Are you a tack bigot?

I find baler twine makes great make-shift bridles if you can't afford new stuff, and you can also use it to tie on old saddle cloths to make a temp saddle.

:D
PMSL!
Here are some more handy hints -
A dead sheep tied to your horse with baler twin gives you the benefit of a 'treeless' saddle plus the fashionable sheepskin accessory look. A sure fire winner!
And if your horse is a teensy bit hard to stop, try the 'barbed wire' snaffle!
You need never visit a tack shop again.
 
PMSL!
Here are some more handy hints -
A dead sheep tied to your horse with baler twin gives you the benefit of a 'treeless' saddle plus the fashionable sheepskin accessory look. A sure fire winner!
And if your horse is a teensy bit hard to stop, try the 'barbed wire' snaffle!
You need never visit a tack shop again.

Brill! :D
 
I haven't read all the replies but I think it's clear that I definitely need a bell of shame!

I have (wait for it!) 2 synthetic saddles (:eek:), one is black (double :eek:). I have 2 cheap foreign leather saddles (:eek:), again one is black and BOTH are treeless! (triple :eek:!)
I also have 3 cheap foreign leather bridles but it's ok because they are all brown :D

I have ridden in a pelham with one rein and roundings BUT I also don't like doing it so have bought a kimblewick.

I would love to be able to go and buy a nice dressage and jump saddle for each of my ponies along with quality leather bridles but until I win the lottery, sadly that isn't going to happen.
 
it's a worrying thought what people may be thinking when encountering us in the woods :confused: : scruffy, extra-furry, partially muddy pony with natural mane; elderly synthetic saddle (black, oh woe!); alas, a black bridle (though with cavesson and snaffle, phew...but slightly raised, oh NOES!! [it was the only one without a flash loop]). No wonder the local dead-sheep-and-bling experts seem to look down on us sometimes...of course, their horses are also much taller, for the most part, so that could explain it too... :p


You could be talking about me here! I have a native pony (not clipped, so extremely fluffy), currently sporting dreadlocks of mud and very shaggy feathers. I use a black synthetic saddle (AND he's chestnut! :p) but with real stirrup leathers as the synthetic ones were useless and naturally I have managed to find leathers in a different shade of black to his saddle. His bridle is actually made up of two Sabres as he's that awkward size between a pony and a cob - raised noseband (cavesson though)...

He is in a snaffle though, and comes with NO extras - not even boots. Does that redeem us slightly or just make us even more scruffy?? :o

(My mare, on the other hand, is dressed head to toe in brown Stubben and sheepskin. Feeling a bit sorry for my old boy now!).
 
Phew! Who cares? Currently riding a chesnute horse in a brown western bridle, complete with tassles (no noseband - gasp!), black soft rope reins and a black dressage saddle. Oh, and I've got a brown numnah because my black one seems to have vanished. Who cares? Horse and I are comfy, which is all that matters. Just wait 'till you tack police bump into me poodling in the woods on my pony, who is wearing a green bareback pad and a black rope halter for riding.
 
Phew! Who cares? Currently riding a chesnute horse in a brown western bridle, complete with tassles (no noseband - gasp!), black soft rope reins and a black dressage saddle. Oh, and I've got a brown numnah because my black one seems to have vanished. Who cares? Horse and I are comfy, which is all that matters. Just wait 'till you tack police bump into me poodling in the woods on my pony, who is wearing a green bareback pad and a black rope halter for riding.

What??? no noseband is a no no? Well, when we nearly died on a gate one year due to getting caught on bizarrely the clip bolt, I vouched never to wearing one again on a hack. Thank god it was brown leather cos it snapped!!!! He's very handy you see, can open longhandled gates himself, it was just unfortunate. I take nosebands off for safety these days unless out hunting.

Again, baling twine would have been useful here....

Anyway, pass me a bell would you, I'll pop it one my little chain o bells!!!!
 
The only judgement I make is when I see a stunning rider, then I judge them as god and worship them!!

Apart from that I have no reason to pass judgement on others, what their horse is wearing or why they are wearing it!
 
i'm 14 and i wear spurs at shows, for a reason!! should i be shot now? i also have a navy velvet personalised saddlecloth with navy and gold cord edging - eek!

i really don't care what tack people have on their horses, i don't know them or their horse.
 
oh and a weird one, people who dont put cheekpieces/nosebands into keepers! Ian Stark gave me a lesson once and said if your keepers are undone your going to fall off :D ok a bit superstitious but its stuck with me!

