wheel, a motorist hitting the carriage, etc. The list of things that state equine liability laws do not cover is truly endless. Put it this way, there is lot more they don't address than what they do.

So what does all this mean to you the customer? What it means is that if you hire an outfit that does not carry the proper liability insurance, and heaven forbid something were to happen, you are left high and dry without much recourse for losses, damages, doctor, or hospital bills. Without liability insurance your only hope lies with the civil court which is a long drawn out procedure where very often the injured party never recovers a dime. What it means for the people who are operating a business without insurance is that they literally risk losing everything they own.

Now before I scare you half to death here the solution is really simple. ASK! and then ask for a copy of the liability policy! We have stacks of proof of insurance available for anyone who asks and we are delighted to provide you with a copy. While we have operated for over 30 years in horse and carriage without a single incident, that really is not the point. Accidents can happen to anyone and to do any business the right way the outfit you hire should be properly insured. So check, if they refuse, or it offends them? your shopping in the wrong place.

2) Are they even a legal business? You may or may not think you should care about this, but ask yourself this, If they skip over the legal requirements to be in business what other important things do they willfully overlook? Liability insurance maybe? Safe equipment? Safe proven horses? and that list too goes on. It is after all law that they file with the Sec of State as a legal business, You can check that status here : http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/corps/search_all.php , just type in the name of the company and if they are legit their name will show up. If you search "The Princess's Carriage" you will see we are listed and properly filed with the SOS as a legal business in good standing.

Besides the yearly fees to maintain the legal right to do business in the state with the proper authorities there are also the fees of a yearly business license that also has to be paid for. There are even costs for special permits for us to operate in certain towns legally. It quite literally costs thousands of dollars to do this business professionally, properly insured, and legally.

So please understand the cost to us of being in full compliance is no joking matter. So dear customer do know that it is in your best interest to know who your hiring. Ask for proof of insurance, and at least check to see if they are operating their business legally. Find out if they have the permits they need. It's quite literally the difference between hiring a legitimate business, or a monkey business.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

We just never get tired of...

While the lions share of our business is weddings we also do children's parties and events. One cant help but to get a kick out of their faces and reactions when they first catch sight of Cinderella's carriage showing up just for them and their friends. From babies to teens kids just have the greatest time and are so much fun! Imagine the smile on my face when I snapped the shot of this precious little ladies reaction as our horse and carriage came into view.

Or this group of girls. Dad had them hiding behind the garage door with their eyes closed and raised it for a fantastic surprise they never in a million years expected! Cinderellas carriage and a gorgeous white horse waiting to take them on a fun filled ride around their neighborhood.

Or this little angel that insisted on thanking our horse Duke for coming to her party and giving her and her friends rides. A heartfelt thank you that of course had to include a quick kiss planted on his soft muzzle.

How about the smile on this little guys face? He was ear to ear grins as long as dad would let him touch Duke but dare dad take a step away the frowns and tears would fly. Soon as dad would step back the smile returned and the tears dried up. He wasn't talking much yet, but communicating quite effectively regardless.

Or these inner city kids who got their first up close and personal experience with a horse. As you can see by their smiles that they were truly delighted. I'm not going to deny that Duke really enjoys the attention as well. In closing dear reader these are just a few of the many pictures I have been able to snap when I have had the chance. I hope they give you an idea of the joy we bring to the faces of the children we get to meet. Its something we just never get tired of.

Friday, April 18, 2014

The finer points of being the finest.

The Princess's Carriage..."Arkansas Finest Horse Drawn Carriage Service"

If you were to ask our customers why that is so they would tell you, 1)We deliver professional, reliable, on time every time service, 2) that we have the very best top of the line American made custom carriages coupled with competitive prices 3) that our advertizing is always honest with a what you see is what you can really get promise 4) we are easy to work with, and have more than fair policies, 5) we always have friendly, and helpful customer service. However, if you ask me I will have a different answer because I think the above qualities should be a given for anyone in business.

