We will be open weekends only in May!

5/9 10am - 5pm

5/10 10am - 5pm

5/16 10am - 5pm*

5/17 10am - 5pm*

5/23 10am - 5pm*

5/24 10am - 5pm*

*Hours subject to change. Please review our Socials or Google hours for updates

Personal Statement:

First, I want to say thank you to all the people in the Kansas City horse community for supporting Tricolor Tack for the past 12 years. It has been an honor to get to know you and be a part of your journey with horses. I started working in tack stores at age 16 at Horse Hardware in 2006 and I opened Tricolor Tack in 2014. It is hard to believe I have already spent 20 years outfitting you and your horses. A lot has changed over this time- horse care, the barns, the shows, the costs, some of the people.

Starting at the end of 2023 sales began to decline. At first, I thought this was a normal ebb and flow of the market. It was only natural that many of the people who began riding during Covid would lose interest or max out lesson horses and quit riding, but this ended up being different. Sales in 2024 ended up ok, but sales in 2025 were down so significantly it became unsustainable. In 2026 fewer people ride, own and lease horses than before. Almost every barn has empty stalls now.

If you want to know why Tricolor Tack is closing, ask yourself this: did you shop at Tricolor Tack in 2025? Or did you shop online sales from major corporate retailers for the lowest prices possible on whatever you can find? Of course, I have poured much consideration in what happened, and the answer is that the economy does not work for the people of this country. Costs rise constantly, but no one makes more money. Riding horses is expensive and the items for sale at Tricolor Tack are largely wants not needs. I had to really adjust what I stocked to focus more on necessities and less on luxuries. It turns out, no one needs an $80 sun shirt to ride a horse. I literally cut spending on seasonal apparel (casual tops, jackets, vests, etc) by $20,000+ spring and fall. That is $40,000+ annually, which translates to $80,000+ retail sales lost simply because the stock didn’t exist. The consumer fails to understand that retailers cannot just continuously stock new stuff because all the capital is tied up in what is already available. So, if people do not buy what is in stock, there is no money to spend on buying more. Retailers cannot stock items just to have them, the inventory must be continuously turning over. It is the paradigm of retail.

There is another issue I am finally going to address publicly that first arose during the 2016 election cycle: politics. First, I am entitled to my personal political opinions. Furthermore, it is my right to post about them on my personal and private Facebook page. My messaging about the vitality of acceptance, inclusion and equal opportunity has always been crystal clear. I never mince my words about how I believe that our differences make us better and that it is ok to respectfully disagree. However, that did not stop a handful of customers from feeling attacked. I will be absolute again: if you or anyone else felt attacked by my messaging, then it is because you created your own negative narrative to fit your own divisive ideals.

Personally, I choose not to live my life by boycotting businesses whose owners vote differently than me. Not to mention, one of my longest and best friends voted for Trump every time. I even have respect for those of you who are vocal about your opinions, even if they are opposite from mine. Anyone who actually knows me knows this to be true.

Really, it says a lot about what type of people withheld business from Tricolor Tack; a small biz that directly supports your community and is owned by a single woman. Boycotting the store was done purely with intent to cause me personal harm. The grotesque reality is these customers always show back up eventually, pretending to be loyal friends, just because they need something desperately or seek to take advantage of a sale. I know who these customers are, but you don’t know I do, because I have done my job of being a kind and gracious business owner with excellence and superiority.

Second, it is a false belief that the few who boycotted my store had any effect on it whatsoever. Republicans and democrats alike believe republicans are the majority voter in this area, but both are wrong because we are evenly divided- just like congress and this entire country. However, the few who boycotted the store did have one direct affect: you voted for the moron who got us here. Trump’s Tariffs are destroying consumerism. Trump’s war with Iran has only begun to drive up prices on gas, groceries and everything else. Trumps favoritism of corporate monopolies is taking over every aspect of our lives. Billionaires have bought the Supreme Court. Our global allies are abandoning us.

Unless you are ultra-rich, you don’t have extra money to spend. No money for fun seasonal riding shirts, no money for the new color of your favorite brand of breeches, less money for vet bills and horse shows. Can you even afford your own healthcare? These reasons are why Tricolor Tack struggled over the last year. Frankly, riding horses is a luxury hobby that fewer and fewer people can afford.

If you need proof about how the economy hurts the horse industry, and by consequence hurts Tricolor Tack, look at how the lesson programs in this town have diminished over the last 10 years. Before, most barns had a string of lesson horses, mostly maxing out at 2’3” with some jumping higher. On a weekly basis, there was a large group of riders who came for once or twice weekly lessons on these horses, but never had intention of buying or leasing, although they did ride long term in this form.

Today, many of the barns that offered that style of riding program have either closed altogether or reduced the number of lesson horses to one or two, maxing out at lower height. The long-term weekly lesson rider no longer exists. Obviously, this is because horses are expensive to keep and as costs have risen over the past decade, horse care prices have more than doubled. It is increasingly difficult for lesson horses to “earn their keep” to cover their own costs by teaching lessons. In part because we know now it is unfair for them to be ridden more than once a day or jumped over a certain height multiple times a week. Horses are no longer disposable in the way they have been historically- veterinary care, nutrition, saddles, etc. have greatly improved horse longevity. They literally have longer, sounder lives due to advances in care, with many horses jumping at height into their 20s. Fifteen years ago that was a complete anomaly, now it is commonplace.

While this is great for the horses, it does have a negative effect on the industry. Lack of lesson horse availability leads to a lack of beginners. I have seen this firsthand at the store; we used to get at least one beginner a day and now if we get one a week we are lucky. People tell me they called 5 places over months before anyone would get back to them. This is directly due to the lack of lesson horse availability. Even more alarming, there is a clear lack of youth riders.

It turns out, the beginner riders are a major driver of the market because they are the ones who need things and are excited about the availability of new items in an industry they are eager to learn about. I think we can all agree that the longer you ride and the longer you own horses, the less stuff you need to acquire. Every rider reaches a point where they have all the things they need and everything else becomes wants unless something breaks. Also, the needs of advanced riders become specialized to brand names and specific items. Advanced riders often become less willing to explore new brands or items because it is easy to get stuck with the things you already love. Therefore, there is less and less of a need to shop at Tricolor Tack. Even I am guilty: when my pony needed a side pull, I paid full retail and ordered one from Europe.

While this a big problem for the industry now, it is an even bigger problem for the industry in 20 years. A large part of the beginner rider group are what I call the “re-riders,” or the people who rode as youth but quit to go to college and start a career and family, and then return to horses once they have money or the kids are old enough for mom to have a hobby again. If there are no beginner youth now, there will be no re-riders in 20 years.

I see posts all the time about how the horse industry is due for a reckoning because of the high costs. I feel that laying blame on the industry itself is completely misguided. Costs are too high for people to afford because of incomes being suppressed for decades. Everyone knows that the cost of living has risen exponentially compared to wages. For the horse industry to survive long term, this country is going to have to make a lot of fundamental changes to fix the economy that go way beyond adjusting federal interest rates.

I will always love horses. It has never been lost on me how horses have this incredible ability to bring people together from all walks of life. The biggest gift horses give us is they do not simply carry our weight, they carry our hopes and dreams as well. It’s the thing that sets them apart from dogs as companion animals and it’s why it hurts so much when they get injured or die. I hope every one of my customers and friends continues to find joy and have fun with horses for years to come. Thanks again for all the good years.

Sincerely from your friend,

Kelly Hunt