Preparing for the big move!
Who's ready for a spot of spring tack cleaning?
After the mad rush to find a new livery yard had died down, I found myself at a bit of a loss of what to do. Knowing I can be a bit fussy, I'd given myself a month to find a yard. Within a week, to my surprise, I'd stumbled across the perfect place. Five minutes of talking to the yard owners had convinced me that it was going to be Lady's new home! I'm very keen on organisation and I absolutely hated the idea of running around like a mad thing the day before moving day so I figured, better start packing now! I had a long road of sorting and cleaning ahead of me but I managed to break it down into some easier steps. Here are my easy peasy steps for organising your tack AND keeping it organised! 1. Separate all your stuff into sections. I went for; rugs, tack, numnahs, my riding wear, boots and bandages.
2. Once everything is in the correct section, start going through each one. If you know you are definitely going to use something, keep it. But, if you're unsure then chuck it away. Sounds brutal, but it's the best way to get rid of clutter!
3. Right, you've gone through every pile. Now make sure you actually chuck away the things that are in the chuck pile. Do it straight away or before you know it, the chuck pile will turn into a keep pile again! ⭐️Quick note: you don't have to chuck anything away really. One of my favourite places to wander round are tack sales. It's the perfect place to sell old tack and usually doesn't cost much to have a selling table there. Just make sure you don't buy everything in the place! Now it's time to start cleaning. I find tack cleaning really therapeutic, so I like to take my time. First, I take everything apart and wipe it all down with a wet wipe, trying to get rid of most of the caked up grime. I also always pop bits into hot water to soak whilst I'm cleaning. Next, grab a soft sponge and your leather soap. I use a classic: Belvoir Tack Conditioner (the bright orange one!). It's made with glycerine, which keeps the leather supple. Sprinkle a few droplets of water onto the soap and dab the sponge in. Working in small sections, make sure you cover every inch of your saddles & bridles. When it comes to deep cleaning tack, little by little works best. Finally, a handy tip for cleaning bits, use an old toothbrush and a small amount of toothpaste to work off any built up bits of food or slobber. It leaves them sparkling clean. Once everything is clean you can pop everything back together again and admire your handiwork! ⭐️My top tip for caring for your tack, is clean regularly. It's easy to just wipe down quickly after a ride but the best way to love your leather is regular cleaning. Before I go anywhere where my tack will be on show (clinic, show or lesson), I do a deep clean. Ok, next up, storage solutions! A lot of people I know use the garden storage boxes a little like this one:
At my previous yard, I had a few of these stacked on top of each other.
As much as I liked them, they weren't large enough to store everything together. I knew that I wanted something large enough to store everything in, but also be nice to look at. There are of course, countless bespoke storage solutions online for all your equine needs, but if you don't have the money to spare on something like that or you want to get creative, you can do what I did.
I managed to source a cheap children's toy box approximately a metre long.
However as you can see it's plain pine and I wanted to smarten it up. I stained it dark walnut and used stencils and cream paint to add Lady's name on top.
It's just big enough to fit everything comfortably and I'm really pleased with it. I think it'll look quite smart underneath my saddle racks & bridle hooks! It needs one more wax before it's perfect but keep watching my Instagram feed to see the finished result. Moving day is drawing closer and I'm very excited to get started with riding properly again. I have one more blog in this little three part series, which is coming tomorrow at 5pm. Make sure to read it if you want to find out where Lady & I are hoping to be heading this year... Until next time x
