Tack Room Tour

My tack addiction is no big secret -- while my family isn’t thrilled by it, my friends are split between finding it weird, or hilarious (and enabling me by sending me tack deals). I am getting better about culling things I don’t really use, and investing in higher quality items that last longer. 

When DH has to build an entire shed to house my tack addiction...

Because I keep one horse boarded out and the rest at home, there are a few items I (by necessity) need to have doubles of -- because anyone who knows me knows that remembering to schlep my helmet, gloves, boots, etc., back and forth from the barn to my house is NOT happening. 

Everyone needs doubles of their favorite saddle pads, right?

There are other things I have multiples of just because I love them and I’m a hoarder. No apologies. 

#sorrynotsorry

My cubby/area at ACS is pretty neat and just has the basics -- saddle, girth, halfpad, and two saddle pads (that I rotate out when they need to be washed). Ruby’s bridle hook is home to her bridle, fly bonnet, a spare bit (which actually needs to go home), her flash, and a set of long lines. I have a separate hanger for my surcingle/side reins/lunge line. 

Teal saddle cover FTW!

Last but not least is my cubby -- home to a cooler (which could probably go home until fall, but I’m lazy), my helmet, my brushes, Ruby’s bell boots and Equilibrum wraps, and some other miscellaneous items (spurs, fly spray, my phone case for trail rides, conditioning spray for her luxurious locks, etc). My whip lives in the whip rack, a pair of my riding boots are lined up against the wall, and I have a tote in the loft that stores her blankets when not in use.

And that’s pretty much it at ACS -- if I need anything special (clippers, shampoo for pre-show baths, different boots, a different bit or reins, etc), it has to come from home, and I try to make sure I take anything extra home pretty quickly. If you only saw my tack at the barn, you might make the mistake of thinking I am *gasp* a minimalist or something crazy like that. 

God bless Kensington for having a plaid in my colors!

My tack room at home tells a different story. The story of an unabashed tack addict. I keep a set of brushes and fly spray in my feed room, but everything else lives in my tack shed. And by everything else, I mean 20+ saddle pads, five saddles, 10+ bridles and equally as many bits (although I purged my collection and sold about half of them in the last 6 months), an alarming array of grooming and washing paraphernalia, two tack trunks, several pairs of riding boots (including the two sets that need repairs that I keep forgetting to take in), several coolers, and I’m sure about 100 other things I’m forgetting. I could probably do a separate inventory post for each of those items.... maybe that will be the subject of some future blogging! 

Trunk full of grooming stuff.

Trunk full of polos, fly veils, browbands, and God knows what else.

Bit board -- used to be full, until I sold all of Topaz's 5.5" bits. (You can't see all the empty nails off to the right, oops!)

Girths, coolers, my tall boots, a first aid kit, and my old foaling kit.

My dressage saddle, my old hunt seat saddle, my trail saddle, my husband's saddle, and my doma vaquera saddle.

A hanging organizer with leg wraps and my spare show hay nets, and then a clothing rack full of my "show polos" and breeches. Also, my old prom dresses, because hey, why not?

I have a lot of halters and bridles.

Like for real, a lot.

Alllllllll of the halters and bridles.

 Lunging stuff :)

My two trunks! I love them.

The tack room of my horse trailer stays pretty empty unless it’s actually packed for a show. The permanent stuff is my “show stuff” -- chairs, buckets, bucket hooks, hay bags, some horse cookies, and one miscellaneous tote of stuff I’ve been meaning to clean out. The show stuff is primarily teal and black (of course!) -- the buckets and hay bags I use in the barn tend to be whatever color was on sale, and don’t match. The horror!

Teal bucket, black bucket hanger, teal and black hay net.

What’s your tack set up? If you board, how much space do you have, and does all your stuff fit there or do you have a “horse closet” at home. If you keep your horses at home, do you have a dedicated tack room in your barn, or how else do you store your tack? C’mon folks, help me feel better about my addiction! Haha.