Amid the modern bustle of 24^th Street in Manhattan stands a three-story relic of old New York—a shop that calls back to a time when city noise included hooves clattering on cobblestones. Founded in 1912, Manhattan Saddlery has been outfitting equestrians since horses were an integral part of daily life and the street was nicknamed “Old Stable Row.” It’s now the last shop of its kind in New York City.

“It’s of course really easy to forget—as I look out my window now and I see nothing but concrete, steel and glass and a bunch of cars—but I think it’s always been in the back of my mind that there’s a pretty rich equestrian past in New York City,” said Manhattan Saddlery owner Nick Tsang. “The National Horse Show was here, Madison Square Garden … and going back many, many decades, the city was all horse-powered over 100 years ago.”

The tack store, formerly called Miller Harness Shop, isn’t just a part of the historic landscape of Manhattan. For Tsang, the building holds a meaningful place in his own family history: Miller’s was a favorite destination for Tsang’s late mother, Yuen-Ron “June” Tsang.

“My brother, [who’s] six years older than me, is intellectually disabled, and my mom was kind of an early adopter to the idea of therapeutic riding,” Nick said. “She wanted us to ride as a family.

“Pretty soon I lost interest; my brother lost interest; my dad lost interest,” Nick continued. “And my mom really got into it. She ended up buying a horse, which became two, which became four.”

As her dressage obsession took root, June would regularly pop into Miller’s. During one visit in 2002, she was surprised to find merchandise dwindling and shelves bare; the store was closing. Nick says June wasn’t one to act on a whim, but she had the idea that owning her favorite shop “might be interesting.” She and Nick’s father, Kock-Yen Tsang, bought the store, which they later renamed Manhattan Saddlery. June fell ill in 2007 and Nick, who had recently graduated college, took over running the store. After his mother’s death a few years later, he remained devoted to keeping the shop open for the long haul—even if Nick isn’t the same equestrian that his mom was.

“The running joke is that I cannot think of another human on Earth who doesn’t actively touch horses, but who knows every single brand and owns several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of inventory,” said Manhattan Saddlery manager Laura Ratliff.

He may not be an active rider anymore—“I’m deeply allergic to horses; I can only be at the barn for so long, even if I’m stuffed to the gills with Allegra,” he said—but Nick, along with Ratliff and the Manhattan Saddlery staff, will happily talk shop.

“There’s a saying in the investment world, ‘You don’t want to be selling buggy whips in the age of the automobile,’ and as New York City’s pre-eminent seller of literal buggy whips, I think the challenges are obvious,” Nick said with a laugh.

When people drop in, Ratliff says they’ll often share how the long-standing store has played a role in their lives. “We get customers who come in and say, ‘Oh, my mother shopped here in the ’70s,’ or, ‘I got my first tall boots here in 1986,’ ” she said. “The store was kind of the go-to.”

Even Ratliff, who spent her childhood thousands of miles away from New York City, was aware of the legacy of the original shop.

“The Miller’s catalog was kind of like the Sears catalog growing up, right?” she said. “I grew up in Texas, but I remember flipping through it and circling things.”

Now, getting to help run the store today, she feels the magic first-hand that once endeared her to the store from afar.

“I think it has a really unique atmosphere that can only be attributed to it being in New York City,” Ratliff said of the shop’s charm. “I always joke that when I turn the lights off at night, it kind of feels like ‘Night At The Museum’ to me. There’s just this ethereal glow. I always think it looks beautiful from the street. I’m just kind of humbled when I close the store down at night.”

Nick, who also works as a real estate developer, appreciates the responsibility of preserving the store’s old New York charm.

“I think it has this feeling where the store hasn’t been touched for a while—but in a good way,” Nick said.

“You know, it’s like you walk through the doors, you get buzzed in, and it’s really different from the streetscape and the surroundings outside.”

Being in a fashion- and film-centric city, not every Manhattan Saddlery shopper is an equestrian. It’s also frequented by stylists to source props for the occasional television show with a riding scene, or a magazine shoot with a preppy feel.

“We’ve had a stylist for ‘[Law & Order] SVU’ who comes in pretty regularly,” said Ratliff. “The most recent set was two stylists from the new Jon Hamm show called ‘Your Friends & Neighbors.’ ”

They’re happy to share the store with New York—whether stylists or riders, tourists or locals. But inside the shop, however much the city changes around it, there are a few things that will also never be for sale: a cast iron horse gifted to founder Jack Miller; four antique carousel horses frozen in their gaits; and June’s personal collection of Chinese horse statues.

“People routinely ask to buy them, too, and get rebuffed … There are some things in that store that, for Nick, absolutely do not have a price,” Ratliff said.

This article originally appeared in the July 2025 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse. You can subscribe and get online access to a digital version and then enjoy a year of The Chronicle of the Horse. If you’re just following COTH online, you’re missing so much great unique content. Each print issue of the Chronicle is full of in-depth competition news, fascinating features, probing looks at issues within the sports of hunter/jumper, eventing and dressage, and stunning photography.