The Etsy Equestrians #4:
Elaine from Bowdangles Horse Show Bows

“Made with Love. Sprinkled with Magic. Making the Best Memories Possible.” That’s the mission of Bowdangles Horse Show Bows, the fourth story in The Etsy Equestrians series. Bowdangles’ founder and creator Elaine Moore loved art at age four and horses even earlier. For the last several years she has channeled her creative energies into designing beautiful Bowdangles Horse Show Bows for little girl equestrians.

Elaine, the extremely artistic Virginian who lives with her husband and two Tennesee Walkers, started making bows for her granddaughter and it caught on. Soon her granddaughter’s friends wanted Elaine to make their horse show bows too, and at one point she was selling Bowdangles Horse Show Bows through Dover! You will love getting to know Elaine (she prefers a trip to Pony Finals over a vacation to Europe!) as you read abut another fabulous Etsy Equestrian.

How did you first get involved with horses? 

I was born loving horses. My parents were not horse-folks and we lived in an apartment so I created stick-horses horses using socks, broomsticks, and construction paper to make the eyes, nose, bridle, and mane. See, even at four years of age, I was snipping away with scissors creating something beautiful and useful relating to horses.

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Later, Walter Farley, brought his horses into my world through the magic of his words. His books never disappointed and I grew up longing for a horse or pony. When our daughters (neither of whom cared much for horses) graduated from college, my husband found a house in Great Falls, Virginia with a barn.  Finally, I had a home for my own horse. Two, in fact! Indy and Champ.

I spent many hours riding the beautiful wooded trails in Great Falls. Champ has since crossed the rainbow bridge but Indy, my love, is still with us in Waterford, VA, along with Honey Bunch, both Tennessee Walkers. I do believe the closest thing to heaven is on the back of a horse.

Describe your Bowdangles Horse Show Bows Etsy shop and products. How did you first launch your line of bows?

I have always been creative. Oil and acrylics, water colors, ceramics, needlework, photography, and at one point I wrote short stories for adults (published in literary magazines) and books for children ages 2 – 12, published by the biggies in New York. So when my little granddaughter wanted to show her pony, it was only natural that I would make her show bows. I mean, here was something creative that I hadn’t mastered. How could that happen!

But as I hunched over the table with spools of ribbon spread out before me, what I quickly learned was that horse show bows were incredibly difficult to make — at least to my satisfaction. Actually, that’s still a problem — I am very particular about my Bowdangles Horse Show Bows! It took days to finish one pair!  Ha!

A little better now when making a pair of bows takes anywhere from one to six hours but that’s not counting time spent cutting, ironing or shopping for ribbon. Anyway, I guess the early bows were cute enough because my granddaughter’s friends began asking and I began making their bows whenever they had a big show.

A couple moms and trainers urged me to take my bows to Dover Saddlery in Chantilly, VA to see if they would carry them.  Dover Saddlery – what a fantastic experience! Now when we went to a show, there were other Bowdangles Horse Show Bows in the ring! Selling through Dover not only validated my efforts, but watching girls wearing my bows in the competitive show ring, inspired me to create colorful bows that soared over jumps and danced in the flat. I saw the importance of using quality ribbon always with good taste.

I noticed that girls who felt good about how they looked (and a bow will do that), naturally sat a tad straighter and smiled a bit brighter. Their feet sank deeper in the stirrups and they had a look of intent the message of which carried down to their pony and gave them presence in the ring. Oh, it wasn’t my Bowdangles Horse Show Bows that were creating winners, but they certainly helped – especially when the bows were the right size and attached to the right place on the young rider’s braids.

Meanwhile, my online sales and Etsy shop sales climbed as people heard of my Bowdangles Horse Show Bows.  I had the best of all worlds:  kids and their ponies, adults who valued my bows, and the opportunity to go full tilt in a new creative endeavor.

As online sales increased to the point that I no longer had time for my husband and horse (not necessarily in that order), I stopped selling wholesale. Yes, I could hire someone to help make the bows, answer my emails, or coordinate my orders and marketing but I enjoy my quiet creative time making my bows. I enjoy the interaction with my customers and the creativity involved in making promotional material.

When my husband offered to cut and iron the ribbons, assemble the shipping boxes, pack finished bows, and take them to the Post Office, I knew my little business had gone big-time! Now there are over 650 different bow designs on my website and 300 in my Etsy Shop. And I’m still growing.

I love what I do  – working directly to help Show Moms get their daughters ready for shows by providing beautiful bows, the finishing touch for presentation in the show ring.  One satisfied customer told me that my bows were made with love and sprinkled with magic.  I like to think that’s true. I know I do my best.

My customers – these Show Moms — take time from their busy schedules or the hectic atmosphere at a show and send me pictures and videos of their smiling daughters wearing my Bowdangles Horse Show Bows! Seeing them means the world to me. Sometimes, it’s how I wake up in the morning – with a beaming Bowdangles Girl waving her beautiful and hard earned Championship ribbon on my I-pad. I’ll remember making her bows while my husband remembers packing them and taking them to the Post Office. We love knowing that we are part of their journey.

For those of us who are too old to wear horse show bows, can you tell us a little about the appeal or tradition of bows for little equestrians?

Traditionally, a young girl’s hair is combed into braids at a horse show to keep the hair out of her eyes.  With a good helmet and her hair braided, she’s safer. But braids, unadorned, look limp and plain so moms began weaving colorful ribbon into the braids and tying bows at the ends.

