VENDORspotlight
Malvern Saddlery
Jill Apfelbaum’s Malvern Saddlery is an institution in Chester County, PA. For the last 21 years, Apfelbaum has provided riders with everything they need for a rider’s life, from equipment to apparel, classic home décor to customizable accessories. After a career in the corporate world, Apfelbaum combined her horse experience and business acumen when she founded Malvern Saddlery. Since then she’s built a solid reputation for personalized, client-based service. Her brick and mortar store sits close to the famed Devon Horse Show grounds, and while Apfelbaum doesn’t make a habit of hitting the road with a satellite store, Malvery Saddlery can be counted on to open-up shop at Devon every year. She loves Devon for its history, and for the horse people who come to town every year to compete. Once they’ve circled the Dixon Oval, they always stop by the Malvern tent, emphasizing the reason she’s in this business. It’s all about lasting relationships with the riders who make our industry what it is.
Horse & Style: Where, when, and how did Malvern Saddlery start?
Jill Apfelbaum: I started the business myself in 1982, in downtown Malvern, PA. I have been involved in horses for 45 years. I used to show hunter-jumpers, but I have been a dressage rider since the early 80s. I was an executive director of personal shopping for Bloomingdale’s for a number of years. When I decided I wanted to get out of the corporate scene, I thought that opening a tack store would be a good way to combine my fashion background and horse background.
H&S: What inspired you to go into business, and how have you grown?
JA: When I started the business, there was a void between the horse supplies and equipment end of things, and the lifestyle end. We pride ourselves on having had the products to fill that gap since the beginning, since the 80s. Of course now lifestyle is so popular and there are many other stores out there, but we always have, and still do really know how to put a horse and rider together from head to toe. When we started the business, the Internet was fairly unheard of. I did a national catalog and took mail-in orders, but shortly after that, it became obvious that people were doing the online thing and we started selling online pretty early on. Now we do a great deal of business online. Some products, especially our fashionable apparel and accessories, revolve as we sell out, but certainly our staples, like our TUCCI boots, and saddles are all always for sale online. We ship everything right from the store and do our best to ship the same day.
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· june/july