Shopping Western Style

Greetings!

That’s the name of the TV show I helped tape this week. It’s a new show on RFD and will begin airing September 5^th, with the first episode featuring yours truly as the “celebrity guest host.” The regular host is Justin McKee, the slick and sexy “voice” of the PBR.

The show is a Western Lifestyle/home shopping show. It is sponsored by PFI Western Town, PFIWestern.com, in Springfield MO. PFI a complex of stores including the main store—with all the greatest Western apparel for men, women and kids, home furnishings and literally thousands of pairs of boots (including some very hot Ariat fashion boots made exclusively for PFI); next door is PFI’s Saddle City and Diamond Ridge Wine & Cheeses.

The tack store is one of the largest and most complete tack stores I have been in for ages. I get tired of the “McTack” stores that are so prevalent today—chain stores with a token selection of “canned” stuff. I LOVE to go into real tack stores—owned and operated by knowledgeable individuals who buy and stock the stuff that horse trainers need and want. The best tack stores are often near race tracks or in areas where there are many high-level training operations.

My favorite thing to do in a tack store is peruse every item in the store, large and small, and see if I can find any widgets that I don’t know what it’s for. If there is something, usually the tag will tell me what it is and I can figure out how it’s used. I’ve learned about some really interesting gadgets that way. The McTack stores never have any unusual stuff.

It was really fun wandering around Saddle City at PFI Western while they were taping segments of the show that didn’t involve me. It’s a HUGE store and has everything you could possibly need from bronc rider’s gloves to pack saddles to lariats to breeches and show clothes-- and hundreds of saddles, including both of the Circle Y saddles I ride in (the Flex2 Reiner and the Ranch Cutter). Although I found a few new products I hadn’t seen before, there wasn’t much that stumped me—but I sure had fun looking. And I found a couple little things I’ve been needing for some time and got some straps for my new pair of fancy spurs that Rich bought me off Ebay.

I also had time to wander through the apparel store. I thought we had a good Western/casual store here in Salida, but it’s nothing compared to PFI Western Town. I bought a couple shirts for myself (like I need more shirts!) and two really nice shirts for Rich. I love the Ryan Michael shirts, but they are hard to find a very expensive—but I found a gorgeous pale green one on sale for Rich. Clothes shopping isn’t nearly as much fun as tack shopping to me because I hate trying things on.

“Shopping Western Style” is a half hour show that starts with an interview with the celebrity guest host, then has segments on tack, fashion and cooking. I did a cooking segment, which was fun. I love to cook, so I was a natural for that segment. I did two segments on saddles and two apparel segments on jeans and accessories. I know a lot about what I want in riding jeans, so that segment was easy. Not being a huge accessories collector (I only own one purse), I was probably not at my best for that segment-- but we got it done.

I taped two shows for ‘Shopping Western Style’ and they will air Friday, September 5^th at 9:30p EST and Friday September 19^th at 9:30p EST. I hope you can watch it or set your DVR and let me know what you think. I’ll be in Martha’s Vineyard for a Horse Master shoot during that time, so I may miss it!

I am home now for a few days before I have to leave again. So far, my idea of spending all of August at home is turning out to be an illusion or a delusion. I have to leave town again for a few days for a business meeting on Sunday, then Rich and I will head to Oregon for a fun little get-away the last week of the month, then I head to Martha’s Vineyard for the TV shoot on Labor Day weekend. Man does summer go fast!

Enjoy the ride!

Julie