Tack Room Tour

I had some daylight this weekend so finally got some pictures of my nearly finished tack shed!

For about four and a half months, I've been at this barn (holy shit has it been such a short time since TC came back?) and had a tiny little tack shed. I recently got given a slightly bigger tack shed, but held onto hope that I'd get a real tack room. No dice. So I started making arrangements.
The shed is plastic, with a bit of metal here and there to keep it from collapsing.

I felt very uncomfortable nailing anything into it because it isn't technically mine (and also weather/you really shouldn't nail into plastic), so I couldn't figure out what to do with it until my dad rescued me. My dad is pretty good with power tools and wood, he built me a potting bench! He said that he could use some of their scrap wood to make an internal free standing structure. We took measurements and in a few weekends of work, we had the internal structure built.

Tack room at night!

Lucky for me, where the peak of the shed starts is a few inches above my head, so I wanted a shelf up there. My idea was to have that shelf hold stuff I didn't get to very often, like blankets (eventually, TC has like one blanket that is also Stretch's blanket so he's not using it this year) and my braiding kit and all that. I can reach anything up there pretty easily so it's not a big deal what goes up there.

Shelf for saddle pads, a couple drawers, tool kit, extra brushes,
braiding kit, and a flash light

I arranged to have my saddle be in the right hand corner because I mostly carry it on my right hip. I put the rack as close to the wall as I could without having the saddle be susceptible to scratches, and also high enough up where it would be able to go above my little drawers but not so high that I couldn't easily put it on my hip. Above that, I put another saddle rack as high up as we could given the shelf. TC regularly sweats through pads, so I don't like to have them on my saddle to dry because then my saddle gets all sweaty and gross. So that rack is there to put a pad upside down to dry.

The top drawer has polo wraps, extra gloves, and various other soft things that I don't want to get dirty. The bottom drawer has my horse first aid kit (I say that as if I have a human one, I do not) and miscellaneous stuff like extra bags, poultice paper, and the box my bit came in- for some reason I don't want to toss it.

Saddle racks, helmet, set of drawers, whip rack,
bridle/longeing stuff, and tack cleaning!

Wanting a tack cleaning station, I put my bridle racks on that side of the tack room too. I initially had wanted four, thinking of Rico's three bridles and a halter, but then realized that TC only had one halter (outside his stall) and one bridle. So I got two, with the idea that one would be for the bridle and one for his longeing stuff. Then once as he does go in a double (I'm fairly certain I won't put him in one, but I'll probably put my double on the wall just for funzies), I can move the longeing stuff, which I theoretically won't need anymore, to another hook.

Instead of more bridle racks, I hung my whip rack up and put my three whips there. I need to grab my piaffe whip and bamboo from the ranch to fill that thing up! The tack cleaning station wasn't complete until I went to the store and found a discounted shower rack thing, which I put in the corner. It's perfect because it was cheap, it's wire so I'm not worried about it getting gross, and it holds a lot of spray bottles on the other two racks. Every time I go to the ranch, my mom gives me old stuff like this that she doesn't use anymore, so I have quite a collection of first aid stuff.

Tack cleaning and other random bottles that I
didn't want leaking on anything

I wanted a white board in the back for emergency numbers and for TC's grain for when people take care of him. I always prepare grain for my trainer because he has the guys feed TC (I have bags with both the Spanish and English names for the days on it because once they gave him two days worth of grain in one day, lucky horse), but Kate will be riding him for me this winter (muahaha) and I might or might not make grain bags for her since, and I'm only assuming this, she can follow directions fairly easily. I also like having a lot of numbers available- trainer, my parents (who have a trailer and are okay to decide whether TC gets colic surgery if I am not available), a family friend (who has a trailer), my farrier, and the two vets I have for TC.

Under the whiteboard is the one grain bin I have. I had wanted to put him on grass hay pellets and take him off his extra flake, since that would save me probably ten dollars a month, but I haven't bitten the bullet to do that yet. Honestly I might be willing to give up my ten dollars if I could keep the free space in my tack room! I kind of want a chair in there for when I'm hiding from the rain or trying to put on my boots.

White board, extra longeing stuff on the hooks,
and his boots are hanging there because they were
wet from him playing in the water

left side of the tack room

On the side under the shelf, I put three hooks for stuff that I don't use too often- long lines, draw reins, neck strap, and my surcingle. I do use those things maybe every other week, so they're easily accessible, but out of the way for the most part. Next to that is my white board calendar, which I use to keep track of TC's schedule (so I know when to give him a day off) and what other horses I'm riding that day. And next to that I'm going to put a couple more hooks, not sure what I'll hang there, but whatever, I like having lots of hooks.

What I do each day is a secret (well, it's just my
trainer's info is a secret)

Under the calendar and hooks is a set of shelves I got at Target. There is actually one more shelf I could add to it, but I thought that was excessive so I left it at just the three. On the bottom in the tote is a bunch of bandages that I typically grab when teaching bandaging for pony club, but it also has bandages for TC just in case. Next to the tote is some wipes that wouldn't fit anywhere else, and an empty psyllium bucket for no reason. I somehow think I'm going to use these containers and then I don't, throw them away, then think of a way I could have used them. Ugh.

The next shelf up has an extra smartpak drawer, which is just full of random stuff that could probably be moved to make room for stuff I'll be bringing in from the ranch. On top of it are the smartpaks I have for this month, I have them overlap by about 10 days so that I never run out. Next to that are some bottles of water and the lantern I was using as a light before getting my lights. And the little drawers there have my checkbook (shh) and various other little things- hair ties, extra feminine products just in case, clips, rubber bands, batteries, and chapstick.

On the top shelf I have my supplements in the smartpak drawer (vitamin E pills, MSM, extra sugar cubes, and the smartpaks themselves) and my brush thing gets put on top of that when not in use.

Supplements and of course extra sugar cubes!

For lights, I really wanted to look forward to coming to the barn since I don't always feel that way, so I bribed myself with some pretty lights. I wrapped a short strand of Christmas tree lights around the metal thing holding my tack room together, they're battery operated and make the place feel warm and cozy. The day I bought them (two weeks ago?) I actually was looking forward to going to the barn in the dark to see what they looked like!

Those lights alone actually do a decent job, but I didn't know that, so I bought some other lights too. Those I can't figure out where to put, so they sit in the corners of the tack room. Of course on the lights I had to pin this little pin that says DATA ROCKSTAR that I got from the Tableau booth at the conference.

I love those little christmas lights

Gotta remember what pays for the ponies

Overall I'm super pleased with how it turned out! Next steps for it include figuring out where to hang my jacket and scarf I always keep there (not pictured because I was wearing them, or I think in one picture I had it on my saddle), figuring out if I really want to hang my helmet on the top saddle rack under the sweaty pad (unlikely), and stuffing the place full of all the stuff I left at the ranch. I don't think all of it will fit (my jump tack will probably at the ranch), nor do I want to take anything that I need to use on Rico (like the hackamore he goes in).

It works for us for now! I still covet a real tack room with electricity, but it might be a while before one of those opens up so this will be great.