In house tack room

Jessey

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Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
A friend had her electric fence energizer, solar panel etc. stolen yesterday (during the day on a working farm) and her hay shed tuned over looking for anything else and it's making me twitchy again lol so I want to bring a bunch of stuff home from the yard, but it's probably just as much at risk in my garden shed as it is in my yard shed, so thinking that really the only safer place would be my spare bedroom, but I rent my house and how do you stop it taking on that tack room funk (smell)?
 
Wash everything before you put it in there. When I was on yard I only had a limited amount of space. YOs rubbish took up the majority of the tack room. So my winter rugs came home for the summer and my summer rugs over winter. Spare tack, harness, haynets etc brought home. Rugs were washed before they went into bags when I brought them home. Initially before I collected so much stuff I used to have the rugs in my bedroom in a cupboard. But then it became unfeezable so it went into our old house at the farm. But it didn't smell as I made sure things were clean.

Depending on what size your stuff is could you get some plastic storage boxes to put things in. Alternatively I don't know if you have one near you but we have a 2nd hand red cross charity shop that is dedicated to furniture. They always have wardrobes for sale at 2nd hand prices so if you could find one with shelves might be good.
I had my nans old wardrobe down in the farmhouse which I kept my rugs in, in the bags. That's now in the tack room. When i moved off the yard I wanted a filing cabinet for my tack brushes, hat, gloves, chaps etc. The filing cabinet at the yard was the YOs but I was allowed to use it, but it worked well for small tack. So I popped in the charity shop and they had one for £25.
Alternatively have a look in your local FB page. We have a couple of freecycle ones, I know there been wardrobes and cupboards on there.
Put some smelly soaps in cupboards with the stuff.
 
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The room that was once our spare room (single) has become known as the horse room since I started riding. Anything horsey - stirrups, leathers, clothes , ropes, boots, half chaps, whips etc gets thrown in there. It gets cleaned out if anyone comes to stay, and otherwise a couple of times a year. It has a large wall bookshelf too. It doesnt smell. My grooming kit usually lives in the boot of the car. Storage is an old wardrobe and a few heavy cloth bags.
 
Our spare bedroom is also the ‘horse s**t room’ as Mr KR calls it, he doesn’t venture in there as he’s allergic and I don’t mind the smell so it’s not a problem, to be fair it doesn’t smell of much other than horse and leather/leather cleaner.
 
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Our utility room is our tack room - and it doesn't smell bad - just smells comforting and leathery. I find if you keep rugs in a rug bag or a drawstring sack like those used in hotels for laundry the smell is kept to a minimum anyway. I found some excellent storage bags on ebay - I looked in the laundry section (much cheaper than anything marketed as equestrian!) and got some burglar bill type sacks. They are fab and hold about three rugs apiece.
I do try and keep on top of boot cleaning, and rinse them off as much as I can. Overall, it's not an unpleasant room smell wise - so I wouldn't @Jessey worry too much about your landlord making a fuss over smells.
 
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I've got some plastic storage chests where the top clips down. Harvey's rugs stink, but once in the chests can't be detected (and they are in my dining room)
 
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I don't mind the smell, just don't want it infiltrating the room ;) I've got lots of stuff, a lifetimes collection :cool: I've just brought home a car load (think tetris in a polo) in old holdalls, it just smells of horses and stuff that's been stored in a shed for years but isn't too bad, most of it was washed before it was put away anyway. I've probably got another car load to go :eek: I think I'll have a look for a wardrobe and get some plastic boxes too, especially for the lotions and potions that only get used for certain things and really stinky bits can go out in the garden shed. I might have to give up my room next time mum comes to stay :oops:

I have a lockable filing cabinet in the yard shed for stuff that needs to stay, and a lockable feed bin for extra rugs. I was just thinking about it this morning, if I got cleared out of stuff for 4 neds I'd never afford to replace it all in a hurry, even just rugs for the 2 that wear them would cost a bomb, so best to keep as much as possible at home.
 
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I was just thinking about it this morning, if I got cleared out of stuff for 4 neds I'd never afford to replace it all in a hurry, even just rugs for the 2 that wear them would cost a bomb, so best to keep as much as possible at home.
I agree, when i was on a yard and YO was being stupid and started leaving a key to the tack room hidden on the yard for people who were coming to do there horses (well it wasnt really hidden hence i had a go at them) i did a little tally up of the stuff i had in the tack room. (Bear in mind that was just the things i had at the yard, it didnt included the stuff at home and it was shocking. ) £4000 if i had to replace all the items if stolen. Whilst i have my tack insured and some things specified most insurers only cover tack up to a certain value. It would cost me a fortune to replace everything. £5 for this, £10 for that, start adding up the cost of all the bits its amazing.
There have been a few yards round here that have been completely empty, right down to a foot pick. So its worth taking a look periodically at what you have stored at a yard.
 
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Yep I do it every couple of winters, then gradually take everything back :cool: I lost thousands worth when we were done several years ago (on a livery yard), we got some back and insurance covered some but there was so many bits and bobs that we missed of couldn't claim for. They don't cover rugs that are 3+ years old, tough if you paid out for good ones that should have lasted you a decade plus :( My horse insurance company will no longer cover my tack as I made a claim on it then, so no cover now when it's at the yard.
 
Have a really good thorough clear out. You might find that most of it can be sold on.
I have just done this with the exception of spare rugs.

Do you have insurance? If not then you want the most secure space. Or a trunk with a padlock and chain. Get you items marked.

Eta. Contact your local horse watch, they have the pens etc you can use.
If you haven't got one, your local cpo maybe able to help.
Was this incident reported? Please do make sure they reported it as it goes on the system to be linked up to anything other activity.
 
My husband's allergic too. The rugs stay in the barn, but my tack is locked in the car. My jackets, boots etc are in the utility room.
 
Have a really good thorough clear out. You might find that most of it can be sold on.
I have just done this with the exception of spare rugs.

Do you have insurance? If not then you want the most secure space. Or a trunk with a padlock and chain. Get you items marked.

Eta. Contact your local horse watch, they have the pens etc you can use.
If you haven't got one, your local cpo maybe able to help.
Was this incident reported? Please do make sure they reported it as it goes on the system to be linked up to anything other activity.
Much of it I don't use much but is useful to have when I need it, there isn't much I would want rid of, I got rid of what I could already.

As above, no insurance when tack is at the yard (and as I learned it doesn't cover everything even if you do have it) and I have lockable containers in the locked shed at the yard.

I have marking pens but some things are hard to mark. The local CPO is next to useless, I had to kick off a right stink previously, going right up to the crime commissioner, just to get them to patrol the lane occasionally and that only lasted a short while and the CPO told me I was over-reacting (this was after someone tried to break in my house in the middle of the night, someone had been cutting my fences etc. to get in the yard, kids kept getting in and were seen harassing the horses and I had been met with 2 men off their faces right outside my gate in the space of a few weeks).

The theft from my friend was reported.
 
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If you have the space and the cash, I can recommend this shed: https://www.asgardsss.co.uk/5x3-metal-shed . We have 2, one at the house, which was my tack storage room when I kept the tack here, and one at the cafe, where it has resisted attacks from vandals. They need a flat base but are really sturdy, secure containers. Steve made me some saddle poles our of metal table legs for one side of the shed which worked brilliantly for saddles and numnahs.
 
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