One of my favorite pictures of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is of her as a young rider wearing her jodhpurs and tweed jacket with hand-tied bows in her dark brown braids. Competition being what it is, moms wanted prettier and better and, oh yes, bigger bows – and bows that could be attached to the braids easier than doing it the last minute at the show. Bows can now be made with either elastic loops or French barrettes glued to their backs to attach them to the young rider’s braids at the very last minute if necessary.

For a Show Mom, braiding her daughter’s hair and attaching the bows, is a special, personal, intimate time. It’s difficult to describe the feeling one has looking at the back of your daughter’s or granddaughter’s neck, the soft hairs growing there, the tender slope of her shoulders.

She holds both bows and hands them to you one at a time, quietly. You are both thinking of her upcoming classes but not saying much. You are in that same moment, together yet separate. But you are also noticing how she has grown a fraction of an inch from the last time you fastened bows to her hair, how the shoulders have widened just a tad.

You are more aware of how she is growing and slipping away from you and the life she’s growing into. And you want to do everything you can to make it a good life and to help her become a strong, independent, woman and aren’t horses and ponies the best way to accomplish that? As you hold the bow and attach it to her braid, you know that it is. What an incredibly emotional experience!

I often hear from Moms and Dads who are sad when their daughter ages out of braids and bows. It’s one of life’s transitions and my Bowdangles Horse Show Bows are simply a vehicle. I love being part of that.

I also love it when someone purchases Bowdangles Horse Show Bows as an equestrian gift. Just last week someone bought bows as a baby shower gift. Well, it fills my heart because I know that bows bought for a young rider are also gift to the Show Mom or Dad who are working so hard to be able to provide their daughter with valuable horse and pony time. The time when the girls wear their bows passes so quickly. You blink and they are grown. You might as well have the best bows and that’s where I come in.

What’s the greatest challenge and the greatest joy you face in your equestrian or entrepreneurial life?

The greatest challenge and the greatest joy in my equestrian life is the same:  Indy. We are growing old together and trying to handle it gracefully. I’m grateful that he doesn’t require being ridden every day and he feels the same about me! I love his smell. I wish I could preserve it. I have photographs and videos. I have snips of mane and tail. I have journal entries but how do you capture the smell which is the beginning and end of your every day?

Greatest joys – I don’t have an ambassador program. Instead refer to any girl wearing my bows as a Bowdangles Girl. My greatest joy is seeing a parent with his/her child at the show, a wide smile spread across the Bowdangles Girl’s face, knowing that I played a part in making their best memories possible.

Where do you live and what’s the horse scene like there?

We live in Loudoun County, Virginia, outside of Leesburg in Waterford. We live on a gravel road which is great for riding in the winter, have nice pastures, and a barn with a ring. Many of our neighbors have barns and horses and there is a show barn with indoor arena a 15 minute hack from our barn. I enjoy sitting in their bleachers to watch the girls have their lessons. One of my very first Bowdangles Girls is now 17 and riding and winning ribbons in Grand Prix. You blink and they grow up.

Who do you regard as a hero or look to for inspiration in the horse world?

I am continuously inspired and impressed by Show Moms and Dads. It’s hard work being the parent of a child athlete. They drive their kids to lessons and shows, negotiate school and homework schedules, shop for clothes, boots, helmets, and bows, launder the clothes, find the best pony or horse for their kids and the right trainer, and still fix meals and maintain their own professional career. It can only be for love.

I’m also inspired by Secretariat’s race at the Belmont.  He is forever etched in our memories because of that race.  Obviously, I’ll never run that fast, but because of Secretariat I strive to go the distance. I also strive to be playful in my older years as he was shown to be in his videos. We can learn so much from horses if we only let them teach us.

Do you have any horse-related bucket list items you’d like to cross off?

Indy, Honey Bunch, and I have done everything I ever imagined horse-wise plus a few extras. Example: I had always dreamed of having a baby horse born in my very own barn. HB gave birth to a sweet filly we named Chloe a week after our new barn was constructed and on my birthday! I am fortunate to have had Indy and HB in my life. The neat thing is, they feel the same about me!

I would love to see pictures or video of a horse show where all the young riders are wearing patriotic bows – when it isn’t a national holiday.

 

My husband and I have taken some nice trips and vacations, Paris, Rome, Italy but Pony Finals in Lexington, Kentucky with our granddaughter was the best. I would like to return to Pony Finals to watch my Bowdangles Girls ride in the Walnut Ring and to meet their awesome parents and trainers.

Business Bucket List:

To find & learn apps that will save time with the paperwork and technology side of having a home based business.

How do your friends describe you?

I hear, “You are so talented” all the time.  Ha!  If they only saw the mistakes and messes I make!

Where can people follow you on social media or the Internet?

Oh, yes!  Please follow me on Instagram where I am @horseshowbows

I use the hashtag #bowdangleshorseshowbows a lot.

Come friend me on Facebook – www.facebook.com/elaine.moore.1426

My website is www.bowdangleshorseshowbows.com

My Etsy Shop is located at www.bowdanglesshowbows.etsy.com

I love making new friends.  Don’t be shy!

Thanks, Elaine for letting us share your story, and thanks readers for reading! 

Please comment: Did you ever wear horse show bows? If you were to wear them as an adult (this is just for fun–I realize bows for adults won’t fly) what colors would you choose to adorn your braids? I would personally go green. Or navy.

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