Oct 31, 2008

Gift shop for the horsey setBy Long Hwa-shuSuburbanChicagoNews.com

IL — A Western-themed gift shop has opened at the Sundance Saloon at Fountain Square, where the music is Country and Western, and most of the patrons are cowboys and cowgirls at heart.

“We’re doing great, considering we just opened a week ago,” said Susan B. Behringer, an interior designer and a horse woman from Wadsworth, known as an equestrian community.

The store, called Susan B. Designs, is on a loft overlooking the huge bar and dance floor. It is full of merchandise that would delight the horse-set and people partial to Western-inspired goods, including hats, caps, shirts, jackets, belts, jewelry, paintings, bags, calf-skin rugs, bar stools topped with calf skin and many others.

“I’m picky about what I buy and price them fairly,” said Behringer who also operates an interior design business in her home.

Showing an intricately designed belt with metal loops, she said, “I was wearing it in Chicago. People stopped me and asked where I got it.”

“Well, I sold quite a few of them.”

Behringer owns and shows Booya, a quarter horse, and rides on the gelding whenever she can.

“This incorporates my passion for interior design and love of horses,” said Behringer who has a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Illinois University and MBA from Northern Illinois University. She has an associate degree in interior design from Harper College.

Before opening the shop, she had a booth at the saloon, a popular night club, on a trial basis to gauge public interest. They were, needless to say, successful.

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