One of the tasks I like to undertake at least once a year is to inventory all of my horse stuff. This only includes items that are kept outside of my home, though I do have a miniature horse western saddle in my living room as I don't want the leather to get moldy. There has not been a "full size" horse living at our farm in about 3 years, but I still have plenty of big horse items. Who knows, maybe someday I will get a saddle horse and might need one these items, though if I get a saddle horse, it may be a color that doesn't go with any of the items I have saved. For example, I don't like the way a chestnut horse looks in a red halter, so the red horse size halter in my tack truck isn't going to work. You can read more about this on my blog from February 2010 "Clothes Horse" My endurance saddle won't work on a horse with narrow withers. Fortunately my 2 Wintec all purpose saddles have easy change gullet systems. so they might work. Probably the number one item on my inventory list is "Horse Clothing". God gave horses a nice coat of hair which gets nice and warm in the winter, so why anyone needs all of this clothing--of yes, if I get a Thoroughbred it might not get a nice warm coat in the winter; or what if I decide to show during the winter and my horse has to be kept clipped? According to my inventory list, I have 30 items of horse clothing. Coolers, rain sheets, stable blankets, fly sheets, and turnout blankets in different levels of warmth. These range in size from 42 to 81. I'm not sure who wore the size 81. It might have been a blanket someone gave me just in case I decided to try dressage and had to purchase a Friesian. Brands of clothing include Tough-1, D-Tech, Kensington, Baker, Cottage Craft, Schneiders, Mark Todd, Saxon, Weatherbeeta, Gatsby, and McAllister. As you can see I like to give my money equally to all of the different manufacturers of horse clothing. Some of the above mentioned items are new. or still in the package from the cleaners. I've tried to sell them, but everyone must have horses that don't match the colors I am selling, or maybe they just want to buy new stuff to go with the new horse, and thus began their own hoarding problem.. My list of horse footwear is just a daunting. After all, one must have shoes to match the outfit. Some of these are therapeutic so they never did match any outfit. I have Easy boot "Original, Trail, Rx, and Soaker; Davis boots, hoof socks, Therapy boots (I think I paid over $300 for these beauties) and of course one needs to buy the "Special" inserts to go in all of the above mentioned boots. Like the clothes, some of these are brand new, or look brand new. I've tried to sell the boots but no one is interested. Guess they would rather spend the $300 for new instead of the $95 which is my listed price. Does anyone need blanket leg straps? I have at least a dozen pairs, and "no" they do not go with the above mentioned blankets. Stirrups? I have Peacock, Swivel, comfort and plain, stirrup pads, and new rubbers for the peacocks. I will not bore my reader with a continuation of all of my inventoried items but suffice it to say "there it way too much", or maybe I have a hoarding problem. In defense of my hoarding I do want to add that last month my son did ask me to take one of his thoroughbred polo horses for a couple of months as she needed some rest and relaxation. Good, I thought, a thin coated horse; I can make use of some of these articles of clothing Of course on the first cold rainy day I realized the size she wore didn't go with her color. After all, you can't have a chestnut horse wear red. At least not in my barn !!