What I think think makes the big difference is in the going of that extra mile. One example is offering and using white horses for white wedding carriages. It just looks "right" and honestly I cant imagine anyone not offering it, and a quick internet search will show in in short order that many of us do. Its what the customer wants and so it is what we have. This business isnt about what makes life easy on us, its about pleasing you on your most special day. Or at least that is the way some of us look at it.

So why doesn't every carriage service? Well the picture above shows exactly why. That is one of our white horses. Or maybe I should say "was" one of our white horses! They enjoy being turned out in their pastures to eat, relax, play, and... roll, and while all horses love doing it white ones end up looking like that ^^^. .

Do I even need to say that your not going to take a brush and just knock that off and make him look good, or get away with only having to wash him from the legs down like the horse behind him? Nope, no how, no way. White horses ( which actually start out grey and lighten to white over time) have to have an all over shampoo and scrubbing from nose to tail with special horse shampoos so as to not dry out their skin. This takes about two hours to do right and have looking like the photo below. The below picture is actually of the same horse ( believe it or not) after just such a bath. Besides the intense cleaning of the horse, our horses also get a shave and a haircut to look their best.

We also detail our carriages before every single job. They stay garaged between special events, and we work hard to keep them looking like they just rolled off the showroom floor. Which means for example in the case of our Cinderella, cleaning every single curling heart on it! That in itself is a couple of hours worth of effort, at times laying on the ground to get to the down low areas and playing what seems to be a real life game of twister.

Then there are custom florals to match your events colors or theme, harness that must be cleaned after each use, our outfits washed, starched, and pressed. Then we have to load everything. Carriage, clothes, harness, a million related items, my camera, the help, and never to forget the horse! lol. In short, its a huge undertaking and when its all over and the pony is put to bed, we are tired to say the least. Even so, its all worth it to us dear customer, because you deserve the finest, and we promise to bring you exactly that.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

All the work...

We got to talking to a friend of ours who is using us for her daughters wedding on their farm. Rita has owned a number of her own businesses and was telling us how she was tired of all the work involved and was going to retire. That got us to talking about what goes into what we do that the customer never sees.

To bring you our typical two hour carriage service a whole host of things have already happened. A trip to look over where we are doing the job in our car prior to the job is just one of many. Take for instance the three hours (one way) we spent on the road this Thursday to look at a job in Waldron we have coming up. Three there, three back, another hour for dinner on the road, scouting out the route, and stops for gas, etc. Lets put it this way. We left our house at 2pm and rolled back in the drive way ar 11pm. A long day and a lot of driving, not to mention we had spent the entire day before doing the same thing for a couple of other upcoming jobs. Thursday we luckily missed all the severe storms that were scatted around the state.

So now that we have that taken care of we will have horses to wash, and a stall or stalls to keep perfectly clean. Stalls must me mucked constantly after you give the horse a bath or you will end up having to do the bath all over again. The horses bath is an event in itself, with special shampoos and products used to bring you an immaculately clean horse, not to mention the pedicure touch up, and checking them closely all over from head to tail. Our typical draft horse washing uses about $30 worth of products each time, and takes about two hours.

Besides that before each job the harness must be cleaned, and the carriage must be cleaned, detailed, and decorated. The carriage has to be loaded and tied down inside the trailer for safe transport. Let me tell you, there is a fine art to getting that done with literally only inches of space to spare on each side. Our formal wear has to be washed, starched, ironed, and hung up each and every job. All this must be in order before we leave several hours longer than the actual driving time so that we can get to your event an hour early, factor in unexpected delays, and set up for your service.

Once we are finished with your service the already long day is by far not over for us. We have to untack the horse completely, re-load everything, drive home, unload everything, feed the horse and put him to bed, and drag our tired sore bodies to the house. One thing I can say about all the hard work it takes to bring you a Princess Carriage is that once its all over and done we are going to sleep like a rock! Of course until you start the process all over again for the next event in the book. That said, the enjoyment we get out of bringing smiles to faces, seeing new places, and making someone special feel really special makes it truly a labor of love. :)