Saturday, October 17, 2009

How the Other Half Lives

Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land
Times are hard but we'll all survive
I just got to learn to economize

I'm on a low budget
I'm not cheap, you understand
I'm just a cut price person in a low budget land

"Low Budget" (Ray Davies) The Kinks
from the 1979 album of the same name

— — —

I've read with interest (and some envy)
peoples' posts
about their tack rooms.

I don't have a barn,

nor do I have space in my home
for a dedicated tack room.
I have a stock trailer,
so no enclosed storage.
Mr. Fry and I would come to fisticuffs
for sure
if I put horse stuff
in his garage.

Welcome to small time
horse ownership.


My saddles live in what used to be
the kid's bedroom, sharing space with
Mr. Fry's desk, free weights
and the treadmill.

My western hat helmet
and bareback pad
are tossed on top.

The tool box with the yellow lid
holds first aid supplies and medicines.


Halters, lead ropes, bridles,reins,
and grazing muzzles
live behind the laundry room door.

Important horsey dates
are marked on the calendar.


Sand Clear and daily wormer
live on the laundry room floor.
That crop on the left is a
warning to cat food moocher, Martha.


Horsey stuff makes its home next to
laundry supplies and sundry household items.


The cabinet under the sink is
home to gallon jugs of detangler,
fly spray, and hoof oil.

That's the edge of a door to a tiny
slab porch on the left.
That porch holds the
metal grain locker.

The hitching post,
run-in shed, and water trough
are 10-20 paces
from the porch.

20/20 hindsight:
I coulda/shoulda/woulda
designed the house

with a tack room rather than
a guest room.

Scratch that.
I'd have built less house
and erected a small barn.

Having my horses at home:
priceless.

8 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

It doesn't matter where you keep your horsey stuff as long as you have it. You should see our basement! We have so much down there we could open a tack store(as long as we could sell mismatched polos, wraps and one boot without the other). It's so nice to have a horse at home the little inconveniences don't really matter.

Dusty Devoe said...

Yes, you are very blessed to be able to have your horses at home! We will one day soon! That tack looks very organized to me! I do have to board right now and am very fortunate the stable has a big indoor arena which is much appreciated during the winter!

Cactus Jack Splash said...

Even with a spot to store my horsey stuff I still end up with bits of things in my house.

Mrs. Mom said...

LOL my tack room is my bedroom. Soooo.. no photos of that up anytime in the near future ;)

Some day... some day....

As long as it works, which it looks like yours does, then life is grand!

AareneX said...

I just figured out that the greenhouse is good for more than storing my bicycle -- I can stretch wet horse blankets out to dry in there! Hurrah!

If I had a guest bedroom, my guest would probably be a horse. So, it' okay to envy a tackroom inside a real house, right?

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

What a pain it must be to haul your saddle all that way. My tack room is my trailer, but I also keep stuff in what used to be a spa room, but the spa kept breaking, so I store my horse blankets in the spa under the cover. Of course, all the water was drained out long ago.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

I'm fairly tackroom-less as well. When we tore out the enclosed part that used to be the "tack room" in the barn to make another corral with shelter...I realized that I actually used that space. Now things are dispersed between the house(saddles in the living room, supplements and buckets stacked in the kitchen), the horse trailer and a tiny, not-so-weather tight shed.
Our corrals were a mess of mix and match panels and wired up old wooden fence. It's taken me two years to slowly purchase new panels so I could tear down the falling down old wooden fences. I still have several thousand dollars worth of panels to buy, plus probably another thousand that I need to spend on horse safe wire on a section of sagging barbed wire that I want to replace. I dread the several more thousand I know it will cost to completely tear out and replace the south and east section of fencing that is crappy old woven wire and barbed wire. That didn't used to be an issue, but now the neighbors have moved horses in and I don't want anything to get cut screwing around over the fence. Gahhhhh-it's endless when it comes to horses.

In the meantime...we just do what we can. Make things as safe as we can. And make do. Still love to look out the window and see my ponies.:)

City girl turned Country Girl said...

Well I don't have a tack room either!! Previously I had a tack corner in my pole barn but that burned down so now I have about 3/4 of everything in my garage and then the other in the mud room like the meds and first aid stuff..

We do what we have to right?! And its ending is the same so we're good!

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