Carolynn Bohlman doesnt get to spend much time in the saddle herself, but the small equestrian-focused business here that commands most of her time keeps her in close touch with plenty of horse lovers who do.


She owns Foxy Horse & Hound, a tack, apparel, dcor, and gift shop at Latah Creek Plaza in southwest Spokane that caters heavily to a niche group of English-style riding enthusiasts across the Inland Northwest.


Its bigger than youd think, she says of that group.


Bohlmans customers range in age from 10 to 60, she estimates, and many of them are avid students ofand competitors inwhat are called the dressage and hunter-jumper horse disciplines.


Adapted from a French word that means training, dressage is a type of exhibition riding in which the horse is controlled in certain difficult steps and gaits by very slight movements by the rider.


Sometimes also described as equine ballet because of its touted beauty and elegance, dressage originated in the military and artistic equestrian academies of Europe, and is an Olympic sport. Perhaps the best-known ambassadors for it are the white Austrian Lipizzaner Stallions that perform periodically in exhibition tours around the U.S.


The term hunter-jumper refers to a class of sport horses that are taught other exhibition-minded disciplines, including jumping over objects. As with dressage, jumping is an Olympic sport.


The unique styles of riding include their own style of tack, such as saddles and saddle pads that are smaller than those used for Western-style riding, and special bridles, bits, and spurs. They also include formal riding attire, such as vests, dress coats, gloves, snug-fitting breeches, and tall, polished boots.


Foxy Horse & Hound sells all of those things, as well as other horse-related items, from dietary supplements and grooming supplies to jewelry, wall hangings, stuffed animals, books, cards, and toys. To round out the English feel implied by its name, it offers a smattering of hound- and fox-themed dcor and gift items, such as figurines, lamps, and pillows, and some cat-related items as well.


Separately, to attract gift shoppers who might not be horse enthusiasts, Bohlman says she steadily has expanded the stores inventory to include more items that can fit within a general country theme, such as lotions, candles, clocks, tableware, lamps, and yard accessories.


Prices at the store range from a dollar or two for some small items to several thousand dollars for some saddles. Bohlman says she also special orders a lot of merchandise for horse-riding enthusiasts.


Horse owners from as far away as Moses Lake and Sandpoint patronize the store, but a lot of its customers also are affluent people who live on Spokanes South Hill and board their horses in the Spokane area, she says.


Foxy Horse & Hound occupies about 1,200 square feet of leased space in a building across the parking lot from a Tidymans supermarket at Latah Creek Plaza.


Bohlman has furnished the store in a way that gives it a distinct country flavor, for example using antique wooden cabinetstheyre also for saleas display cases.


She started the business six years ago, and says she weathered a tough downturn in business after 9/11, but sales have strengthened since then.


Its pretty good now. The economys a little better, she says.


She declines to divulge the stores revenues, but says they havent grown enough yet to allow her to hire any employees. She operates the store by herselfon a six-day-a-week scheduleexcept for occasional help from a friend.


One of the more enjoyable aspects of the business, she says, is seeing the enthusiasm of people new to the equestrian disciplines.


Of dressage, she says, Its so precise, and they learn total control of their horse without doing anything, that they really get caught up in it. She adds, Theres just something about the rapport they develop with the horse as that training regimen progresses.


Bohlman lives on rural acreage about five miles southwest of the shopping center where her store is located. Her home is just across Gardner Road from the Marshland Equestrian Center, a dressage and hunter-jumper training facility that she sold to her daughter and son-in-law, Jennifer and Brent Smith, about two years ago.


That boarding-and-training facility currently houses about 45 horses and includes an indoor arena, two outdoor arenas, and two barns. Bohlman says it opened in about 1978 as Marshland Morgans, named after one of the breeds of horses commonly used for dressage, and was renamed in about 1984.


Raised on a ranch near Mount St. Helens until she was age 16, Bohlman says she always has liked horses and was drawn to English-style riding in the late 1970s. She had bought a horse for her three children earlier in that decade, and later, as a single parent, decided to turn that interest into a business.


The family business focused initially just on raising and showing Morgans, but with the stables change in name in 1984, the emphasis shifted to boarding and training and the focus broadened to include other breeds well-suited for the disciplined training, such as Thoroughbreds and German warmbloods.


Bohlman, who until then had managed medical clinics, says, I had a trainer come in, but I quit working (in the medical field) and ran the business.


All of her children, too, were involved in the business for a time, she says. Jennifer, 32, studied dressage in Europe, trained with Olympic riders in the U.S., and now is a full-time horse trainer and dressage instructor. She has taken riders to Junior Olympics events and earlier this month attended the Oregon dressage championships with two students, both of whom received awards.


Bohlman says she initially opened the retail store in a barn at the equestrian center as a way to obtain needed supplies at wholesale prices, but later decided to move it to a commercial space where it would have greater growth potential. It operated for about six months in a temporary space on the South Hill, she says, until construction of the building where it now is located was completed.


She sold the equestrian center to her daughter and son-in-law so she could focus on operating the store, but says she and her daughter still try to assist each other, as customer and business needs warrant.


Its worked out great, she says.