Note to Editors: This column is adapted from the Kansas Profile radio series. Every Wednesday, a different Kansan, Kansas community or Kansas-based company is profiled as a regular feature of the K-State Research and Extension News lineup. A photo of Ron Wilson is available at http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/RonWilson.htm.

By Ron Wilson, director, Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Let’s go to Ocala, Florida and turn on the radio. As we tune in to stations across the radio dial, we come across a program where someone is talking about training, feeding, riding, and caring for horses. It’s the Better Horses Radio program. The host is a man from halfway across the continent in rural Kansas. Thanks to K-State Research and Extension - Franklin County for this story idea.

Ernie Rodina is the district sales manager for Purina Feeds and host of the Better Horses Radio program.

This all started when Ernie was growing up in the Kansas City suburbs, when he joined 4-H and found that he enjoyed horses. He got a pony named Red which he rode all the time. As he grew, he continued to ride that pony. He remembers saying to his sister, “Do I look too big on this pony?”

While he may have outgrown the pony, he never outgrew his love for the equine industry.  He enjoyed horses and the western and rural lifestyle. He knew he wanted to work with farmers, ranchers, and horsemen.

After graduating from Ottawa University, he worked for Farmland Industries and then had the opportunity to join a management trainee program for Purina Mills. He trained in the rural community of Humboldt, Kansas, population 1,964 people. Now, that’s rural.

Ernie moved on up into a management position with Purina where he has been ever since.  He serves a territory with more than 30 feed dealers in Kansas and Missouri, including greater Kansas City. His territory goes roughly from St. Joe to Marshall, Missouri; over to Emporia and up to Wamego, Kansas. Ernie and his family live near Ottawa.

Ernie says with a smile that his responsibility with the company is to focus on animals with names. In other words, his emphasis is on horses and pets, not the mass numbers of livestock in a feedlot. The key driving element of the business is equine.

Ernie says, “When I got started, my goal was that when people heard the word “horse” they thought of Purina Mills and Ernie Rodina.” He says, “My job is to sell feed, but if we can help people raise their equine experience to a new level, we win.”

So Ernie set out to help horse owners. He started saving people’s names from customer meetings so he could send them helpful equine information. Nine years ago, he started sending that information in a tri-fold brochure. Now that has evolved into a 50-page newspaper which goes to 25,000 people.

Ernie began calling this the Better Horses Network. Meanwhile, Purina was sponsoring a weekly radio program called the Horseman’s Radio Weekly. When the host of that program retired, Ernie decided he would try producing his own radio show.

Ernie says, “It only took me doing it one time to realize, I needed a partner.” So Ernie brought in Dawn Dawson, an accomplished rider from Alma to join him on the show. Ernie says, “I brought her on as a guest and never let her go.”

Each week Ernie and Dawn interview various guests and tell about current events and tips for improving the horse owners’ equine experience. The program, called Better Horses Radio, has expanded to be carried on stations in Kansas and Missouri, plus as far away as Lexington, Kentucky and Ocala, Florida.

Meanwhile, Ernie is involved in special events and horse organizations across the Midwest. His goal has been realized. In 2006, the Kansas Horse Council named Ernie its Equine Ambassador of the Year.

But some things don’t change. While out riding recently, he went by his sister and said with a smile, “Do I look too big on this horse?” That’s the type of humor which has made him a successful businessman and fun radio personality.

It’s time to leave Ocala, Florida, where we found the Better Horses Radio program coming all the way from Kansas. We commend Ernie Rodina, Dawn Dawson, and all those involved with the Better Horses Network for making a difference by helping horse owners raise their equine experience. Together, they create strong forces for better horses.

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The mission of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development is to enhance rural development by helping rural people help themselves. The Kansas Profile radio series and columns are produced with assistance from the K-State Research and Extension Department of Communications News Unit. Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at http://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/huckboyd/.

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by: Ron Wilson
rwilson@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research & Extension News

The Huck Boyd Institute is at 785-532-7690 or rwilson@ksu.edu.