The University of Louisville Equine Industry Program has announced that Stephen L. Day, president and chief executive officer of Dover Saddlery, Inc., has been selected as the 2015 recipient of the John W. Galbreath Award, given annually since 1990 to a person or persons who have created and led successful equine enterprises.

“The Galbreath Award is a means of recognizing people, and organizations, who have built successful enterprises that serve the equine community and are a positive force in marketing horses as a recreational or entertainment activity in today’s society,” said Tim Capps, PhD, the director of the Equine Industry Program. “Steve Day is an exemplar of the entrepreneurship concept, a horse enthusiast who turned that interest into a highly successful career as a builder of retail enterprises that became popular with generations of horse enthusiasts.”

His hands-on interest in horses began at age 12 after his family had moved from Massachusetts to Indiana, where his father, Dr. John S. Day, a business professor had taken a position in the Purdue University Business School, now known as the Krannert School of Business. He would become dean of Krannert for almost a decade from the late 1960’s to the late ‘70’s, and among his many accomplishments were his pioneering research, teaching, and publishing efforts in the then fledging field of entrepreneurship, perhaps a harbinger of things to come for his son.

Stephen Day would graduate from Krannert, where he started a riding school in his spare time while competing in three-day eventing, then work at a hunter-jumper stable near Chicago briefly before landing a position with Playboy Enterprises, then opening resorts worldwide that included riding stables, hired him to run one of those operations at the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Playboy Club