Leah Kaufmann’s horse obsession developed at an early age. She grew up in Seattle, but her mother passed on a passion for horses, driving Kaufmann to her weekly Sunday riding lesson starting at age 6.

Kaufmann dabbled with dressage, but ultimately became hooked on eventing from her time spent in Pony Club. Those early experiences bonded Kaufmann to the equestrian lifestyle, carrying her admiration into adulthood.

The T-Shirt That Started Her Equestrian Brand

Like most new ideas, Dapplebay was launched when Kaufmann discovered a void in the market. She was on a quest to find cute horse shirts representing her favorite disciplines.

Creative by nature, she always loved to draw horses and make crafts, even before she received her degree in design at the University of Washington for visual communication design. She used her expert eye and whipped up a t-shirt that read “Live Free & Jump XC” with a horse jumping across the center.

Kaufmann casually posted the shirt on Facebook, which received an explosion of comments. The now-retired design was quickly featured online in Eventing Nation, giving Kaufmann exposure to like-minded customers. Based on the feedback, she began screen-printing more shirts, and Dapplebay was born in 2011.

A Hobby Turned Career

Professionally, Kaufmann had a successful career as a designer working with a marketing agency. She maintained her professional job in the beginning, while Dapplebay was on the side. She put energy into it as she felt like it over the years.

“It was a creative outlet that allowed me to have something that was my own outside of client work,” Kaufmann explains. Fast forward to the pandemic and the world changed, including Dapplebay. Kaufmann shifted her focus on becoming a profitable business instead of just a fun, creative venture.

With a change in mindset and sales, Dapplebay was thriving, allowing Kaufmann to leave her full-time job behind.

“2020 was a great year for e-commerce, and I grew a lot without intending to,” she says. “I took that momentum as an opportunity to decide that this could be my full-time thing.”

Community & Connection

While Kaufmann spends most of her time working solo, she enjoys having the opportunity to connect with customers whenever she sets up a booth at an event.

Having a booth at The Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover in 2021 was a career high and emotionally moving weekend for Kaufmann. She promotes retired racehorses with her apparel and owns two off-track Thoroughbreds, Pie and Ranger.

Dapplebay also made its first appearance at Land Rover Kentucky in 2022, which was another special moment of growth for the brand.

“I’ve met so many amazing women from having this little pop-up tent with cute shirts,” she says. “I quickly realized this wasn’t just about the t-shirts, it was about meeting people.”

In 2022 Kaufmann also launched The Barn Aisle, a Facebook group, with the intention of being a supportive online space for customers and fellow equestrians. The group celebrates a love for horses and creates a dialog online.

“People post when they have a great ride, when they have a question, when they’re struggling—the way the group responds is incredible,” she says.

The Brand’s Popular Equestrian Products

Dapplebay offers a unique selection of apparel, accessories and lifestyle products from stickers to journals. As a designer, coming up with ideas for new products is the exciting part of the job.

Kaufmann focuses on creating unique prints, patterns her customers can’t find anywhere else, and sizes for all equestrians. Recently, matching sets, including saddle pads and bonnets, have become popular.

“My goal is to create things that people love that they can take into their own lives and wear with their own style,” she explains.

When Kaufmann isn’t busy working, she spends time with the horses she keeps at home in a beautiful barn her husband built. Her dedication to the brand, her horses and a positive mindset has allowed her business to thrive.

“I think the hardest thing is remembering to enjoy it and enjoy the process,” she says. “I’ve been so caught up in working hard, I think it’s easy to miss the journey. Sometimes I wake up and I look around and realize we live on the property I dreamed of 10 years ago.”

Shop Dapplebay here.

This article about equestrian brand Dapplebay appeared in the January/February 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post The Rise of Equestrian Brand Dapplebay appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Inspiration & Action

Growing up, Barratt moved several times. Each new home offered her mother an opportunity to redecorate. Barratt always recalls being captivated by the prints and fabrics selected for curtains and trimmings. Fast forward to adulthood, when Barratt married and settled down in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, with her husband, Tom.

