inventory and memories

I decided the other day that I wanted to do an inventory of all my horse things. It was half way through the list I realized I have a lot of stuff! I didn’t even realize how I acquired all this stuff or when!


I have 11 Saddle pads…ELEVEN! Two are western and one is a Gel under pad but still. Who needs that many? Apparently I do. Some are fun and colorful and some are for show. But ALL of them are in need of a good scrubbing. Apparently no one taught me how to properly groom a horse.

I have 4 saddles, and I don’t even ride in a saddle lately. (laziness is the main factor in that!) I have my dressage saddle, my western saddle, an Australian saddle I picked up for $40 at an auction and have yet to ride in, and the very first saddle that was ever 100% mine, generic no name a/p English saddle that is way too small for me.

I have been trying to sell my generic a/p saddle for some time now. I have dropped the price drastically but still no one wants it. I suppose I could keep it, it does have a lot of memories attached to it. As I said it was my very first saddle and I got it years ago when I was working at a barn with my friend who was the barn manager. The Barn was private and was owned by a family. It housed their personal horses plus my friend’s horse. When I started there I didn’t get paid I just got to ride whenever I wanted. And that was payment enough for me at the time! I started working more out there so my boss bought me an English saddle from Fleet Farm as a “thanks for helping out”. I was pumped. I knew it wasn’t the best saddle in the world but it was MINE! I babied that thing and spent hours cleaning and oiling it. My friend would laugh at me when we’d go out trail riding and I’d ride in MY saddle, mostly because to her English saddles looked weird.



Yellow in MY very own tack picked out just for me!

 The thought crossed my mind to sell western saddle too. But its always been a brief thought. I don’t see myself ever parting with that saddle. That saddle has way more memories attached to it and I don’t even ride western much. It was about a year after I got my English saddle, my friend had moved across the country and I was now the barn manager. I was getting paid (not much) and working my butt off. My boss would treat me to new tack every so often. And it was always an awesome surprise to get to the barn and have nice new tack waiting for me that was all mine! One day I was lugging out one of the western saddles and he said “why don’t you go to town and pick out your own saddle, my treat” My jaw dropped and I hurried to town. I hit both our tack stores and fell in love with a Circle Y trail saddle. It had a “squishy” seat and looked awesome with the tack I already had. I told the lady at the shop to put it on hold for me and that my boss would be by to pay for it. She told me not to worry since she knew my boss, I could take it home that day. It was my first “real” saddle that was ever mine and WAY more than I’d ever spend on a saddle. I rushed back out to the barn and grabbed my favorite horse…Yellow…and tacked him up. Yellow and I put a lot of miles on that saddle and we had some fun adventures. It was a few months after I got the saddle I got Yellow’s AQHA Transfer papers for my birthday…he was mine. That job didn’t pay me THAT well, but I got a lot of “stuff” from it and that “stuff” meant more to me than my old boss will ever know.

When I left that barn I took stuff that I’d need and I promised I’d be back to get what I had forgotten and just never did. When I was loading up Yellow into the trailer to leave they kept giving me more stuff i'd "need" so I think that’s where I acquired most of my horse stuff. I promised I’d come back to visit and I’d come see my two horse buddies there. But sadly the next time I came by was to say goodbye to my horse buddies. It was a year ago on the 17th that the barn burned down. Both horses were trapped inside and were killed.

My friend who used to manage the barn came with me and we stopped by to pay our respects the day after the fire. It was insane how small that once huge barn was. How happy that barn had made me had changed and I felt sick to my stomach looking at it. I still can’t believe it’s been a year. We promised we’d be back to visit again, but we just haven’t.



picture from WDAY

 I’ve always been a freak when it comes to anything that could start a fire in a barn. That fire just made me even more careful when I see things that are potentially hazardous. It’s one of those things you think won’t happen to you but it can. There is no such thing as being too safe with horses. Remember that...