Tack Shed Renovation: Organization Part 1

I'm not actually sure how long it will take me to get all of the organizational things sorted out, but we got started on those last weekend as well!

Installing the curtain rod -- eventually I'll get some thermal curtains (teal, naturally) to help make it a bit more energy efficient. Probably not right away, but I did snag this curtain rod to match the one I'm using for the bits so I figured might as well just install it now. 

Installing shelf brackets -- later on Saturday I bought some white pre-finished shelf boards, but they ended up being like three inches too short, so I'll have to return them and probably custom cut (then paint) a shelf out of plywood. Which is fine, just more work. I was hoping the pre-finished boards would do it. 

MY SADDLE PAD HOLDER!!!!

I bought these like a year ago when Schneiders was running a sale and they've just been sitting in a box since then, haha. I LOOOOOVE it. 

Frequently used pads will go here, the rest will go on the shelf over the door to save space. 

I dithered incessantly over the bridle hooks -- my last set that DH made were too close together and it was always annoying trying to get bridles down and put them back. Of course, I gave them away before I thought to measure the distance between them as a "what not to do". I tried some creative googling for standard distances, but didn't find much. Naturally I also polled my friends, and got a variety of responses ;) best case scenario sounded like 11 inches between hooks, but if I did that, I could literally devote an entire wall to bridles and still maybe not have them all hung.

Eyeballing some spacing. 

Practicing on some scraps. 

Me, being a genius as always, sank the screw all the way through the board without thinking about the fact that the once the only thing in the board was smooth metal, the threads wouldn't hit the wood to come back out. Um. This is why I'm not typically allowed to play with power tools, haha. 

This is not even all the bridle hooks I ordered. I... might have a problem? Huh. 

I had some scrap lumber so I tried setting it up, and I finally decided on a distance (8 inches center screw to center screw), bit the bullet, and hung most of the racks on my two boards. Those were boards we still had from the house project, which is why they're mismatched lengths, but it actually worked out fine because it gave me a chance to stagger my bridles. The long one went up top for the bridles that don't get much use (show halters, Spanish bridles, etc.), and the lower one is for daily use stuff to be in easy reach. There was a little space on each right side -- not enough for another hook, but an awkward opening. They were perfect for the weird little wrought iron horse head triple hooks I bought! So that's where lunging equipment hangs.

This board sat in our three-sided shed for like 6 months before I pulled it out, and it is no longer any semblance of straight. We were able to fix the worst of it, but it did splinter around one of the screws. I don't think you'll see it behind the bridles though, so whatever haha. 

Oops. 

Getting this one to hang level was also an interesting experience. It still looks wildly slanted but both the level and verified measurements say it's straight sooooooo 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Testing to make sure I had room for the top reins not to overlap the bottom hooks. You can see the wrought iron horse head hook on the top right of the upper board.

Hanging the curtain rod for bits and one of the girth hooks. I won't need to reach this stuff too often, so I was okay hanging it up high to best utilize my space. 

I don't swap bits that frequently, and I hung up my long girths and least frequently used dressage girths. I still have a TON of S-hooks left over, so I think I'm going to get another curtain rod and hang up fly bonnets!

Hung the "daily use" pads and I still had hooks left over! The show pads and ones still in packaging will go over the door. 

Filled all the hooks! I still have a few more to hang on another board (whenever I have time to buy/stain more boards), but my daily use bridles and lunging caveson are on the bottom row. Top row has leather halters, show halters, Spanish halters, Spanish bridles, hunt bridle, and all of our western show and trail bridles (and hackamores). A few things are still doubled up, which I will fix when I hang the last few hooks :)

Ended up hanging my old hunt breastplate with martingale on the girth hook too, since I didn't know where else to stash it. 

The "above the door" pads are currently hanging out in my papasan chair. Helmet and grooming bag are on the cedar chest for any riding in the near future. I need more organizational stuff before everything has a home :) I'm thinking either a cabinet or some cubbies like I currently have in my closet. 

This is obviously not how the saddles will stay, but I have my Spanish saddles in the back right, my western saddles in the back left, my hunt saddle on the single rack on the left (currently buried under boots and western wool pads), and my dressage saddles/endurance saddle on the right front rack. My plan is to build 4 saddle holders for the wall over the back racks, and my least frequently used saddles will go up high on the wall. I didn't realize quite how much space the floor-mount saddle racks take up. Sooooo if you're local I'll have a really nice lightly used 3-tier saddle rack plus a single folding rack available for sale in the near future lol. You can also see the shoe organizer that is holding all my horse boots on the floor under the bridles. 

So while it's still FAR from done, it at least looks and mostly functions like a tack room again!