Thursday, July 8, 2010

Something to Set Your Saddle Upon..

For those of you who have been reading this blog for over a year, you might remember this. It is a wall sidesaddle rack that someone made!


















You have to be so very careful with your sidesaddles...especially if yours is a 100+ year old restored one, as mine are. Because they are made for riding aside, they are unevenly weighted..which means that they need extra support.

I remember driving to my first sidesaddle lesson. I made sure I had all of my equipment, loaded up the horse and drove to my instructors farm. To my HORROR, when I arrived and opened up the tack door, I found my sidesaddle in a heap on the tack closet floor! It had slipped off of the saddle rack on my drive over. From then on, the saddle was lovingly placed in the back seat of my truck.

















This can also be an issue with portable saddle racks and tack room saddle racks. If you saddle is subject to getting moved or even bumped in the slightest way, it will likely slide off a rack made for astride saddles. That is why I love this sturdy rack. Love the compartments too!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the saddle rack...show my husband the picture and see if I can get him to make me one.

You should check out the video on equineink.com of the sidesaddle dressage

Memo said...

This wooden saddle rack is beautiful! Maybe one day...

On a more practical note, I find Stubbs' "saddle mate" (http://www.u5uk.com/you/elico/images/artimg/GWDPJ-9/DK52%20Saddlemate.JPG) quite a handy device for side saddles. It's cheap, light, strong... You can put your saddle on top and your girths, stirrup, etc. inside. Admittedly, it's not the most beautiful piece of equipment I've seen ;o) but I use mine a lot.

There is also is nicer (but heavier and more expensive) version produced by Ecurybois and called "carbox" (http://www.ecurybois.com/en/produit/carbox®-one_40.html).

phaedra96 said...

That tack box looks like a nice piece of furniture. Bet it weighs a ton, too!