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The effort you put into choosing the right set of pet stairs doesn’t have to feel like a burden; it could really be seen as an investment of sorts. To continuously reap the health benefits and sheer convenience that dog stairs offer, it’s wise to make sure that your purchase is well thought out and thoroughly researched. Luckily, technology has ensured that we are no longer limited to the wares offered in local retail shops—though that’s not to say that they should be excluded from your consideration altogether. There are pros and cons to both shopping experiences, which we’re going to discuss in this article.

Your Budget

The amount that you have to spend will ultimately determine where you make your dog stair purchase. Unless you have a pet furniture store in your hometown, you might be surprised that any pet stairs you run across in a local shop will probably cost a bit more than you were expecting to spend. This is because traditional retail stores--especially those that aren’t of the “chain” variety--can only afford to keep stock of the things that their local consumers purchase regularly. Unfortunately, pet stairs haven’t become quite that popular yet. Thank goodness for the Internet, which allows businesses to offer a niche product and still make money because their “local customer base” include every continent with Internet access. You can browse online and compare prices of several stores in minutes. Not bad!

Decisions, Decisions…

The beauty of shopping online for your pet stairs is that you have a large selection right at your fingertips. This is especially helpful if you are looking for something out of the ordinary--a particular finish, color, weight capacity, etc. You can use a search query on most sites to instantly weed out the steps that don’t meet your needs. If you’re looking for large dog stairs, your search for such will pull up only the products that match that criteria. You might not be in the market for cherry wood steps with a weight capacity of 300 pounds, but the option is likely out there on the Internet somewhere. The variety offered in your local pet shops is likely to be very limited, unless you’re lucky enough to find a shop that takes custom orders--which is not unheard of.

Assembly?

Assembling something--with or without instructions--is not a very fun process. Unfortunately, both online and traditional stores are more likely to sell their steps in an “assembly required” state. For local shops, it saves on warehouse and sales floor space if they don’t have a massive amount of pre-built steps lying around. For Internet-based businesses, it costs a great deal more in packaging and shipping to send a full-sized pet stair through the mail, so many online retailers also ship their pet steps flat-packed. Don’t feel as though you have to resign to the idea of spending hours on assembly for the sake of your pet. There are still online pet stair websites that ship their items pre-assembled, such as HelpYourPets.com, you just have to look around and even send an enquiry to see if it’s possible to have them built before shipment. One perk of ordering online and having the steps delivered, though is that home delivery means you can bypass having to load and unload the stairs from your car!

Budget, availability, and assembly requirements aren’t the only factors to keep in mind when searching for a pet stair supplier, but it’s definitely a start. Don’t be afraid to browse a bit before making your purchase—and good luck!

Ancestry of the Thoroughbred:
This breed of horse was formerly bred in The United Kingdom due to the English horsemens long for to have a rapid horse. There are three that founded this bloodline which are: Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian, named after their owners, Thomas Darley, Lord Godolphin and Captain Robert Byerley. All of these stallions were brought to England from the Mediterranean Middle East between 1670 and 1710. The conclusion was an animal that could bear weight with consistent pace over extensive distances. Approximately ninety percent of modern thoroughbreds have descended from Eclipse the grandsire of whom was Darley Arabian, who never lost in eighteen races. This prompted a very refined breeding procedure which has continued for all but 250 years, producing the greatest race horses, giving them authorityand brilliance on the race track.

Near the turn of the 1700's, breeding reports for Thoroughbred horses were meager and usually imperfect, and typically, they would not refer to a horse before the juvenile horse had proven themself worthy. A gentleman called James Weatherby, through his own investigation and hard work, and by the collection of his personal privately kept pedigree records published the foremost volume of the General Stud Book. He achieved this in 1791. The initial publication listed 387 mares, every one of which could trace back to Eclipse. The General Studbook is still in print in the UK by Weatherby and Sons. Several years afterward, as thoroughbred racing proliferated in North America the necessity for a pedigree registry for American Bred Thoroughbreds, akin to the General Stud Book became obvious.

In 1873, the earliest American Stud Book was available by Colonel Sanders D. Bruce. This man spent almost a lifetime studying the pedigrees of American Thoroughbreds. He followed the pattern of the General Stud Book creating six volumes of the register until 1896 when the project was taken over by The Jockey Club. The reliability of the American Stud Book is the base on which all Thoroughbred horse racing in North America depends. The initial edition of the American Stud Book by The Jockey Club had a foal amount of roughly 3,000. In 1986 in had developed to an amazing 51,000. In the present day The Jockey Club operates a powerful new digital system to meet the registration challenges posed by the massive number of annual registrations. The Jockey Club owns and operates one of the most advanced computer operations in the world at the moment, with its record holding over 1.8 million thouroughbreds on a master pedigree store, with names that trace back to the 1800's. Including bloodlines, this computer database also handles daily racing results of all Thoroughbred race in North America, not including the power to process electronically submitted pedigree and racing data from the UK, Ireland, France and other leading Thoroughbred districts. An additional descendant of Darley Arabian is Diomed; he won the earliest running of the Kentucky Derby in 1780. At just 21 years old he was brought to America where he created the male line via his son, Sir Archie.

Thoroughbreds are the horse of choice for track racing. Most thoroughbreds are born somewhere between January and April, however their certified date of birth is January 1 of the present year. During their initial year of growth, they are developing size and strength with the adolescent starting his training as a yearling. Throughbred horses learn to accept a bridle and a saddle and shortly after a rider on his back to break the horse in preparation for the starting gate and the run around the track.

For more information and horses for sale, please visit the Horse and Pony Directory.