Meet Trish Terry | Fiber Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Trish Terry and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Trish, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My whole life, I worked jobs that I had no passion. When I started making my own mohair horse tack, for personal use, I though that it would be wonderful to actually make these beautiful pieces for a living. I saw others who were selling handmade tack, and I thought I could do it as well. It didn’t happen overnight. For the first year, I continued working my regular job, and made tack in the evenings and weekends. I started setting up social media pages, then a website, to get my business name out there. I also took on barrel racing sponsors, which also helped to market my product on the rodeo circuit. Once I got to the point where I had quite a few sales coming in, I was working day and night, 7 days a week, so I needed to make a decision to pursue this business, or not. I decided to reduce my regular hours to part time, while still building my business. After another year of working part time, and running my business, then I quit completely. It was a process, it didn’t happen overnight. I haven’t regretted, or looked back, since. It was the best decision!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
In the horse industry there are many different types of riding disciplines. I made the decision to specifically target barrel racers and western trail riders. My tack stands alone in this industry for two reasons. The first, and most importantly, it’s made well. It will last for many years, hold up, can be washed over and over, and this is what people want in horse tack. Secondly, it’s absolutely beautiful. I hear daily how my tack stands out from my competitors, due to the highly intricate designs, color palettes, and because each piece is well made and structurally sound. I thoroughly learned the craft, wear tested many pieces myself, as well as had my friends use them too. This happened before I started selling. When you make horse tack, quality is so important, because you can’t have tack failing otherwise people can really get hurt. Also poorly woven tack can sore a horse, and that is not good either. It takes a long time to get the proper feel, and to be able to weave a quality piece.

It was not an easy process. There was so much to learn, and I made mistakes in the beginning. Such as, I didn’t understand the importance of only using solid stainless steel hardware. I quickly learned that horse sweat, dirt, and the elements will test any piece of tack. After that first piece, I quickly learned to spend the money on high end hardware, and to not cut corners. Mistakes are ok, as long as you learn from them, and make adjustments.

I want the world to know that when you ride a horse, they are the true athlete. Yes, it takes people strength and stamina to ride, but the horse is the main athlete between the two. With that said, I wanted my horse, and all horses, to be as comfortable as possible. Mohair is a natural hair fiber from the angora goat. It’s soft, wicks away moisture, is light weight, strong, has give, and doesn’t inhibit movement. You want your tack to have these qualities, because that’s what will free up your horse’s movement, and will keep them comfortable when you ask them to work. I often refer to mohair tack as “the barrel racer’s secret” because numerous racers have told me switching from all leather breast collars, to a mohair breast collar, allows their horse to fully stride out. They have seen their clocked times reduce after changing to mohair tack. That tells me the horse is much more comfortable, which is very important.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Absolutely! My husband, Chris Terry, was the person who encouraged my new business venture. He was the person who decided it was probably time for me to completely quit working a regular job, and put all my time and energy into my business full time. He not only gave me motivational support, but he made sure he was the main provider of a regular stable income, as well as providing medical insurance for our whole family as well (we have 4 kids). People with small businesses often can not obtain affordable medical insurance, so this was very important for our family. If it weren’t for him, I could have not taken the leap I did. He has watched my business grow from when I struggled to make my first woven piece, to now when he regularly tells me how proud he is of my small business.

Website: www.100mohairhorsetack.com

Instagram: 100mohairhorsetack8888

Facebook: 100% Mohair Horse Tack, LLC