We had the good fortune of connecting with Teresa Spencer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Teresa, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
We benefit the equine industry with top quality affordable safety products and information through partnerships and a growing network of interrelated businesses; providing visible, safe, easy to use products to equine communities here in the US and internationally.

Our products are used primarily to notify owners when and if they and their equines are separated. Most often this occurs during wildfire season here in Southern California, hurricane and tornado seasons in other areas of the country, when equines may be removed from private property. The products make it easy to notification owners of where their animals have been taken for safe evacuation.

When I started my business it was originally to help myself and a few friends have comfort in knowing our animals had our telephone number visibly on them much like a dog collar. What started as a “pet project” quickly became an awareness and has become a movement to help remove the stress of separation during emergencies and evacuations. Now our products are being used in a variety of environments, such as camping trips, traveling and transporting horses across the country or to events and breeding farms for identification of mares and foals along with everyday use and wearability.

Today we are a leader of visible equine identification products for owners, equine rescues and animal sanctuaries. We are very proud of the confidence these groups have in our products.

With our growth we have now been able to expand into identification items for other small farm animals and dogs.

What should our readers know about your business?
Our business is focused on Safety products and Identification items for equines of all sizes. We are proud that our products are made by our staff in the USA and we have the ability to customize items as needed or requested.

EquestriSafe prides itself on our customer service response to questions, product concerns and information as well as the quality of the products we provide whether from our own company or those we partner with to bring the best and highest quality items.

Because of our vision to provide highly visible, quality identification products that were new to the equine world, it has been a slow sometimes difficult process to grow. Education is a key to our growth; public speaking at local and national events has been important as well.

Marketing has been the most difficult for us to continue our growth, however word of mouth from our end users is extremely important. In a given year I’d estimate that about 75% of our annual sales are from new customers because of our product quality and length of use. We are very proud of this and what this is what we hear from returning customers.

We would like people to know that as equine owners ourselves all items that EquestriSafe produces under our name are quality tested and approved by our own horses before we put anything out to the full market. We also speak directly with customers as to their needs and take into consideration adjustments that may be needed to improve our items.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my friends were to come to LA, I would take them to the Burbank Equestrian Center and Griffith Park to ride and explore the area. I would also take them to other riding area that I enjoy such as Vasquez Rocks Natural area County Park and Placerita Canyon Nature Center for outdoor activities. I would take them to My Bakery in Sylmar for the best back goods around and Lady Di’s bakery in Santa Clarita. Other hangouts we enjoy are the Ventura beaches and coastline through Malibu. We enjoy Gladstones Restaurant in Pacific Palisades for seafood.
We would also visit several tack stores around the LA area and the Hansen Dam Equestrian center as well. If there is racing during their visit, we would probably take the tour of the Santa Anita Race track.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am serial entrepreneur, since a young age I always have worked at “other things” such as making Christmas Ornaments to sell at boutiques. My mother was instrumental in showing me how to “craft” items that others would like to purchase. She was also instrumental with an arts and craft business that my husband and I had in the 90’s.
I worked a career for over 25 years in an office, however when I was laid off, I began again searching for an opportunity to be an entrepreneur. I tried a few things which just did not excite me. I also did not have any business knowledge or training. That’s when a friend told me about a group in Santa Clarita called “Women Entrepreneurs of Santa Clarita” or “WE of SCV”, it was a group of like minded woman w that grew from only a few to over 125 members attending monthly meetings with incredible speaking who brought forth their business knowledge on systems, branding, marketing and other resources. From there I learned about a group in Lake Tahoe which was a year long mentorship program. These two groups were a turning point for me in all areas of business.
Without these groups I do not believe I’d have an international business that continues to grow and expand, servicing other areas, groups and organizations within the equine community.

Website: http://www.EquestriSafe.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/equestrisafe_

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/EquestriSafe

Youtube: Safeldy

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.