Equine Consignment: Buy and Sell Quality Horse Tack with Ease

TILTON — In the middle of an interview, Shira Nafshi, owner of The Trainer’s Loft, excuses herself to greet a customer.

“I’m going to give you some hand sanitizer before you get too far,” she says.

Running interference to make sure that customers coming into the equine tack shop are properly sanitized and masked is just one way that Nafshi’s workday has changed since the pandemic took hold. The Trainer’s Loft, which also sells animal feed, was deemed an essential business and able to stay open throughout the stay-at-home order, so Nafshi began requiring staff and customers to wear masks early on.

For some customers, that was an inconvenience. In the spring, when the shop was only doing curbside pickup at the loading dock, Nafshi spent about 20 minutes on the phone with a potential customer, discussing the type of chicken feed the woman needed and running through various options. At the end of the call, the woman asked if The Trainer’s Loft required masks. Nafshi explained that she did, but the woman wouldn’t actually be coming into the store, since this was a curbside pickup order.

“I won’t shop at a store that requires masks,” the caller said, before hanging up, Nafshi recalled.

Despite the occasional negative reaction from customers, Nafshi was determined to keep masks in place — and worn correctly — throughout the store.

“If we’re going to stay open as a store we need customers to comply with mask wearing,” she said.

Since the state-wide mask mandate went into effect in November, Nafshi has found that customers are more likely to comply.

“I’m really really grateful that Gov Sununu issued the mandate for the masks, making it easier for store owners to say to customers, ‘this isn’t just our policy, it’s a state policy,’” she said. “That is one reason I haven’t had as much pushback.”

After reopening to in-person shopping when the stay-at-home order was lifted in June, The Trainer’s Loft saw a steady stream of customers.

Image credit: Julie Hirshan Hart