United States Eventing Association

Phoenix, Arizona -- The extreme emphasis on safety in eventing over the past few years has been a source of business and innovation for Plastic Source, LLC, suppliers of cross-country flags and signs, among other products. Plastic Source is a top manufacturer of extruded and injection molded plastic products and specializes in small to large volume extrusion of flexible and rigid plastic tubing and profiles. Their plastic tubing, profiles and designs are used in a wide range of industries including their own products.

Company owner and founder Barry Weatherbee, Jr. and his wife Mari-Pat Weber now provide signs, flags and brackets to events including the Rolex Kentucky three-day event, Fair Hill, Three-Day Ranch, Galway Downs, Rebecca Farms, Chattahoochee and others.

Plastic Source LLC is also sponsoring California event rider Tamra Smith, who will be competing at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** with her horse Chaos Theory. Smith was long-listed for the 2008 Olympic Games and is a promising candidate for the 2010 World Equestrian Games. Weber said that she is excited to attend Rolex as a sponsor and looking forward to seeing Smith take on one of the most challenging competitions in the world with the support of Plastic Source LLC.

“I met Barry and Mari-Pat a few years ago,” says Smith. They are very particular about how things are done, and they stayed down here while I sold a horse of theirs and liked how I did things. This year they called up and said they’d like to sponsor me and help me get to Rolex. Being part of the sport, I think it’s pretty cool when you jump a corner and catch the flag with your foot and it just pops off! Who’d have thought I’d get to know them. Mari-Pat has helped me try to develop other sponsors too. They are really enthusiastic about me and my success, and it’s really cool having them be part of the team.”

The company began with production of evaporative cooler products and plastic pipe for various industries, tractor parts and more. Barry designs and manufactures all the plastic parts and products at their 10,000 square foot factory in Phoenix, Arizona, where they also employ two engineers, five full-time employees and five part-time employees. Mari-Pat, who sold oncology drugs for 16 years, handles sales for the company.

Until recently Mari-Pat competed up to preliminary level, but currently the business keeps her so busy that she does not have time for riding. It was through Mari-Pat’s instructor, upper-level eventer Amy Barrington and her husband Greg Schlappi, a cross-country course builder, that Mari-Pat and Barry began developing equestrian-related products in 2005. They started with stakes and brackets and then came out with crowd control products and artificial brush for cross-country and steeplechase jumps.

“The impetus was safety, that you hit the stake and it bends and falls out of the bracket, because it’s so awful to see horses and riders get injured,” says Mari-Pat. When a French horse was impaled on a broken stake and had to be euthanized at the Badminton CCI**** in 2007 even more attention became focused on safer products. Mari-Pat says, “We wanted to come out with equestrian products because we’d been to events where horses hit the stakes; after the accident in 2007 it became paramount.”

The brackets are an innovative design, square with rounded edges so the stakes stay in place even in windy weather. If a stake is put under force it pops out of the bracket, preventing injury.

Convenience is an appealing factor: the plastic is UV resistant, so brackets can be left on the jumps between events. “While it used to take days to flag for an event, it can now be done in five to six hours,” points out Mari-Pat. Stakes are available in red, white and brown and the red and white stakes can be used with or without flags. All white stakes with red and white flags creates a more traditional look.

Canadian course builder and Plastic Source Distributor for Canada Mo von Roeder makes several points in favor of the products. “I have found that the pop out brackets are not only designed for safety but for speed; once they are installed it is a matter of hours to flag rather than days. I have also noticed that the square stakes can take a beating and still look great, and will not fly round when hit by a horse. The numbers and signs are big bright and hold up for years and years.”

Von Roeder adds, “Here in Canada the sales are just getting started. Most shows are looking at the pop-out brackets and the square stakes. I have the feeling many more shows will start looking at the products once they see how well the pop out brackets and square stakes work and last."

The only other company in the world producing safety products for these purposes is located in England, so for American companies it is far more cost-effective to buy in the United States. Course builders are learning that even though the initial output is higher for plastic stakes, which run $4.50/stake, they last at least ten years without maintenance, never requiring painting, so they are more economical in the long-run.

There are many reasons to consider making the switch to plastic cross-country marking and flagging products. For more information contact Mari-Pat Weber at the Plastic Source LLC Corporate Office, 3219 E Camelback Rd., Bld 481, Phoenix, Arizona 85018

Phone: 602-277-9380
Fax: 602-233-9725
Email: [email protected]
Internet: www.plasticsourcellc.com