Whenever she browsed through equestrian clothing and apparel at a tack store, she felt like something was missing. She’d envision bold printed collars and vivid colors. Barratt didn’t have a background working with fashion or fabric, but one day she expressed her ideas to her husband.

“My husband gave me $500 and bought me a new computer to give it a shot,” she says. “I set off to do what was in my head and try to make it come to fruition, which was a total trip because I didn’t know anything about clothing fabric.”

Initially, finding the right clothing manufacturer for her equestrian-inspired vision wasn’t easy. Many companies wouldn’t talk to or help Barratt since she didn’t understand the manufacturing language or have a design background. There were a lot of clicks and hang ups as the search persisted.

“Once you think about something like starting a business, it takes on a life of its own and becomes an obsession,” says Barratt. “You eat, sleep and breathe bringing something out of thin air and actually making it happen.”

One day, she began looking into companies making men’s form-fitting shirts for executives. She finally found a company online that agreed to make her samples, only to realize they were based out of Thailand. Determined to create the clothing she had envisioned, she jumped through frustrations of language barriers and communication to bring her shirts to life.

“I ended up having 18 samples made because I didn’t know anything about manufacturing clothes,” says Barratt.

Armed with her gorgeous new sample shirts, Middy N’ Me’s first debut into the world was at the Chagrin Hunter Jumper Classic. Her friends excitedly invited Barratt to be a vendor when a booth turned up empty.

“I got a mannequin, I ironed my shirts, and I went,” she says. “I didn’t even bring anything to write with. It never dawned on me that anyone would actually buy my shirts. We had a very successful show, and that’s how it all started.”

Meet Middy

Middy N’ Me is appropriately named after Middy, Barratt’s beloved Belgian/Quarter Horse mare. Middy is boarded close to home at a large estate in Hunting Valley. It’s the perfect property for the fox hunting duo to spend their days riding through the expansive acreage.

“I bought her sight unseen, and she didn’t even have a name,” she says. “I named her Middleburg because I’m a fox hunter and I love Middleburg, Va. My husband started calling her Middy.”

Middy is a beautiful buckskin who happens to be a PMU rescue and an unexpected heart horse; Barratt describes her as an angel.

“She had never been handled and was very aloof and distant—emotionally wounded,” she says. “But she and I became very good friends, and she’s the horse of a lifetime. She’s taken care of me. There are no words to describe how much joy she has given me.”

Building a Brand

Middy N’ Me celebrated 10 years of business last summer. The brand has evolved and grown over the years. Initially, Barratt thought she would be designing shirts for women to ride in, but it turned out, women want to wear the shirts in everyday life, too.

“Equestrian style is a universal desire—people like it—it’s very pretty,” she says. “We don’t position ourselves as an equestrian company, but a lot of equestrians wear our shirts.”

Barratt’s true passion shines when she’s designing behind a computer screen. She loves fuchsia, kiwi green, turquoise, yellow and bright colors paired with ginghams and solids.

Every shirt, skirt or dress is made to order. The fit is an important part of the style and overall look. Every shirt is cut, sewn and made in the United States. After Kimberly’s wild ride making samples, she was able to find the factory in America she had searched for to produce her clothing.

Kimberly’s days are spent designing, keeping in contact with her factory, working with customers, and tackling her never-ending to-do list.

“It’s not for the faint hearted, but I love every minute of it.”

◆ Middy N’ Me website
◆ Middy N’ Me Instagram (@middynme)
◆ Middy N’ Me Facebook

This article about Middy N’ Me’s success in creating equestrian clothing and beyond appeared in the September 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Middy N’ Me: Equestrian Clothing and Beyond appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Horsewoman Shelly Watts noticed this gap in the equestrian clothing market and decided to do something about it. That’s how rider clothing line Muirneen was launched.

