We were lucky to catch up with Tove And Jennifer Chamness And Noren recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tove and Jennifer, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
One of the co-founders of Ryde Equestrian is a dressage trainer with a special interest in biomechanics of both horses and riders. She knew the important role the feet play when it comes to achieve balance and relaxation, and started experimenting with different ways to add support from stirrups. She tried different brands of stirrups, and used simple tricks where she added bits and pieces to try and achieve a steadier rider foot. She quickly grew frustrated with this process as nothing was quite efficient, or working for every student, and the idea to create a new adjustable stirrup was born.
She floated the idea and immediately we all realized that there was a huge gap in the market here. Looking at other sports such as cycling, skiing, and golf; everything is adjustable to provide each person with the best possible conditions to perform at their best. Why should the equestrian sport be any different?
We decided to get to work. Over 5 years of late nights, countless prototypes, different engineers and ALOT of testing before this final version proved itself to offer all that we were looking for. Features such as the wider, concave footplate offers support and activates muscles the right way, the grip studs and holes in the foot plate creates the perfect anti-slip, and the three way adjustability of the stirrup angles offers the desired support for most riders accounting for their, and their horse’s, individual anatomy. Additionally, we wanted to make sure this would be the safest stirrup on the market, so we worked hard to figure out what that would look like as well.
The challenges we faced ranged from the very material things such as sourcing the right producer, how to get the magnet to work right, and what height the grip studs should be; to the very physical, such as how does the body of a rider actually work, what forces are at play, and how do we make this stirrup work for everyone. Durability and sustainability was a huge concern for us as well. We tested with riders, load bearing-tested with industrial mechanics, and with each prototype we got a little closer to what today has become the final product, the Ryde Adjustable stirrup.
Tove and Jennifer, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
At Ryde Equestrian we are a bunch of Swedish horse-nerds who have been in the equestrian world for a long time in one way or another. We each bring different skills to the table and complement each other beautifully. Ultimately, Ryde Equestrian was founded on friendship, a love for horses, and the notion that there was a huge gap in the equestrian equipment market. As other extreme sports have developed more technical, adjustable, and advanced equipment, this industry was lagging behind. While tradition and a conservative approach is a big part of the equestrian sports, as the art of riding prides itself on the level of communication and “feel” for the horses, we had somehow missed the technological advancements that could actually help us achieve just that.
The developments in the equestrian industry has been modest, and, at Ryde, we realized that when it comes to safety and performance there is still a lot to be done to bring the industry into the future. We decided that we wanted to be in the forefront of this development.
Armed with knowledge about biomechanics and riding, we set out to create an adjustable stirrup that would suit every body. We took inspiration from bmx, skiing, motocross, and golf, while considering the key points when it comes to how balance is created in our bodies, and how each individual’s anatomy plays a part in this creation. Additionally, we invented a new safety feature which truly minimizes the risks of getting stuck in the stirrup during a fall and being dragged behind the horse, eliminating one of the worst accidents we see in equestrian sports today. It was a long and quite exhausting journey at times, but we made it here and Ryde Adjustable is now getting ready to enter the U.S market this fall after making a splash in Sweden, EU and the UK.
The thing that makes us most proud is the response from the riders themselves. We launched in Sweden not even a year ago, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. “How did no one think of this before?”, “WOW!” , and “I can finally ride pain free”, are some of the most common things we hear, and that just warms our hearts. Not only did we create a product that is new, safer, and revolutionary for the sport, but we are actually really helping people!
How’d you meet your business partner?
Three out of the four founders were friends from an island named Gotland, three hours outside of Stockholm, Sweden, and this is where the company was born. As one of the founders, Jennifer, also lives in Florida during the winter time, where Tove lives full time. We were good friends sharing our Swedish roots and our love for horses. Jennifer told Tove about the idea of these new stirrups her and the others were working on, and Tove immediately wanted to get involved in making them become reality. She went in as the first outside investor into the company, helping Ryde with some much needed financing to be able to move forward, and even though not intentional at the time, also became part of the working group in the company and now is the “woman in charge” of taking Ryde Adjustable to the U.S. market.
Mid-November we will soft launch the stirrups to the U.S market, and we are planning to be present in Wellington, FL, during the season, where we will be available for demonstrations and trials in and around South Florida. We could not be more excited about it! Working with close friends can certainly be challenging, but so far so good, haha.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
One of our most important pillars in our company is customer service. We want to hear from our customers! We want to know what works, what can be improved, what they are hoping to see, and of course – if something is not working properly we will always repair or replace it. Product development is not a walk in the park, and there may still be kinks that need to be addressed. As for now, every person a customer will speak to are part of our core group of co-founders and co-owners which has been part of this long journey, and these stirrups are our baby!
Additionally, we have created something entirely new, and are constantly thinking about the future, and the key is to be a company which our customers can trust. Not only when it comes to feedback and responsiveness, but we want them to trust that when we develop something new, it will have been thoughtfully designed every step on the way. It will have been thoroughly tested for durability, and it will serve a purpose to help riders on their individual journey in one way or another.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ryde-equestrian.com
- Instagram: @ryde.equestrian
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ryde-equestrian
- Youtube: @RydeEquestrian
