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Thursday, June 06 2019 / Published in General, Weekly Feature

Jessie Blake Lochrie: Creating Heirloom Fashion

Jessie, at Manhattan Saddlery, created belts that feature the durability of barn-ready bridlework.
Photos by Shelby Phillips, www.shelbyphillipsphotography.com

By Sarah Maslin Nir

Jessie Blake Lochrie is something of an equestrian contradiction. At night she can be found tearing up the dance floors in Brooklyn’s edgiest underground clubs, taking in a deejay set or discussing the minutiae of electronic music, of which she has an almost encyclopedic knowledge. By day, she can be found surrounded by saddles, bridles and breeches, running New York City’s last remaining saddlery in the middle of Manhattan, exercising that same encyclopedic knowledge while helping customers source everything equestrian.

And on the weekend? She’s likely astride a paint Morgan named Trystan, riding around the New Jersey countryside.

Blake Goods founder Jessie Lochrie
Photo by Sarah Scott

Entrepreneurial Spirit

What little time there is left between the dance floor, the shop floor and the barn, Jessie, a 28-year-old with a red mane that would make a chestnut envious, has managed to create her own fashion brand that integrates all sides of her personality: New York chic and lasting equestrian heritage. Blake Goods, the Brooklyn-based belt company she launched in 2018, knits together the cool of street-ready fashion with the durability of barn-ready bridlework.

“In the past, people bought less and they needed their products to last a long time, and we’ve sort of lost track of that,” Jessie said a few weeks after her debut collection launched, standing at Ithilien Stables in Whitehouse, New Jersey, the barn where she rides. At her waist was one of her first pieces, a rich mahogany belt with a unique circlet of brass she designed as the clasp. “As a lifelong horse person, I had an appreciation for high-quality leather that will last a lifetime, which I wasn’t seeing in the broader market,” she said.

Jessie decided to take matters into her own hands, and make it herself. Blake Goods’ debut collection features four styles — so far — designed to be equally fitting for the show ring or the catwalk. And at just under $100, they’re accessible enough to collect them all, but designed to be much more than fast fashion. They’re intended to be heirlooms. “As riders, every day we are accustomed to high-quality leather in our lives; people who aren’t involved with horses don’t get to experience that,” Jessie said.

With Blake Goods, she hopes to cultivate appeal and appreciation beyond just the equestrian world. She might be on to something: Within a week of her launch, Blake Goods’ circle belt was selected by Man Repeller, the “it” fashion site for style cognoscenti, as an editor’s pick.

Manhattan’s Last Saddlery

At her day job at Manhattan Saddlery, Jessie is surrounded by some of the most exquisite bridlework on the equestrian market. Jessie goes on frequent overseas trips to source products for the saddlery. The trips have taken her from the FieraCavalli in Verona, Italy, where she was unexpectedly swept along to a gala dinner for the show’s 100th anniversary (“No one told me not to wear jeans!” she laughed) to the Spoga equestrian trade shows in Cologne, where dancers performed in padded riding underwear — and nothing else.

Jessie rides at Ithilien Stables in Whitehouse, New Jersey
Photo by Paws and Rewind

All along the way, Jessie has kept in mind that she’s not just selling equestrian goods, but via the shop, owned by Nick Tsang, she’s preserving the equestrian heritage of a city once built on horses: In 1880 there were at least 150,000 horses in New York City. Today, horses can only be seen pulling carriages through Central Park, and Manhattan Saddlery is the sole remaining purveyor in Manhattan.

But that legacy lives on in Jessie’s own line, through the equestrian principles of durability and utility. “People don’t buy a saddle and expect to get another one the next year; they want it to evolve with them, to last a lifetime,” she said. “Why shouldn’t fashion?” Her fashion notes come from the bridlework in which she has been ensconced in her profession. Leather for Blake Goods belts is locally sourced in the United States and tanned in one of the last American tanneries that uses a vegetable-based tanning process.

