Personal (Tack) Shopper

I should be a personal tack shopper. Seriously.

Today was the big tack sale so I woke up early for it - only for horse functions I tell you :)

It was a dark and rainy drive, but I made it there without any problems and got to see an amazing sunrise. It was all worth it. This has to be one of the best, hugest tack sales EVER. Love it.

Not representative of the sheer numbers of people there!

I had my list of things that I was allowed to buy and how much I could buy (gotta rein in the tack whore tendencies!) and I think I did very well.

ML asked me if I could find her a dressage bridle and surprisingly I found a very nice one for $35 - perfect! There was a lot more dressage tack this year. The year I bought my dressage saddle, there were a few old cheap-y ones and then there was my saddle. And that was it. This year there was quite a few nice saddles - I even ran into one that I was admiring (I really like textured leather) and I glanced at the price tag - $1700. Eh, that made sense, I didn't see what the brand was, but it was nice quality. I was about to move on when the owner came up and said "That's $170, not $1700". I wanted to buy it. Good thing I already had a saddle and it wasn't a wide tree :)

Too bad I'm not really riding western that much right now. These were gorgeous!

I also got an 84" cooler for Tux for a few dollars, a fly sheet for Jazz (stiffer fabric so it won't rip) for cheap and a $10 pelham bit that I'd like to try on Jetta for jumping. The icing on the cake? An Antares girth!!! A $215 girth for $80 and in perfect condition. It was too big for the owner's horse so it looks brand new. So excited! I always found at least one really good buy at the tack sale - I've gotten my Duett dressage saddle, the Veredus XC boots, and the $100 fly sheet for $15. Like I said, I love this tack sale.

Unfortunately no scrim sheets - I saw a grand total of two and they were burgundy. Definitely not my color. I was also hoping for some hind XC boots or some XL boots for Tux. Oh well.

I love tack sales not only because of the good finds, because of the funny, random stuff you see. Like a western saddle marked "Like New!" that was obviously at least a decade or two old and very obviously used. Pretty sure it's not "like new"... Or this hideous, fugly multi-clashing-colored rope halter that needed to be burned and someone was admiring it saying "but it's only $10!" No seriously, burn it. Or people loaded down with blankets upon blankets - they bring wagons to carry them out to their car. Lots of crazy looking bits, etc.

Can't wait for the next one! Looking forward to May :)