Local Feed and Tack Stores are a great place to bring your kids and family for many reasons. Some of my fondest memories are as a young girl going shopping with my family and the smell of the tack and leather and the time spent trying on helmets and boots. Buying and supporting local brick and mortar tack and feed stores allows you to provide your family with quality time; while at the same time supporting your local community. The REALITY IS - Family Tack & Feed Stores need your support! Especially now that large publicly held tack catalogers dominate the tack industry in the U.S. The result has been that small family run stores have a hard time competing in the tack marketplace and have been reduced to showrooms for people to order on-line. Buying from local Tack & Feed Stores gives small business; gives them a fighting chance in today’s globalized economy. It also affects you, in that you can walk in a store and try on a variety of clothing items, boots and see the quality of leather that is more often then not better then the quality of merchandise on-line stores offer. Small merchants also partner with small manufacturers offering you a better variety of merchandise that you can touch, see and even smell the leather. This is also doing your local horse community a large favor! Local stores are the first to sponsor horseshows and events. They post flyers at no cost and are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to helmet fitting, proper ways to feed your horse or even what is appropriate to wear to your event. Much of the tack and merchandise found today on the Internet is imported and made of inferior leather or material and you cannot see this until it arrives at your door step. We all know about the cheap leather that looks nice and then tears or breaks but looked good on-line. While in contrast, most tack and merchandise found at the local stores are of better quality because small business owners go to great lengths to find and display the best quality merchandise possible for the price, not just something that looks nice in a catalog. Also , most retail stores have a wealth of knowledge and can steer you to the perfect horse trainer, horse or camp. Furthermore, retailers enjoy what they do and love to talk about their love for the horse sport and can offer you great tips and advice. So remember before you click - see if your local tack or feed store will match prices and give them the opportunity to be part of your horse community.