I am exactally the same..This really bothers me. I was told this superstition years ago and it has stuck with me.. :D Unnecessary gadgets, ill-fitting tack, dirty tack, tack not fastened properly...I shall stop before I start to rant :D
 
As long as I am happy with how my horse is kitted out, that's all that matters to me. Don't really care what anyone else has on their horse. Pride ever goeth before a fall anyway :D
 
did not think i was prejudiced until i went to a kids federated showjumping show in spain where 10 year olds were riding (badly) in spurs and pelhams (rusty) with only the curb rain we started up a game called spot the snaffle turned out was very boring as couldn't find one :(
also why do people ride in a dutch gag with the reins on the snaffle ring is it just fashionable because im sure a hanging snaffle does exactly the same ?
i dont mind flashes and mexican nosebands if fitted properly but usually they aren't ever seen a grackle worn like a flash i have !
my boss used to make all her students ride in snaffles with no gadgets even when they turned up with all their massive martingales for tiny ponies and stud guards for unshod horses. there were only ever snaffles in her tack room and she would ride the biggest strongest horses
 
Sanolly, you're going to need to thread bells onto your reins to cover all your transgressions.

Katie - you definitely get a bell of shame.
 
Love the 'treeless - clueless' bit.
I dont like bling types and equally the obsessive 'stick to tradition' types who wont buy new stuff when they desperately need it.
And all the pink stuff needs burning :P
 
WOW. I can not understand some people AT ALL.

SO you would rather a horse wore brown tack even if it didn't fit rather than wearing (QUOTE) common black tack?

You would rather someone who is 35 and only ridden for a year wear spurs than a 14y/o who has ridden all of their lives because they are adults not children?

Someone has a synthetic saddle, so that makes them an idiot?


I think you need to take a look at yourselves and some people need to come down a peg or two.

IMPE we couldn't afford a leather saddle but synthetic fits beautifully. We couldn't afford english leather bridles but they fit. We have our old pony in a gag with one rein, it suits him. Why does it matter?
 
This thread has made me howl :D :D :D

I do so love the horsey world. It is priceless :D :D :D


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I'm still waiting for OP to explain her dislike of gags used with one rein when she said in an earlier post that she had used a waterford gag on her horse..... with one rein!
 
WOW. I can not understand some people AT ALL.

SO you would rather a horse wore brown tack even if it didn't fit rather than wearing (QUOTE) common black tack?

You would rather someone who is 35 and only ridden for a year wear spurs than a 14y/o who has ridden all of their lives because they are adults not children?

Someone has a synthetic saddle, so that makes them an idiot?


I think you need to take a look at yourselves and some people need to come down a peg or two.

IMPE we couldn't afford a leather saddle but synthetic fits beautifully. We couldn't afford english leather bridles but they fit. We have our old pony in a gag with one rein, it suits him. Why does it matter?

This.
 
I'm the opposite, I hate brown tack unless it's on a bay!! And it's so hard to match brown tack... Because it comes in so many shades..

I'm not a fan of flashes, but I'm schooling one atm that needs it... But then he's 14 and been ridden by kids/beginners all his life, he takes the p otherwise. I always swore I wouldn't use one but I'm fed up of him getting his tongue over the bit and carting me off into the distance! He hasn't managed this once since I put the flash on him...
 
Hmmm you would hate my tack. I have a brown (yay) bridle with (shock) white rope reins and no noseband. Hey, at least no flash! And sometimes I ride in a Western saddle, which my very traditional YO hates. And sometimes I leave the tack off altogether...
 
I'm more likely to judge by how the horse is going than the tack it's wearing. If you saw the following, what would you think:

a) horse beautifully turned out in (brown) tack that gleams and fits - snaffle bridle, cavesson noseband, no martingale. Horse has its nose in the air and is charging round like a lunatic whilst the rider hauls away at the reins;

b) horse in a mixture of tack, clearly old and pieced together from several sets, pelham with roundings, dead sheep on the girth, going beautifully, from behind, in an outline and standing still when asked, to invisible aids from the rider.

Had a jumping lesson with a well known sj'er several years ago, who questioned the tack I was using - a snaffle, cavesson and breastplate, on a stallion. It's all I'd ever needed on him. That said, after he p'd off with me out hunting the other day, I think I'll up the bitting arrangement next time out.

BTW, whoever said black for harness, brown for saddles, country carriages in the olden days had brown harness, still seen today on a few coaching classes at county shows.
 
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