Organizing My Tack Collection

Last week I couldn’t find one of my western cinches. My collection of tack is completely unorganized and chaotic, so this was no surprise. But it left me frustrated enough that I decided that SOMETHING needed to be done.

So I collected all of my tack (plus a few Breyer pieces and a handful from other artists ❤ ) and dumped it on my bed.

My first thought was, "WHY DID I DO THIS NOW IT'S EVEN WORSE" which then switched over to thoughts of, "Wow, that's a lot.” and also, “That’s IT? I’ve been doing this for nearly 15 years and this is all I have??”

Well, there is a huge chunk of my work missing that’s been sold, donated or gifted, so I obviously can’t include all that, but still.

I knew going through it was going to be a pain, but I didn’t expect it to have this weird emotional affect on me. The majority of this stuff is old work, pieces that are unusable or frustrating to use, and experiments/first attempts. There are many pieces that I think turned out well though, yay!

This July marks the 10 year anniversary of this blog and “Desktop Stables.” This hobby has been such a huge part of my life for nearly 15 years, so seeing some of these really early tack pieces brought back a lot of memories. Or rather, memories of feelings, if that makes sense, and the enthusiasm I had for tack making in general. I wasn’t so hard on myself and it didn’t matter if the piece was incorrect. If it resembled real tack in some way I was happy and very proud of myself. (I uh, still feel that way sometimes… >_>)

I guess it’s a feeling of nostalgia? Like when you hear a song or smell something that instantly takes you back, even just for a second. I’m sure those of you who have been in the hobby much, much longer than me (and are probably laughing – 15 years? Psh!) can relate? Kind of maybe sort of?

Back to organizing. I started by grouping everything by type… saddles with saddles…

… Arabian tack…

… bridles and halters…

… boots…

… the saddle pad problem…

… and so on and so forth. The next step was to separate everything into different groups: Keep, Sell, Recycle for Parts, and Toss. A lot of pieces I can’t part with, but I did put together a group of things that I’ll be listing to my Etsy shop once I get them properly photographed. (no saddles but some Arabian tack and boots and stuff) I sometimes find it really hard to part with my work, but I’m not using these pieces for anything so I’d rather them go to someone who’d like them.

My tack boxes are looking much better now!