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Managing Belongings in Your Barn and Tack Room

One of the easiest ways to empower clients (and not drive yourself nuts) is to create clear and easy expectations surrounding use of your tack room and various barn items through easy-to-follow processes and structures.


Teaching lessons? Most students love to be self sufficient (a great way to boost confidence and learning) and want to easily be able to find everything they are looking for, for themselves and their lesson horse. If you’re running a training program, clear spaces for everything will help you (and your staff) keep track of what tack and items belong to whom, especially as horses come and go in your program. When boarding horses, prevent “borrowing” and loss of boarder items via easily marked and securable storage spaces.


Let’s address each of these in more detail below.


Organized horse equipment neatly arranged in a barn tack room, featuring saddles, bridles, and grooming supplies stored on racks and shelves for efficient barn management.

Teaching Lessons

  • Have name plates on stalls for lesson horses

  • Color code items for each horse (this makes it easy for students to find the appropriate items for the assigned lesson horse)

    • In my lesson program I color code halters, grooming boxes, saddle pads, hay nets, and grain buckets

  • Get name tags to put on halters, bridles, girths/cinches, and other gear that can’t be color coded (these can be found cheaply from Amazon)

    • By putting a name tag on a halter, with it being the first thing most grab, students can automatically see what color is associated with that horse and continue on grabbing the right items to get their horse ready.

  • Put a name tag or plate behind where each lesson horse’s bridle, saddle, etc. go (so students can easily match the item back with it’s appropriate storage space after their lesson)

  • Include pictures in the tack room, grooming area, and arena of properly put away items, as guidance

    • Alternatively, create a playbook to share with students when they start in your program and which is easily accessible when they're at the barn and need a refresher.

  • Consider adding a well placed sign of barn rules, including a rules like “Properly put away all items used in your lesson after grooming or at the end of your lesson.” or "If you break it, you replace it."

  • Put together clear expectations to be reviewed and signed in one of the students’ first lessons (or for all students at the beginning of the year if you are implementing this in a pre-existing lesson program)

  • If you supply helmets/gloves, consider color coding these or making the size more prominent as well. I purchased fleece riding gloves on Amazon, with each size being a different color, for my students to wear in the winter after hearing about how cold their hands were a couple dozen too many times. You can also put a piece of colored tape or a sticker on helmets; the colors are easier for some riders to remember than their sizes.


Saddle pad stand

Training Horses

  • Have name placards for each horse’s belongings and a space for where they are to be located: bridle, saddle, pad(s), grooming tools, boots, etc. 

    • As horses come and go from your program you will simply make new name tags and place the new horse’s belongings where the old horse's items were

  • Have a space set up in the grooming area where a horse’s belongings go while they are being worked with 

    • This prevents items from being mistakenly placed with the wrong horse

  • If owners are providing them, have all grain and supplements bagged by the owner with the horse’s name written on the bag prior to being administered (you may need to let an owner know if you are running low so that they can replenish)

  • Create rules or procedures for support staff regarding when a horse’s items should be brought out or put away so things don’t sit out and get jumbled up. Consider writing these rules and procedures down to be used as guidelines for both educating and reminding support staff

  • Ensure your tack room locks, so that things don’t walk away when unattended


Saddle hanging from temporary rack

Boarding Horses

  • With many boarders bringing in their own belongings, I’m a fan of individual locker or tack shed setups.

    • Inexpensive lockers can be purchased easily at home improvement-type stores. While always nice, these options are not required to be specifically set up for horses. This option is even more convenient because you can set them by or near each horse’s stall or paddock. They are lockable and if belongings “walk away” there is typically no burden of accountability for you as a barn owner or manager.

  • Have a clause in your boarding contract that you are not responsible for personal belongings on the property. A securable location will be provided, however it is the responsibility of the boarder to ensure their items are locked up.

    • You can even advise them to insure expensive items, such as custom tack.

  • Have some communal supplies and others that are not? Provide clear instruction on which is which. Is that First Aid kit shareable? How about that lunging whip? What happens if someone breaks something? Is it their responsibility or part of a barn expense? Ensure these expectations are clear fro the start.

  • If individual, lockable storage aren’t an option at your barn, ensure you have the liability clause noted above and consider having tack room hours that coincide with business hours to discourage belongings from walking away. 

    • Encourage boarders to take pictures of their tack for records, insure expensive tack, and to utilize name plates and tags wherever possible for ease of identification. Loss of an items is not always the direct result of theft. Often other borders simply don’t realize an item is not theirs and will walk away with it.

    • Ensure that all boarders have their own spot(s) in the shared tack room with their saddle, bridle, etc. and that these spots appropriately labeled so it is very clear what items belong to whom.


What other processes, structures, and expectations have you put in place in your barn or program to ensure you are well set up for lesson students, training horses, and/or bringing in boarders? Share with us below!


Hugs and Happy Riding!

Kristin


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Learn more about author Kristin Bowers.


Blog posts from Equestripreneur are not meant to replace individual professional advice, which will best inform personal circumstances.

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