I’ll be going to Lancaster and was wondering what harness shops are there that I could get some apparel and such. I know that Driving Essentials is there, but where else should I check?
What kind of apparel?
Most of the Amish harness shops have harness and may have some stable supplies, but not apparel that I know of
Village Harness in Intercourse is always fun and is in town with some nice quilt shops
We’ve been using Becky Zimmerman in Ephrata, but she is stricktly harness and supplies (which are limited)
You already mentioned Driving Essentials which is great (haven’t seen the new place yet).
Let’s see . . . harness shops
You say you are looking for apparel
if that is for you, then DE is probably your best and maybe only bet
If you are looking for horse apparel - ie: HARNESS
Looking in my 2006 Lancaster Business Directory (somewhat out of date)
there were 17 harness shops listed
but those would be everything from very local Amish (in the back of someone’s barn-type) to a more full service store
Yonies
435 Churchtown Rd
Honeybrook PA 19344
610-273-7370
bta and bio-plastic only
only open til 2 on Sat
Bartville Harness
156 Highland Rd
Christiana PA 17506
717-529-1251 (lv messg)
Sat til 4
they sell a lot of eng & western tack and halters
Beiler Mfg & Supply
290 Groffdale Rd
Leola PA 17540
717-656-2179
a lot of bio plastic and beta equipment
Village Harness
3578 WEST NEWPORT ROAD
RONKS, PA 17572
Its actually in Intercourse right across teh street from Kitchen Kettle
very basic Amish leather
used to have good prices on fly sprays and supplies
Becky Zimmerman -harness
601 Snapper Rd
Ephrata PA
717-354-5667
she just made some stuff for us …
has lots of harness on hand
leather & beta
she is not much of a talker
most of the Amish places are more workshops and not fancy “stores”
hard to just “browse” in unless you have something you are really looking for
Becky’s place is a big room with lots of harness on hooks - very crowded
and an aisle on the side of her actual constuction area that has halters and supplies and a cabinet with rosettes and fancy doo-dads etc
Many of the places with phone numbers - its actually a kind of answering service - you wont get a person first call
Have fun and give us a report on who you visit
Thank you for the info. Im looking for an apron and maybe a new hat…can probably get some type of affordable hat locally but apron…definately need to shop for. Seems like DE has the market on apparel.
How timely!
We’re planning a trip to the Lancaster area to shop for harness. (and that is the only thing we’re looking for other than shoo-fly pie!)
So any additional information or recommendations for harness shops and makers … particularly for beta-bi harness would be great!
THANKS!
Rita
Driving Essentials really is a driving department store. Lots of lots of stuff, the store is for soup to nuts outfitting to any level
Yonies name comes up often when discussing beta harness. Largish shop, very helpful. Works pretty much only in beta
We were recently introduced to Becky Zimmerman via our trainer. Like her work. We prefer leather so I didn’t look to see how much beta she has
Last time I was there, Village harness was largely leather and there is a lot of day to day working harness for Amish.
Darn… can’t remember the name of the hat shop but its in Chadd’s Ford PA and its much more reasonable that that other shop… Hat’s by… :-)]
In fact, this same Hat Store also sells very nice Aprons! Help?? Can anyone remember their name? They were at Martin’s Carriage Auction too.
Googling Chadds Ford PA and Hats finds this
http://www.thatshats.com/index.html
But most of these are too wide brimmed or IMO pretty over the top for all but the fanciest of carriages. Especially the men’s hats which are just odd
That’s Hats in Chadds Ford
Well, I think she customizes hats to make them ‘over the top’ for some folks who like that sort of thing and brings them back to earth for others. I had a friend who assists her husband as groom in his commercial carriage business and wanted something pretty and feminine but not too fru-fru… she accomplished it for a relatively reasonable price. She had the hat made for her right at the Auction! LOL.
ps… I have no connection to the store whatsoever 
