From our stable to yours, Happy New Year

by Lindsay Lee Wallace

In describing the Quarter Horse company blog to clients, our intrepid founder Nicole often says, “Cobblers’ kids have no shoes.” In other words, we spend the lion's share of our time and energy crafting and polishing content for our clients, which means our own blog keeps getting shoved down to the bottom of the priority list. But before we can fully welcome the new year, we want to celebrate the old and all we were able to do together.

In 2022, Quarter Horse grew from five full-time employees to 11 (and we also moved to a bigger, even more impeccably decorated office). We’ve raised the bar for the quantity and quality of media coverage for our clients, and are proud of the trusted relationships we’ve built with reporters and editors under every masthead of note in the business world. 

We continued our fulfilling, creative, collaborative work, including with our friends Tim Hawkes and Stephen Krain at t/hawk digital, and with our newly formed collective with Aaron Padín and Jim Wood of Padín/VSLMTH. (We’ve been calling this partnership PXQH, but that’s open to workshopping if you have any ideas.) In recent months, we’ve joined forces with Escalate PR for specific projects that combine our collective strengths and expertise to build results-oriented account teams. 

We helped launch bold new companies from stealth, and increased awareness of incredible organizations doing vital work around the country and world. We did our best to support one another and our clients through a year of both serious turmoil and incredible achievements.

Here are some of the highlights.

We took on the awards circuit!

This year, the Quarter Horse team was in attendance at some of our favorite events, and we were even considered for an award by one of our favorite organizations! Not too shabby for a yearling.

We were honored and delighted to be finalists for the Ragan Communications and PR Daily Awards in the Technology Campaign category. As a growing agency, we're proud of this recognition, and affirmed in our dedication to working with mission-driven companies.

It was also such a joy to attend the 52nd Annual New York Women in Communications Matrix Awards and honor incredible women across the communications disciplines. Not only were we treated to the reflections of bona fide legends like Marlee Matlin, Katie Couric, and Judy Woodruff on their experiences as pioneering women in communications, but one of us met (and charmed) Blake Shelton.

As a young company with big dreams and an all-women team already making those dreams come true, these events were not just inspiring, but a peek into what our future holds.

We rode bikes, published a book, and took a booze cruise!

Just like the previous year, in 2022 Quarter Horse went the extra mile for our clients. Unlike 2021, this year we went another 39 miles after that. To rep one of our stellar clients, members of the Quarter Horse team took on the 5 Boro Bike Tour, a 40-mile bike tour through all five boroughs of New York City. After getting off to a somewhat uncertain start with a few practice runs in Prospect Park (did you know Citibikes weigh 45 pounds?!) we showed up and kicked asphalt. It was a day of music, snacks, and plenty of sweat. 

We also put together a sample client plan in the form of a beautiful (physical) book, designed by our partner Aaron Padín, to celebrate the vibrant history and noble future of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in the United States. Every single member of our team touched this labor of love, and we’re proud of its place on our bookshelf. 

To celebrate this and other accomplishments, we had our annual company off-site offshore, and set sail around Ellis Island with gin fizzes in hand. The waves were a bit choppier than anticipated, but in our time of hybrid work it was a joy to all come together and party with Lady Liberty herself. 

We supported organizations we love!

We at Quarter Horse are proud to have a profit-sharing model that includes donations to organizations whose missions are close to our hearts, with a particular focus on investing in the community where most of us work and live. This lets us celebrate our own and one another’s hard work throughout the year, and put our profits toward causes we care about (or as we like to say, putting our money where our mouth is).

This year we made donations totalling $17,000 to the Footage Foundation, Women in Need NYC, the Citizens’ Committee for Children, the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York, and the Audre Lorde Project. The causes that these organizations further are near and dear to us, and we encourage you to check out their vital work and support how you can! 

Thank you so much to all of our clients, colleagues, neighbors, and loved ones. From all on our team to you, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year.