Tack Storage

With the moves, for me and Katai, I needed to do a significant amount of downsizing. Not only did I lose storage space at the barn, I also lost a lot of storage space at the apartment.

At my last apartment I had an entire closet (that was pretty large) full of stuff as well as a large tack trunk. Even then I was often busting out of that space so it only made sense that when I moved in with another person I couldn’t necessarily expect to use the same amount of space for my passion (ie: buying all the horse things). However, I also wasn’t willing to get rid of TOO much stuff so when we officially signed the lease for this apartment I right away “called” one of the small hallway closets.

Tough to tell from this picture but at my old apartment
I had this HUGE closet and it was packed full of horse stuff. This doesn't even include the stuff I had in my antique horse trunk or my tack locker at the barn.

I wasn’t sure exactly how I’d fit all of my stuff in that space but I knew that I needed some dedicated space for all of the tack and horse items that I couldn’t keep at the barn and that I wanted that to be near the front door in a space where it could be a little messy as barn stuff often is. I had just been tossing stuff in there and it was reaching cartoonish levels when I saw an Instagram story from my new instructor of her tack set up. She had a full tack room to work with and I only had a small closet so I knew that I’d need to get creative to make my plan work but at least I now had something in mind. With that I began measuring the space I had and shopping online.

It just so happened that Target had a sale on shelves so while I started with looking on Amazon I quickly found something even better on Target. Unfortunately none of the dimensions worked out exactly the way I wanted but since I didn’t want to go custom I needed to find something close.

What it looks like now! Much smaller closet but much cuter organization :)

In the end, I purchased these really cute cube shelves! They may not be ideal from a storage set up perspective but for the cost they work well and the ability to use the storage cubes to organize all the small items is invaluable. I also had been wanting to hang my saddle pads for a long time and after seeing my instructor’s set up I settled on that as part of the plan. With that in mind I bought an adjustable curtain rod and two holders, one storage cube (I already had the other two), a couple of hangers and voila!

It doesn’t fit perfectly, the fact that it can’t be flush with the trim drives me very slightly nuts (but no way am I pulling the trim in an apartment and incurring the cost to fix it when we move out) but I can deal with that especially for the cost. Overall I think everything cost me just about $65 which I can definitely live with!

Why Ponies

There may be people out there that are wondering why I have a pony and not a normal sized horse or a warmblood. The reason for me isn't because it wasn't an option but because I've always, always, loved ponies. I think that Flash, the 14 hand pony that I competed in hunters and eventing when I was having early riding lessons is a big part of the reason that I have a thing for ponies but honestly I have just always felt that they are much more appealing for several reasons.

One reason is that I feel it is just a much more harmonious picture.

This vs.

This for example.

Or this vs.



I really don't know why I prefer the smaller horses but I do :)

Secondly they just have such awesome attitudes. Calm, not overly spooky, smart and I adore that they always think they know better than their rider.

Lets not forget their sense of humor.

Finally, lets face it I'm pretty short lol. It is just so much more comfortable to be able to get the saddle on and off your horse's back, to be able to get the dirt off their but without a step stool and mount without a ladder.

Not that I don't like ladders.....

I have a great time looking around YouTube for people, not kids, riding ponies well and enjoying them the way I do so I will leave you with some of my favorite recent videos.