Horsey Background

Watts has been riding since she was a preteen, but didn’t truly connect with horses deeply until her daughter JoJo turned 8 and started asking to ride. The two now ride together, and Watts says the time spent caring for the horses before and after lessons is what drew her to love them.

“I felt it was a much better way of learning and connecting with the horse,” she says. “[Together] my daughter and I fell head over heels for the sport.”

Business Inspiration

Watts is the development director for Detroit Horse Power, a non-profit that teaches Detroit, Mich., students how to ride horses.

As she became more involved in the horse world, Watts, who is Taiwanese, noticed a lack of diversity, particularly when it came to models and apparel shown in equestrian magazine and advertisement images.

“I didn’t feel like there was anything that represented us,” says Watts.

That was the spark she needed to create Muirneen Equestrian, named after her off-track Thoroughbred with the same name.

“I started Muirneen Equestrian to really showcase more of that diversity, whether it’s the everyday rider, the hobbyist, or even your more experienced Olympic-level equestrian,” says Watts. “I created a line that really spoke to me about diversity, as well as making sure that the clothing was ethical and created in the United States, creating living-wage jobs—which isn’t easy. What I really wanted to do is create something that reflected my values.”

Watts launched her diverse equestrian clothing line in October 2021. Although she doesn’t have a fashion background, she has a keen sense of what works for her preferences and the market. Her experience owning a small business for many years helped Watts launch this new venture.

Challenge Accepted

Creating clothing in the United States has proven to be much more difficult than Watts had ever imagined.

“Many companies employ labor from overseas, and it’s a lot cheaper,” she says. “It’s a lot more accessible, whereas here, that’s just not the case, so it increases the cost quite a bit. But I thought it was worth it to make them handmade in the USA, and make sure I was contributing to living-wage shops. For me, that was a non-negotiable.”

Watts wanted to have the photos associated with her products representative of a greater population.

“I knew that if I had control over what types of images I put out into the equestrian world, that I could make it more diverse and reflective of the beautiful diversity that exists within the equestrian community, but maybe it’s not highlighted as often,” says Watts.

She says Muirneen is often approached by customers wanting custom clothing for schooling programs that reflects their students, or by clients who appreciate the company’s ethics and values.

“I think one of the best ways we live out our values is by showing young equestrians that are coming to our site that there are companies that care about diversity—not just race and background, but also plus sizes, too,” says Watts. “We’re working to create clothing that makes everyone feel comfortable, not just a certain subset of the population.”

The response to Muirneen Equestrian has been incredibly positive, from schooling programs to high-level athletes. The company has been named the official apparel sponsor for the USA Pentathlon team through the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Looking Ahead

Watts wanted to start her business small and sustainably, creating the best footprint possible and with a solid foundation before expanding to new lines. With some initial success under her belt, she is looking forward to expanding her product offerings.

“When people come to me for custom apparel, it’s kind of my testing ground,” says Watts. “Do I want to mass produce this? Or is this more suited for custom apparel?”

When asked what advice she’d give to someone wanting to launch a company in the horse world, she emphasizes the need for living out your values as the key to achieving your goals.

“It’s not glamorous,” says Watts. “It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of sleepless nights, and it must be driven by your passion. You need consistency in your drive. You do this day in and day out. Success doesn’t happen overnight, it’s something you have to work at. The more your values and passions show through your company, the more it will resonate with people. People are seeking authenticity and genuineness, and you need that for your company to be successful.”