Riding and Poetry

To have horses in her life, Jessie has racked up a resume as diverse as her interests. “Truly, my resume is insane,” Jessie laughed. She spent years dishing up lobster rolls and cracking Narragansett beers for customers at a local seafood shack on Cape Cod. “I was one of the worst waitresses of all time!” Her head was not in the restaurant game; it always was back at a local farm, where she had learned to ride on a naughty pony named Wesley. “He was like a Thelwell pony,” she said. “So mischievous, but of course I loved him anyway.”

The Circle belt

Jessie started eventing, but once she moved to New York City to study at Eugene Lang College, she was drawn to the hunter-jumper world in which many of the barns within driving distance specialize. There, she found in particular, the intense focus needed for the equitation ring spoke to her.  There was a poetry to it, Jessie felt, that made sense to her — Jessie holds a bachelor’s degree in poetry.

To Jessie, her diverse interests coalesce and make sense. “Riding and poetry appeal to me because they both require a huge amount of attention to detail and hard work to make the final result look effortless,” she said. “You look at a great poem or a great rider, and think, ‘I could do that, that looks easy,’” she added, “— which is a testament to the skill of the artist, or the rider.”

Leather That Lasts

In launching her company, Jessie has become as encyclopedic as you’d expect about everything that goes into her products. “Most leather is chrome-tanned: it’s faster, it’s cheaper. But there are a ton of chemicals that are really bad for people and animals,” she said. Most are made in developing countries, she added, which take unfair advantage of lax environmental laws, and put people at risk. “The major byproduct of chrome tanning is toxic waste water. It’s really destructive.”

The leather that goes into Jessie’s belts therefore takes longer to craft, but the result, she says, is safer for the environment, and worth it. “The leather is instead tanned for a really long time, six to eight weeks, in a solution that is mostly made out of bark. Tree bark!” she said. “It’s a slow and old-world, eco-friendly process.”

Jessie designed the buckles on her belts to be riffs on the durable hardware riders know from halters and stirrup leathers. They’re cast just as painstakingly as the leather they’re mounted on. “It’s an ancient process,” Jessie explained. Molten brass is poured into molds made of sand, which is then cracked apart revealing the shiny new buckle inside. “Baby buckles being born!” Jessie gleefully captions her Instagram photos, where she documents each step of the artistic process.

Jessie, wearing one of the belts she has created, is in buying and business development for Manhattan Saddlery in New York City.
Photos by Shelby Phillips, www.shelbyphillipsphotography.com

A Life With Horses

Horses are a huge part of Jessie’s life, but they aren’t in the Massachusetts native’s blood. Nevertheless, Jessie and her sister, Alicia, have managed to revolve around the animals they love: Her sister is a professional horse shipper, and the proud owner of an adorable pet rescue mule.

“The crazy thing is my parents have nothing to do with horses,” Jessie said. “But my sister and I have made them our profession and life. No one knows where we got it!

“What I love about horses is that what you give to them, they give back to you,” she added. “When you love your horses they blossom. Whether they’re worn on the dance floor or in the show ring, I put a lot of love into my belts, and want what I create to give back to anyone who wears it.”

For more information, visit www.BlakeGoods.com or @blakegoodsbrooklyn

Double D Trailers Info

Tagged under: blake goods, Jessie Blake Lochrie, sarah maslin nir

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Marie Meyers has been around the world because of Marie Meyers has been around the world because of dressage, but it’s her farm in Moorpark, California, that has captured her heart. The farm and the business that thrives there represent Marie’s lifelong journey—a journey made up of good friends, spectacular horses and relationships made to last.

Marie was raised in Southern California, and spent her childhood playing just about every sport under the sun, but she didn’t discover riding until she was 14 years old. “I loved animals so much, so I started taking lessons. I did jumping at first, but I was very bad at that, for sure!” Marie laughed.

