# Small Tack Room Help!



## RitzieAnn (Dec 22, 2010)

some pictures from the barn I used to board at:




























That's all in the same room. It's probably 10 or 12, by 12 or 14 ft. It's not super huge. But they made pretty good use of the space. Each person got a space of 3 bridle hooks per horse, plus the 2 shelves under it, and then the saddle racks.

While at a schooling show, I saw a tackroom there, and they used barrels on the walls. Then each person had their saddle rack (the barrel) and inside it was a cubby for grooming stuff, etc.


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

12x12 sounds incredibly spacious for that. I have 4 saddles (2 of which are not mine), 2 bridles, a big plastic tote, a few buckets, grooming kit, folding saddle rack, lunge lines, etc. all in my tack locker, which is about 3x3. 

Usually when I show I'll end up sharing a tack stall, which is generally 12x12, with 3 other people and even though everyone tends to end up sprawling everywhere (since there are no wall mounted saddle racks, shelves or hooks) it's still more than sufficient.


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## horsea (Dec 28, 2009)

verona1016 said:


> 12x12 sounds incredibly spacious for that. I have 4 saddles (2 of which are not mine), 2 bridles, a big plastic tote, a few buckets, grooming kit, folding saddle rack, lunge lines, etc. all in my tack locker, which is about 3x3.
> 
> Usually when I show I'll end up sharing a tack stall, which is generally 12x12, with 3 other people and even though everyone tends to end up sprawling everywhere (since there are no wall mounted saddle racks, shelves or hooks) it's still more than sufficient.


Well its smaller because i only really have 1 and a half sides of wall space, which makes things much more difficult, plus our tack room is our feed room, vet station, as well as tack and grooming. Plus I keep extra goat, calf, and cow supplies in there as well


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## horsea (Dec 28, 2009)

RitzieAnn said:


> some pictures from the barn I used to board at:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you!!! I really like the shelves under the bridles, I think we are going to put some in like that. I wasn't sure how it would function but that doesn't look bad at all. The barrels sound like a cool idea though, I wish I had more wall space for that.


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## HarleyWood (Oct 14, 2011)

I have a 12 by 12, right now that has some of my stuff. i have a water bucket, that has 5 blankets, some vet stuff, grooming stuff, and the extras that i dont need now. my saddles are against a wall. on the other with the door outside and window are a few containers that have bandages, bits, grooming, clips ect, i have a few more containers with my sport and bell boots. in my feed room i have my feed, with supplements and polo wraps, 5 gallon buckets its a 10 by 10 stall, i will be getting a 10 by 16 tack room, i plan on doing a wall with a shelve on top so i can put totes on top for their winter/summer blankets. and but my three saddle rack on one corner and put bridle hooks on the wall next to it along with containers for everything else, something like this, http://www.gridironusa.com/images/tackroom2.jpg


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## caseymyhorserocks (Apr 5, 2010)

I have a 8x12 tack room that is also a hay room and grain room. I have 5 saddles I keep in my barn and manage to squeeze them all in there. Granted, I currently I have 3 saddles hanging from the rafters... but I will eventually have saddle racks up. My plan is to hang my 3 saddles that I don't use to often up above the hay on saddle racks.


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## RitzieAnn (Dec 22, 2010)

I can't wait til I have a "tack corner"!! We just bought a property. We got a horse shelter, the hay is in a corner of the barn, some tack is in the trailer. Other tack is in the duck house, hanging on the wall. Lol. I feel bad for my saddles. We are building a room this weekend for my rodent hobby & the saddles should get a nice corner of that room 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## BigGirlsRideWarmbloods (Mar 28, 2010)

The last barn I boarded at had 8 people sharing a 12 x 12 converted stall. It actually worked out really well, as she had 3 basic rules:
1) No hay, grain or supplements in the tack room. They all must be in the feed area.
2) No Blankets in the tack room. Blankets must be hung up on the seperate blanket rack area or in front of your stall.
3) No trunks or lidded totes & grooming caddies must live in the grooming caddie shelf. Everybody got wall mounted saddle rack and two bridle holders wall mounted above the saddle, and you got the floor area directly under your saddle. Which MUST be the plastic drawers you get at target or Wal-mart. Any size or configuration you want so long as it fits in your under saddle area.

You could stack saddles 2 high, but anything that didn't fit in to your drawers or layered on you bridle hooks, had to go home with you.

It actually worked out Really well, so well that when I got my own farm I kept the no trunks/totes in the tack room rule for myself. 

I do have a trunk for off cleaned season blankets, winter rugs in the summers, and fly sheets or coolers in the winter. But I keep it out of the way in the loft.
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## MillieSantana (Feb 17, 2013)

Ok, what I would do(I'm OCD, so you know whatever I say is gonna be overorganized.....) is along one wall, put saddle racks 2 high, and hang the mathing bridles over the saddle horns(English riders can have a hook directly under the saddle). Along the same wall, put shelves up whereever possible. Along the other wall, hang averything else on hooks. Make sure everything is organized, and easy to get to(lesser-used items to the back), and your tack room will be mutch more easily used!


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## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

I think I would have one wall of saddles and bridles/headstalls

Then have a shelf underneath and have bins with your polo wraps, saddle pads/blankets/boots are kept
Have a chest full of vet stuff
Have all your driving stuff (harnesses) on another wall.. and then your grain can snuggle somewhere so it's not in the way. 

Brushes you can just keep a little tackbox with that kind of stuff.

Let me see if I can draw it on paint..

Also keep in mind idk what your space actually looks like.. so made an educated guess.

