Hassinger tapes at Cowboy Marketplace

Former Bonsall resident Alex Hassinger appeared in a segment for The Roping Show with Tyler Magnus filmed at the Cowboy Marketplace gift expo in the Mandalay Bay Hotel during National Finals Rodeo Week in Las Vegas.

The filming took place December 5 in the Cowboy Marketplace’s demonstration roping arena and involved Hassinger, Magnus, and 12-year-old Jordan Outlaw, a Texan who won the LubriSyn Challenge. The segment is likely to air during mid-winter.

LubriSyn is one of the sponsors of The Roping Show with Tyler Magnus, and during 2008 Hassinger became the national sales manager for LubriSyn, a sodium hyaluronate nutritional supplement used for the treatment of joint pain and inflammation. Magnus had a booth at Cowboy Marketplace and invited his sponsors to join him. Hassinger and former Fallbrook resident Steve Allday, the veterinarian who developed LubriSyn, accepted that offer.

“It’s been a great experience working with Tyler,” Allday said.

“We’ve been working with him probably about six months,” Hassinger said. “We’ve been on his show a few times.”

The Roping Show with Tyler Magnus airs three times each week on RFD TV. Residents whose cable company does not carry RFD TV can also see the show on Dish Network’s Channel 231 or DirecTV’s Channel 379.

The LubriSyn Challenge was a contest involving the submittal of success stories about LubriSyn. Outlaw utilizes the supplement on her appaloosa, Badger.

Hassinger’s career as a racehorse trainer included eight years at the San Luis Rey Downs Thoroughbred Training Center; he spent six years with Allen Paulson and two years with Laura de Seroux. Allday, who lived in Fallbrook from 1991 to 1996, was Hassinger’s veterinarian when Hassinger was working for Paulson.

In addition to his eight years in Bonsall, Hassinger was also a public trainer in Kentucky for five years between his stints with Paulson and de Seroux. Hassinger left de Seroux to take a position with Godolphin Racing; he spent six weeks in Dubai before being transferred to the Godolphin stables at Santa Anita. He spent two years with Godolphin before becoming the LubriSyn regional representative in July 2005.

Hassinger lived on Paulson’s farm for the six years he was in Bonsall. He has lived in Temecula for the past 7 1/2 years and works out of a home office.

The Cowboy Christmas Gift Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center was sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in the 1980s to give visitors to the National Finals Rodeo city (NFR has been in Las Vegas since 1985 after spending 20 years in Oklahoma City) activities during the day. Hassinger had attended the Cowboy Christmas Gift Show as a visitor, but LubriSyn had not previously exhibited there until Hassinger utilized a booth at Cowboy Christmas in 2005 to make inroads into the Western discipline.

Cowboy Christmas attracts between 150,000 and 175,000 visitors for the ten-day event coinciding with the National Finals Rodeo dates. While other gift shows at the Mandalay Bay and elsewhere are not official PRCA events, the PRCA does not discourage such shows. Approximately 3/4 of the official show’s vendors return the following year and Convention Center booths sell out by summer, so the other gift expositions allow opportunities for new exhibitors. In 2006 LubriSyn had booths both at the Convention Center and at Cowboy Marketplace.

Hassinger and Magnus met during the 2007 National Finals Rodeo after being introduced through a mutual friend. “We were introduced and struck up a relationship,” Hassinger said.

Before the 2007 NFR ended, Hassinger had breakfast with Magnus at the Orleans Hotel. Magnus, a nine-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier who first qualified for NFR in 1988, began using LubriSyn for One Hot Jose, his nine-year-old quarter horse.

“Tyler tried our product and liked it,” Hassinger said.

That led to appearances on The Roping Show. “He really translates the message of our product well,” Hassinger said.

“It’s been phenomenal for our business. He’s a great spokesman,” Allday said of Magnus.

“It gives you a tremendous amount of credibility and you’re associated with the best of the best,” Allday said. “To be associated with all the best athletes in the discipline is just a privilege and an honor. We’re really grateful to have the association.”

Many of the segments have been filmed at the Circle T Arena in Hamilton, TX, where Magnus lives. Allday now lives in Shelbyville, KY, although he received both his undergraduate degree and his veterinary medicine degree from Texas A&M University. They have been joined by roper Charly Crawford, who lives in Llano, TX, and who qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in 2005, 2006, and 2007. As the national sales manager Hassinger has been spending more time in Texas.

“It’s a thrill to be involved with Tyler,” Hassinger said. “Tyler’s a true horseman.”

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