ModJods, the company, may be a newborn...foaled in 2005. But the concept of the ModJods product has been in the works for quite a while. Co-Owner, Jean Mutrux says, "For me, ModJods began years ago, when I started making my own jodphurs. I've been riding all my life, first Saddleseat and then Hunt and Dressage. I never really liked the way Saddleseat Jods fit ... or looked and the selection of colors and fabric was certainly limited.

As a child, I grew up watching my mother make all the riding clothes for my sister and me. I caught my mom's sewing bug. And before my own daughter, Abbey, came along, I received a degree in fashion design from Washington University. Once Abbey started riding, naturally I made her jods and my own. Before I knew it all my horsey friends wanted them. And I made them just the way I liked them -- with a lower, more comfortable waist, and fitted longer legs.

I had often thought of starting a business making jods but never got around to it. Then, last year, I met another mom who shared my equestrian passion. We had a lot in common."

Lynne Moeller, the second half of the ModJods partnership, says, "Jean and I both have girls who ride and show. And we both grew up riding. We were both in the equestrian studies program at Stephens College, where I received a degree in Communications.

After college, I spent 15 years at The St. Louis Post Dispatch as Vice-President of Marketing. The newspaper business left little time for anything extracurricular and so it was only after my youngest son, John, was born that I left. And finally, last year, I got back into horses at the urging of my own mother -- who really wanted to see her grand-daughters, my girls Katie and Caroline, begin to ride.

Through riding, our daughters became friends, and Jean and I began to talk. We saw an opportunity to make everday riding jods that were as fun as the sport..." So now, with Jean as the designer and Lynne as the marketing expert, ModJods is up and thriving!