Magnolia Ranch and Gypsy MVP
If you pick up your phone and call a concierge, you are usually trying
to find out how to get tickets to the best show in town or advice
on where to dine. When you call the concierge at Magnolia Ranch,
you will get information and advice, alright, but not about tickets
or food. This concierge focuses on the care and feeding of Gypsy
Vanner horses. “We are there all the time for support – answering
the phone seven days a week to help our customers,” says Doug
Kneis, co-owner of Magnolia
Ranch and Gypsy MVP, which offer Gypsy
VIP Concierge Service to customers who buy their Gypsy Vanners. “We
have always been a turnkey service and I say service because that
is number one.”
A lot of Kneis’ buyers are first time horse owners, so he takes service well beyond answering the phone. “My barn manager flies all around the United States, goes to our customers’ homes to teach them things about the breed, how to care for the horse, how to feed it. We help them pick out tack, set up their barns, even teach people how to ride.”
Buy a Gypsy Vanner from Kneis and, as part of his Gypsy VIP Concierge Service, he will also help you start your own breeding business, if that’s what you want. “We will sell them mares in foal. And we will give them free breeding for 18 months to help them get something started,” explains Kneis. “We also help them sell their horses if they have offspring and they have done business with us. This is part of the concierge service. I don’t know anyone else out there who does that.”
Kneis is totally committed to his customers, whether they buy or breed.
His commitment seems like a tall order until you understand where it comes
from. “The breed was very young when I bought my first Gypsy
Vanner.
There were people selling this breed, and others similar, on the Internet
but they were lumping all the horses together – good ones with really
awful ones – coarse heads, bad necks, poor conformation, no feather,” says
Kneis. Then he pauses. “They were calling them Gypsy Vanners. Here
was a brand new breed of horse already devaluing. I didn’t like that.”
Kneis decided to fix it. Magnolia Ranch and Gypsy MVP were the result. Starting these enterprises was a big gamble; Kneis understood the ups and downs of the horse business. He always had horses but never this many and never just one breed. His love affair with Gypsy Vanners all began with a close encounter with a box of horse treats. “I had an Arab horse here at the ranch and a couple of Friesians and an Andalusian horse and I was at the feed store looking for horse treats and found this box on one of the counters. It had a caricature of a black and white horse on it with a long thick mane down to its shoulders and tons of feathers – prettiest horse I had ever seen in my life.”
The horse on the box was so stunning that Kneis asked the feed store owner
if it was real but the man said he didn’t know. “So I looked
on the box, got on the phone in the parking lot of the store and called
the Brown Company and asked them if it was a real horse. They said there
was a guy in Florida that had a few of these horses. I contacted him and
that started the whole adventure. I got my first one and I was hooked...
that was it.
That was 2001. Like most horse lovers, Kneis’ operation started with a dream and just a few horses. Today, he owns 80 acres and 50 horses and two operations in the United States, Magnolia Ranch in Katy, Texas and Gypsy MVP in Belleville, Texas where he breeds and sells Gypsy Vanners. Kneis also imports Gypsy Vanners from Europe and the United Kingdom. Breeding, selling and importing these horses do not make his operation unique. There are other people importing Gypsy Vanners into the United States and breeding them. But Kneis has a unique way to ensure that the horses he brings into this country are among the best in the world.
He has two barns overseas, one in England
and one in Germany, and two
women who help him find and import only the finest Gypsy Vanners. Sabine
Lappe-Theis buys from top breeders in Europe. Anne Bevan provides the same
service in England. Bevan grew up with the Gypsies. There are no cultural
barriers, which means she gets an opportunity to buy only the best horses
the Gypsies have. “I have the best job in the world but the hardest.
Thousands are bred but only a few will be accepted,” Bevan has been
working with Gypsy Vanners for 40 years. “Out of fields full of dear
souls, I hand pick only a very few to come to me.” Bevan never ships
horses directly to Kneis. “These horses will stay with our family
for months until we know them fully. This is important to place the right
horse in the right home.” Bevan finds the best Gypsy Vanners; Kneis
finds the best vendors who help ship his horses to the United States without
a hitch. “We trust the people who help us transport the horses and
our vets in Europe. If they tell us something we can believe it,” Kneis
adds that his vendors provide the same level of service he does. “We
know that we can call all along the way.” Even in quarantine, Kneis
and his network of vendors are focused on the horse. “When the horses
arrive stateside, we call on the phone and ask how they are doing. Our
customers call and talk to the people about their horse when it is in quarantine.
We even get pictures of the horses.”
For Kneis, this is all part of his commitment to the breed and his concierge
service. “That is the kind of service we give people. You won’t
find anybody else out there, selling these horses that cares that much
about the horse,” he says. Stateside, Kneis has a full-time staff
of seven to help him with the day-to-day business of running his ranches.
Key to his success is Erica Barton, president, ranch manager, trainer and
concierge. “I work with the horses daily, spend a lot of one on one
time with them,” she says. “I spend a lot of time with each
horse, make sure they are handled every day, and get to know their personalities,
likes, dislikes.” Barton is passionate about the horses she manages
and about the breed. So is her boss. “We’re not in this for
the sale. We are in it for the horse. We are trying to find the best possible
match for a horse and the best home,” he states. For these top-of-the-line
Gypsy Vanners, you would expect nothing less. To get more information and
to see just a few of the fabulous Gypsy Vanners Kneis owns, visit his website,
http://www.gypsymvp.com, or contact Erica Barton at ericadbarton@yahoo.com.