Longtime saddle shop will close

The owner will operate the repair end of the business by appointment only.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Tucked away in a residential neighborhood, Kimmel's Saddle Shop has been a shopping destination for horse owners in the region for more than 60 years.
The smell of leather still lingers these days inside the store and workshop, but the shelves are mostly bare.
Cookie Hull is closing the shop her parents opened back in 1944 when the land around the Mathews Road house and store was mostly country.
Hull had planned to take over the business full-time, but her parents, Richard "Bud" and Pat Kimmel, are both having health problems and she's spending most of her time caring for them. The store is more than she can manage.
Selling off stock
She started selling off the stock of horse bridles, saddles, leatherwork tools and horseback riding attire a few weeks ago. A vendor from Kentucky picked up about 120 pairs of riding boots this week, and regular customers keep trickling in, looking for deals on the merchandise remaining.
Her target date to close is July 1.
Richard "Bud" Kimmel's decision to open a store catering to horse owners grew out of his own experiences as the son of a horse dealer.
He and his wife worked together in the business -- he made, repaired and customized saddles, bridles and other leather items, while she created handmade leather chaps.
At first the chaps business was for horse owners only, but as its reputation grew her mother took orders from motorcycle gangs like the War Lords and Brothers of the Hammer. "She even made a pair for a stripper once," Hull said, grinning.
Her father's leather business was equally diverse. He repaired golf bags and suitcases, made gun holsters, knife sheaths and custom-sized dog collars.
The store occupied two floors at one time, with the upper level set aside for boots, Western-style and English-style riding attire.
Hull and her siblings spent summer weekends traveling with their parents to horse shows around Northeastern Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania, where they set up their mobile horse supply trailer. "That was our vacation," Hull said.
Raised next door
Raised in a house adjacent to her parents' store, Hull grew up in and around Kimmel's Saddle Shop, and she raised her own three children in much the same way. As they grew they learned to wait on customers, and run the cash register and spent their summers working at horse shows with their grandparents.
Shelby Hull, 9, was the most disappointed to learn of the closing, her mother said, because she was just beginning to learn to make change.
Hull said she and her family will continue to plan their summers around the Canfield Fair, where the Saddle Shop has maintained a mobile horse supply trailer for decades. They own three horses and two ponies, so family members often show their animals at the fair as well.
She also plans to keep the repair side of the business going under a different name, by appointment only. "Most of my customers just call me from the parking lot and I come over and let them in," she said, laughing.
vinarsky@vindy.com