After some time, Marie moved on to take lessons at Foxfield Riding Academy and began riding dressage. “I fell into dressage by accident,” Marie said, “At the beginning, I thought it was extremely boring, but then I got hooked. By the time I graduated from high school, I had plans to travel to England to work for Franz Rochowansky, a former head of the Spanish Riding School.”

In 1988, Marie’s hard work paid off, and the pair was selected as alternates for the 1988 Summer Olympic Games. “They didn’t take the alternates that year, so we didn’t go to Seoul, but the experience, the training and the European Tour afterwards set me up for the 1990 World Equestrian Games in Stockholm, Sweden,” Marie said.

In addition to having success representing her country, Marie was busy with her life—marriage, a business, teaching lessons and clinics. 

Learn more about Marie in this month's edition of Sidelines Magazine. Click the link in our bio for more 🦄

📸Photos by Lindsey Long Equine Photography, www.lindseylong.com

#dressage #equestrian #horse #horses #horsesofinstagram #dressagehorse #equestrianlife #showjumping #horseriding #equine #pony #pferd #instahorse #dressur #horselove #eventing #equestrianstyle #cheval #dressagerider #horselife #horselover #pferde #love #riding #jumping #pferdeliebe #horseofinstagram #horsebackriding #paard #dressurpferd
We are starting a ‼️new series‼️ here on o We are starting a ‼️new series‼️ here on our socials where we share some of the lovely stallions, and their breeders featured in each month's magazine. Our first feature on this #STUDSunday is...

 ✨ALVESTA OWAIN✨
Thistledown Arctic Lore x Alvesta Fairy Lustre
13.1hh, Welsh section B
Stud Fee $750 (plus collection)
AI only and EVA negative
Fairfield, VA

Contact Cheryl Maye at (703) 431-9096 for more information
https://www.mayeshowponies.com/more-info/stallions

You can find ALL of the stallions featured towards the back of the magazine in the equestrian gallery. Keep a look out EVERY Sunday for a new handsome STUD muffin🧁 and don't forget to subscribe to get your very own edition of Sidelines Magazine, the magazine for horse people, about horse people 🦄

📸  SAS Equestrian
‼️ROB JACOBS COLUMN‼️ The purpose of this ‼️ROB JACOBS COLUMN‼️

The purpose of this month’s column is to help the young equestrians of our sport develop and maintain healthy friendships within the industry. Cultivating healthy relationships with other members within the industry is not as easy as one may think. As a young equestrian, it may be difficult navigating friendships at the barn and at horse shows. Typically, kids have friendships within the barn they ride at but also friendships with others from different barns in their area. 

Initially, it may seem as though making other friends in the sport would be easy and ideal; after all, there is the common interest of horses. However, because of the natural therapeutic benefits of horses, the sport has a history of attracting all types of people, with a wide range of personalities. This can be both an advantage and a drawback. We are now in an era that acknowledges the growing need to discuss and manage one’s mental health. 

One thing I have learned is that we are likely to notice mental health challenges at an age younger than most people may think. Some of the friendship dynamics I have observed over the years have caused me to pause and really think about the future of our sport. Without looking for a source to blame for the cause of this, i.e. social media, parents, school, teachers, etc., I think if all adults involved worked to encourage, affirm, love, and respect our youth, the likelihood of them developing authentic friendships with their peers may increase.

Both humans and horses were designed to have connected relationships. These relationships allow a greater sense of security when one experiences challenges in life. Cultivating the quality and authenticity of these relationships requires intentional work. 

Thank you Rob for providing your helpful insight on developing healthy relationships. Check out his tips in his column you can find in the link in our bio.
Never miss a story by subscribing to Sidelines Magazine🦄 

Photo by Blenheim Equisports

#horse #horses #horsesofinstagram #equestrian #horseriding #equine #hunterjumper #equestrianlife #horselove #dressage #sidelinesmagzine
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