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We really wish this was a story about a businesswoman who, against all the odds, realized her crazy dream to sell horseback riding equipment on an out-of-the-way block alongside a polluted canal. Instead, sadly, it's a story about a businesswoman who has to close up shop because nobody in Gowanus needs saddles. Debbie Singleton grew up riding, becoming a cowgirl at the age of 9. She opened Debbie's Reins on Douglass Street between Third and Fourth Avenues in 2006 and managed over two years to bring in customers from as far as Italy and as nearby as Marble Tile Terrazo, the tile store down the block. Ultimately, though, Gowanus just didn't have enough equestrians. Singleton has another shop out by JFK, so she'll be OK, but can someone please turn this into a movie with a happier ending? Ideally there would be a scrappy team of local schoolchildren who wind up winning the Kentucky Derby.
·‘Rein’ ends for Debbie [Brooklyn Paper]