As a reminder, these are from before:
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| The hooks were designed for Western tack and weren't working for our big anatomic crowned English bridles. Also that tall cabinet was visually making the room feel smaller than it is, and it wasn't doing much for us from an organization standpoint - it was a deep dark pit of stuff we put in there and forgot about. Finally, the carpet was gross and had to go. |
And this is after:
We are pretty well done with it at this point. We ended up moving all of the western-style racks that used to be on the bridle wall over to the "short side of the L", which is where we're keeping bits, strap goods, vests, lunging equipment and show halters - basically anything that isn't a bridle.
We didn't end up finding a place to store wet saddle pads, which is my only wishlist item I couldn't figure out. It's a bummer, but we'll continue to store them on our stall-front blanket bars, which is fine. Sometimes you have to compromise with small spaces.
We decided to keep the freestanding saddle racks, even though we'd love to get some wall-mounted ones. We decided we wouldn't gain any extra space by switching to wall-mounted racks, so it was really just a preference, and a preference couldn't justify the spend:
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| These pictures are from July, the racks are full to the brim now! Two Dressage girth racks are between them. |
The super cheap girth racks I found are working great. It would be nice to have one more rack for jump girths, but unfortunately we can't figure out a place for that.
I struggled with how to hang the four-prong tack cleaning hook, until I looked beyond the horse industry for a solution. In the end, I spent $10 at Lowes for this wall-mounted plant hook and a tiny length of chain:
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| All the horse suppliers only had an over-the-stall-wall style mounting bracket for these, nothing wall-mounted, which is weird. |
Interestingly, having a dedicated, permanent tack cleaning station (the short cabinet just below it contains our tack cleaning stuff and provides a good place to clean saddles) seems to have increased the amount of tack cleaning that goes on! To be honest, having my girth hung on the wall for all to see instead of laid over my saddle like it used to be has shamed me into using the tack cleaning station regularly, haha.
Finally, the idea that started it all, my barnmate's desire to keep her sweaty helmet somewhere in the open to dry, has worked great. Even though we mounted them as close together as we could get, we have had no issues with them getting knocked off.
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| Tack cleaning cabinet in the foreground, with the hook barely visible above it |
Wall-mounted helmet hanger (State Line Tack): $4.15 x 7 = $29.05
Bolt-On Tack Rack (Jeffers): $4.99 x 3 = $14.97
Coated Metal Bridle Rack (Schneiders) = $2.49 x 20 = $49.80
Plant hanger and chain to be used with tack hook my barnmate already owned (Lowes) = $10-ish
Everything else we already owned!
Anyone else doing some fun organization projects over the winter?
Is there anything more satisfying than organizing tack? It looks great!
ReplyDeleteI need to add in a tack cleaning hook somewhere in my barn, cause I'm super lazy and don't bother cleaning stuff that often! My tack room needs an overhaul - I want to put up nicer walls - it is just particle board) and re-do the tack hooks, but it likely won't happen till the spring/summer.
i have eagerly been awaiting this post. These look great!!!!
ReplyDeleteI wish we had more of a 'tack cleaning station' in my current tack room. at my old farm we had a meat hook with a sink and i cleaned my tack so much more when it was all right there.
It's a thing of beauty and I'm glad that it has proved to be extremely functional for you guys as well!
ReplyDeleteNice work! I love the helmet hooks. I've not seen those before!
ReplyDeleteLooks great! We actually had a tack cleaning room in college which was wonderful. I cleaned tack every day then. (Had more time too, so that's probably more why.) The boarding barn has a tack cleaning area, but I can't pretend like I use it often enough.
ReplyDeleteI like how it looks. A suggestion for the girths, use some heavy string or bailing twine to make a loop. Put that thru both buckles to hang on the hook. That way it hangs straighter and looks nicer. You can also fit more girths on the racks, maybe one rack for longer girths, one for shorter.
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