This article about equestrian apparel and clothing originally appeared in the July 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Clothing for Every Equestrian appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Flares and stripes give a nod to the ‘70s with this bold style. Wear vintage-inspired denim with a pair of heels or cowboy boots. Whether you’re riding at the rodeo or going out, these pants will get you noticed. $119.00; wrangler.com

Trouser Perfect-Rise Beatrice Wide-Leg Jean

Trendy trouser jeans can be worn at the barrel race or for every day. This light wash is accented with blue stitching across the pockets and frayed bottoms. The 9.75-oz. performance stretch denim is softer with slightly more give. $79.95; ariat.com

Stretch Denim Knee Patch Breech

Enjoy denim breeches that fit like athletic activewear—they’re infused with water-absorbing fibers to pull sweat from the skin and release it into the air. A contoured waistband has a lower fit on the front and high rise in the back to ensure your pants won’t sag. Lightweight knee patches are flexible and never stiff. $109.00; kerrits.com

Ada Relaxed Fit Jeans

Ada jeans are ready for you to dye the perfect shade to match your western pleasure or rodeo outfit. Don’t be afraid to wear color or come up with your own tie-dye design for these horse riding jeans.$54.99; cinchjeans.com

Mid-Rise Extra-Stretch Striped Riding Jeans

This eye-catching style is a cotton/polyester blend with a touch of spandex for give. Wear with a T-shirt and boots for riding, then effortlessly elevate the look by changing into a fitted blouse and fancy boots for a night out. $79.99; rockandrolldenim.com

Audrey Jeans

These jeans are a beautiful wash composed of a blend of cotton, polyester and elastane. Kimes only uses ring-spun denim, which has a greater tear strength in the fabric form compared to other brands. They are made with 11.5-oz. denim, which puts them in the midweight category. The higher the number, the stiffer and stronger the denim is.
$120.00; kimesranch.com

Equestrian Full-Seat Jean

Goode Rider’s team favorite offers a mid-rise waist, double buttons, wide belt loops and velcro ankle closures. These jeans fit comfortably with a touch of stretch for riding. The back pockets show off fancy embroidered spur details. $179.00; gooderider.com

Retro Green Jean

Wrangler’s high-rise Trumpet Flare in Whitely is made with 85% pre-consumer recycled cotton. With just a touch of hemp and spandex, this stretch denim is composed of natural fibers. It’s a fashion-forward flare you can feel good about wearing. $79.00; wrangler.com

This article about horse riding jeans originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Horse Riding Jeans to Fit Your Style appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

C4 Horses & Hounds Belt

C4 belts are made from durable thermo polymer and come in one size (50”), giving you the opportunity to cut it to fit perfectly. Colorful belt buckles are sold separately, giving you the chance to personalize your belt. Those fox hunting themed belt is perfect for any equestrian. $26.99; c4belts.com

Ariat Studded Stirrup Belt

This black leather-studded stirrup belt is an excellent choice for the edgy equestrian. Smooth black leather is lined with silver studs and fastened by a stirrup buckle making this equestrian belt subtle and stylish. $84.95; ariat.com

Concho Dream Hip Belt

A fashion-forward accessory, this chunky hip belt features large distressed silver conchos. The belt comes with an interchangeable buckle so you can personalize your style. $79.95; rods.com

Ruespari Wild Thing Belt

Ruespari’s elastic material offers some stretch and ensures a perfect fit for every rider. From schooling at the barn to horse shows, this belt will add a little extra flash to any outfit. $90.00; ruespari.com

Double J Cactus Tooled Belt

Vibrantly painted cacti and flowers are perfect for expressing your Southwestern style. The natural leather belt is polished off with a row of bright white stitching. $225.00; doublejsaddlery.com

California Cowgirl Hip Belt

Large, floral-shaped conchos adorn dark brown leather. Wear this belt with your favorite riding jeans or cinch it around the waistline of your favorite dress. $55.95; rods.com

Adabelle Western Belt

Add a touch of sparkle and bold color to any outfit with this purple B.B. Simon belt. It’s made from Italian leather and adorned with Swarovski crystals. $320.00; bbsimononline.com

Ariat Stirrup Belt

Classic brown leather is paired with a beautiful brass-shaped stirrup buckle. This equestrian belt comes at an affordable price with timeless design. It’s trendy enough to wear at the office or barn. $69.95; ariat.com

The post Equestrian Belts appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.