The shelves are underneath the saddle and bridle racks, and there is one on the wall next to one of the doors. storage trunks under the shelves but you can also put stuff on the shelves. 

Big green circle is grain barrel and the blue thing is drawer for supplements (like smartpak has)


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## horsea (Dec 28, 2009)

Skyseternalangel said:


> I think I would have one wall of saddles and bridles/headstalls
> 
> Then have a shelf underneath and have bins with your polo wraps, saddle pads/blankets/boots are kept
> Have a chest full of vet stuff
> ...


I love this!!!! And its almost spot on, just the extra door is on the left, opposite of where you have it. I quite like this idea/ plan  thank you!!!


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## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

You're very welcome


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## horsea (Dec 28, 2009)

And I actually keep my grain in an over sized cooler, yes its weird but hey: no mice, easy open/ close, and its easy to clean out  And I got a bunch of stacking shelves; the open kind with a bucket and holes on the sides. They're perfect: I can attach things to them and organize everything.


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## BigGirlsRideWarmbloods (Mar 28, 2010)

I'm not a fan of the shelf under the bridle racks. We had that at the barn I used to manage, and I got so ****ed at continually knocking stuff off the shelf whenever I would grab a bridle.

I would grab a bridle and a rein would catch my showsheen which hits the floor and breaks the nozzle. 

So when I built my own tack room, I dropped the height of the bridle racks where the shelf would be and added a shelf on top of the bridles racks. I can pull stuff off the shelf without getting it tangled in reins and bridle parts and vice versa.

You can see a picture of it here: http://www.horseforum.com/barn-maintenance/tack-room-pictures-152114/#post1885300
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## RunningJumpingHorses (Mar 1, 2013)

Use cork board. YOu can get hooks special for it and thats what i use in my trailer. My neighbor's tack room walls have that on them and she rearranges everything really quick since the hooks are so easy to use. I bet you can get corkboard from any hardware store I'd think. Thats my favorite thing to use!


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## Farmchic (Mar 2, 2013)

Our tack room is by no means large but we tried to make the most of what space we have. Here's one of it empty so your not distracted by all my clutter.


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## Farmchic (Mar 2, 2013)

Sorry about that, here are the pictures...We built the shelves to hold plastic bins from lowes that hold misc. items. There is also a blanket tree in the far right corner which you can't see.


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## Jake and Dai (Aug 15, 2008)

Here's the area in my barn where I keep my tack and feed.

The cabinets came from a renovation we did in our kitchen. DH put them up then built the bench underneath. I have 2 saddles, an old harness I bought years ago, don't need, never did but cannot seem to part from. LOL

I also have this cool bridle rack that spins. It is mounted on an arm that now sticks out over that wooden saddle rack. It holds my 3 bridles and assorted halters and lead ropes. I bought it from Valley Vet and it does save a lot of space.

Where that wooden rack is now, in front of the harness hanging on the wall, I have a 6' tall vertical saddle rack that holds 3 saddles. A friend of DH's gave it to us.

I'm pretty sure that area is less than 12x12.


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## horsea (Dec 28, 2009)

Farmchic said:


> Sorry about that, here are the pictures...We built the shelves to hold plastic bins from lowes that hold misc. items. There is also a blanket tree in the far right corner which you can't see.
> 
> View attachment 131411
> 
> View attachment 131410


Wow! Thats beautiful! I love the shelves
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## mammakatja (Nov 3, 2009)

I LOVE that tack room Farmchic. Very thought out and organized and beautiful too!. I think lots of hooks are your best friend when you have a small space. I like being able to hang everything up and just be able to grab it. When we rebuilt after a barn fire last year, my hubby built a nice big shop that he needed for our tractor/farm equipment and vehicles since he works on everything himself, and then he sectioned off 10ft with a full wall for me in the back of the shop. So I have a 10'x 40' area but 30' of that is filled with hay so really, my tack area is only about 10'x10' and thats with a personal door on one side and a 6'wide roll up door on the other. So I definitely had to think my space through.

I know, not the most professional looking saddle covers. Those are the baby blankets I made for my kids many years ago. :lol: So all the bridles hang to the right with a personal door to the right of them...








And all the halters are hung to the left. The roll up to the left leads out to the horses. The personal door is next to bridles on the right and leads into to the shop.








Then on the other side of the personal door, I just put up a couple of simple shelves from Lowes for bottles, medicines, sprays, etc. and more hooks for my bit obsession and polo wraps. The hay, as you can see is stacked floor to ceiling the rest of the length of my space off to the right there. When I took the saddle pic, the hay was behind me. Oh and just to share, I bought the saddle racks at Schneiders. I looked far and wide for racks that I liked AND weren't outrageous to ship. The ones I got were called easy up saddle 'n pad racks and I love them.


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## Farmchic (Mar 2, 2013)

Very nice : ) and thank you. 
I'll try to post a picture of mine now that it is full so you can see how I put those hooks to use but I'm in the process of cleaning it.


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## Palomine (Oct 30, 2010)

One thing is that you can stack saddles 4 high on racks. And hooks everywhere. 

The rolling carts with drawers work well for bandages/supplies. As does a metal cart from the 50/60 that they call a utility cart. Many of them can be found at junk store, and some have electric outlet to run power too also?

If room is not finished inside, but has studs? Use that and put boards up between studs. Would also paint it white, as that will add light to room. For whips and what have you, place board on outside of 2 studs, so you can slide whip down in there.

And I would take graph paper, draw each wall of room, and after measuring saddles/bin/bridles as far as how much space each takes, cut out templates of them and place them on paper that is "wall".

And also draw floor out too, and play with templates to see where traffic flow is best.


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