Competitive energy propels family work and play

By Lori Fischer Thorp

Correspondent

Dale and Teresa Fett have some diverse hobbies, but what really keeps their team moving forward is the concept of performance.

“We’re both competitive,” Dale said. “I really like to win.” Teresa agreed, “To finish is to win.”

Combined with their strong sense of family and the awareness that life is short, their energy has led them throughout the U.S. for Teresa’s long distance horse racing and imported saddle sales, and opened the door for Dale to take a trade trip to Russia.

Dale said he’s “just a little yahoo in Frazee.” Still, with their adult sons Trevor and Spencer, the Frazee family has transitioned from operating one strong company—Fett Bros. Performance (FBP), which markets snowmobile clutch replacement parts and tracks — to an umbrella which combines their interests of snowmobiles, endurance horse racing and firearms.

They rely on their common-sense approach and hard work to keep it all going.

That pathway had early roots. Since his youth, Dale’s family has been well-known in the region for snowmobile competition success. Dale, a 1971 Frazee High School (FHS) grad, becomes emotional when he talks about his late dad, Cecil, who was his mentor in building racing experience. 

Even as a young person, “my dad was my best friend,” he said. Now, he and Teresa have a tight bond with their sons and extended family. “Racing has been really good for us as a family group,” Dale said. “You become friends instead of family.”

The couple’s two grandchildren and grand-nieces and -nephews are now on the snowmobile circuit, and they all share strategies and discussions on their trips. There are other topics that are covered in the process, too. “You talk about a lot of things that you wouldn’t always talk about,” Dale said.

Balancing that history is Teresa, a 1975 FHS graduate, who has had a long-time love of horses. Son Trevor used to go with her to endurance races to help, but now Dale takes that role. 

“Trips are hard as hell,” she said. “Taking care of the horses is like having an infant with you all the time.” 

They use “horse motels” to lessen tasks, but it’s still a lot of work. 

When Dale was asked if he rides horses too, he said, “I try not to…I’m the handler.” He was quick to shine the spotlight on his wife’s skills, saying, “She is queen of the Big Horns.” 

Teresa has raced the same horse, Mr. Aaz, in Wyoming’s Big Horn Mountains race for 10 years. That includes completing three 50-mile, one 75-mile, and six consecutive 100-mile races. 

“That’s a record in the Big Horns,” where elevation is 10,000 feet,” Dale said.

Last June they did Nationals in Virginia, and this October that competition will be in Texas. 

“I want to go down there and run the 100 (mile race),” Teresa said.

Time spent traveling is also used to market imported Italian saddles through Teresa’s business, Podium Saddles UpNorth. The business “wasn’t my idea,” she said.

“I figure it will give her something to do when she retires,” Dale said. “You gotta stay young.”

Teresa currently works at Lakeshirts three days weekly, and balances her time as her husband’s snowmobile parts business partner. The couple have been working together since Dale bought out his younger brother, Dennis, several years ago. 

The saddle business is actually one branch of 2 Below Trading Company, with the other branch being Dale, Trevor and Spencer’s Federal Firearms licensed business. Son Spencer focuses on snowmobile shock repair in the winter.

Dale said the businesses’ structures are important to him. 

“You have to take care of these things when you get to be 60,” he said. 

A year and a half ago, Dale got a reminder of how quickly lives can change. 

“At 5 a.m., I woke up with a pain in my chest,” Dale said. “It got worse in 10 minutes, and I told Teresa, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.” 

When he got to St. Mary’s Hospital in Detroit Lakes, he found out he was right. He was transported to Lake Park and then flown to Fargo, where a stent was put in place. 

“I was awake the whole time,” he said. Moments prior to the procedure, a man said to him, “I’m your cardiologist.”

He gave Dale two options, the first being to insert the stent, which “can cause problems,” he explained. “If we don’t do that, you’re going to be dead in a couple minutes.”

“I think we should do it,” Dale quickly responded. “I was having breakfast by 8:30” that same morning. 

He’s mindful that he had a STEMI (ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction), commonly called a “Widowmaker,” and he doesn’t plan on wasting any opportunities. By that same weekend, Dale was off on another adventure. “I got unhooked, and away I went,” he said.

“I don’t feel like I’m 69,” Dale said. “I’m still running across the track pulling on sleds” ridden by his grandchildren and their cousins.

“Well,” Teresa reminded him, “they’re smaller sleds.”

Regardless of the snowmobile size, the Fetts’ apply their lifelong knowledge to their business with what Dale calls “reverse engineering.” Teresa said, “You find out what’s wrong with the sled, and then you make something to fix it.”

FBP only builds clutch replacement parts, which are all manufactured by Eric Andersen’s company, Continental Engineering & Manufacturing in Frazee.  

In recent years, the Fetts’ snowmobile expertise has extended into tracks, which are manufactured in Russia by Composit International. The two entities met through Dale’s connection in Sweden. 

“We talked for three years,” he said. “They flew over, we sat there on snowmobiles…and we shook hands” on their business agreement.

“They learned English from movies,” he said. Dale was cautioned locally that the arrangements might not work out, but eight years of success have disproven those concerns. “We’re the largest after-market suppliers in the country,” Dale said. 

He added that this year, that probably won’t be the case, due to current import sanctions.

The strength of the relationship continues, though, with the Russian father-son team paralleled by the Fett family knowledge and sustained through What’s App virtual connections as well as in-person meetings in the U.S. and Russia.

“My job is to help develop new products, and we’re a dealer network for the U.S. We’ve learned a lot,” including the experience of getting an import license, which opened the opportunity for Teresa’s Podium saddle sales, Dale said.

Highlights in the rear-view mirror of their careers include Dale and Trevor’s trip to Russia, where they toured Composit’s factory. 

“It was during a manufacturing shut-down,” Dale said, “but they were all called back” to work so the Fetts could see the plant in operation.

“Their factory was spic and span,” he said. Throughout the building, indoor areas feature trees which clean the air of manufacturing toxins and produce oxygen.

High security at the plant and safety concerns throughout their travels in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kursk temporarily curtailed Dale’s gift of talking to anyone, but back home, he uses that to both companies’ advantage.

“They like me,” he says. “I’ve made them some money.”

He and Spencer also met their Russian counterparts in the Western U.S. to test-ride tracks. “We’ve got a pretty good relationship,” he said.

While one week the Fetts are meeting online with Composit and cheering on young family members at snowmobile races, the next week they’re heading to Florida for an endurance riding convention where Teresa markets Italian-made Podium saddles to the top people in the circuit. “It’s our clientele,” she said.

Podium saddles originated for Arabian horses, “but we’re finding out they fit gaited, smaller-framed horses,” she said. Made of hollow plastic and weighing in at about seven pounds, they’re much easier for riders to lift and horses to carry than typical 25- to 30-pound saddles, which makes them an asset for endurance riding and older people who’d prefer to lift less.

“I’ve had really good luck with them,” she said. Pricing also keeps the Podium product highly competitive. “Everybody tries to find a saddle that works for them and their horse,” she said.

Looking forward, Mr. Aaz “should bring me into retirement” from endurance riding,” Teresa said. “He’ll be 18 this year. 

Purchased at a year-and-a-half, “He was so slow-maturing,” she said. “He owes me.” 

But will the Fetts ever actually slow down? It doesn’t seem likely.

“We’re still able to do it, so we’re going to go and do it,” Teresa said.

For more information about the Fetts’ products, go to www.fettbros.com and www.podiumsaddlesupnorth.com.