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Here’s an impression of a horse: photogenic beast that looks elegant in green meadows but is prone to lead the unwitting under low-hanging branches and into barbed-wire fences.

Here’s an impression based on scholarly research: Iowa’s 199,220 horses account for an $862 million industry that generates 10,130 jobs.

Those are numbers that Melinda Antisdel can relate to. She’s a skilled rider who isn’t likely to be among those who find themselves riding sidesaddle when their mount leads them to barbed wire.

In fact, she was among the sponsors of an Iowa State University study that determined that the equine industry is a significant player in the agriculture economy.

Antisdel is the owner of Maffitt Lake Farms southwest of Des Moines, where the elite of the horse world are trained, fed, housed in cozy stalls and allowed to frolic every day at the rate of $600 a month.

The horses are competitors, jumpers and hunters, many of which trace their heritage to European military breeds that once pulled artillery into battle. They are as fearless in competition as their ancestors were in battle.

Beginning next year, competitive horses and their owners will stage their own battles of sorts at an equestrian center that is in the planning stages for the southern reaches of Maffitt Lake Farms.

Currently, owners of top-class steeds drive to Chicago or Denver to compete. Antisdel’s daughter, Libby, said the Maffitt Lake facility will give owners a chance to stay closer to home.

“There is nothing like it in the area,” Libby Antisdel said by cellphone while on her way to a competition near Nashville, Tenn. “Right now, we travel all over the country for horse shows.”

She said the facility will have five outdoor arenas and a 200-stall stable. For every horse that appears for competition, you can expect four humans to be in tow, including owners, trainers and riders.

Melinda Antisdel said Maffitt Lake Farms’ proximity to Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines should make it a convenient location for the 300 to 600 people who will attend events at the center for six to seven weeks in May, August and September.

No stalls for the weak at heart

The horses at Maffitt Lake Farms carry a price tag that best suits the fearless, as well. Antisdel’s Feurst and Foremost, a dapple-gray with German bloodlines, was purchased from another Central Iowa horse rider, Misty Wittern, and is for sale for about $40,000.

Other horses in the 30-stall stable would sell for between $25,000 and $150,000.

Antisdel caters to committed owners.

“They have to be pretty serious competitors in order to board here,” she said.

Her chief trainer, Kyle Dewar, is a professional rider and trainer who can count an Olympic competitor among his ownership credentials.

On a recent day, he was putting Feurst and Foremost through a workout, first riding “on the flat” at a steady pace, working what appeared to be a case of the jitters out of the horse before leading it through a series of jumps.

The horse is “green,” Antisdel said.

“This horse needs a million jumps,” Dewar said from the saddle.

All of the horses at Maffitt Lake Farms are ridden about six days a week by their owners or Antisdel’s crew. They go through jumping exercises a couple of times a week.

In other words, these horses are worked for their keep.

The Iowa State study found that nearly one-third of the state’s 47,000 horse owners will compete in some type of event every year and 50 percent will attend a competition or clinic. Another 27 percent will attend a rodeo.

Those numbers do not mean that the majority of Iowa horses are bound for a stage. The study found that 123,000 Iowa horses are used for recreational activities, such as trail riding.

The cost of easy living isn’t cheap.

The annual expense of horse ownership is nearly $8,000 per animal, including food and bedding, veterinary bills and tack and supplies. Special expenses can add nearly $3,000 to that figure, including travel and professional fees.

Rodeo gear on the Internet

One of the more unusual businesses to spin off the equine industry is located just north of Des Moines, where brothers Matt and Nathan Owen sell rodeo equipment over the Internet.

Matt Owen brought his business savvy to his brother’s passion for bull riding, an interest that has resulted in a pinned ankle and a schedule of competitions that has dwindled to just a few events a year.

US Rodeo Supply, 5039 N.E. 14th St., offers 15,000 items, including helmets, gloves, spurs, chaps, ropes and saddles.

Matt Owen said the business runs on an “inventory on demand” model in which orders are filed with US Rodeo Supply Co. and filled by a variety of vendors. The Northeast 14th Street storefront does have a limited supply of products, but Owen said he can better serve his customers over the Internet.

“With the number of people who visit the site in a day, it would take a year’s worth of foot traffic in the retail store,” Owen said.

Owen said that when he launched the US Rodeo Supply Web site in 2002, it sat idle for about six months.

But over the holiday season of that year, the site received $60,000 in orders.

In addition to its Internet presence, US Rodeo Supply will hit a five-state circuit around Iowa in a semitrailer truck loaded with gear and the equipment to repair it. The brothers will visit rodeos for high school students, county fair competitions and professional events.

Owen said sales in the first quarter of this year set a record. He expects about $1.2 million in revenues for the year.

Though going on the road will give US Rodeo Supply exposure to more customers, it is the Internet that holds the key to company’s future, Owen said. It keeps the customers in the store.

“If my door is locked, or I’m in the back taking care of the Web or I’m in the trailer, but the product isn’t here, they’re lost,” Owen said.