From: Andrea
Hi Jessica
First off let me say that I am a big fan of Horse Sense and look forward to the weekly e-mails. Your advice is appreciated by many!
Here is my question
What is the best way to store tack that is not used frequently? For example I have some nice bridles that I like to save for “special” occasions so they are only used a few times each year. I would like to find a way to store them so that they stay in good shape and when I need them (sometimes on the spur of the moment no pun intended;) they are pretty much ready to use.
I found that if I just leave them hanging in my tackroom they inevitably get dusty and then require lots of constant cleaning. When I tried cleaning them and then storing them in plastic tubs I found when I went to use them they were covered in nasty mildew. Some people suggested to just hang them in my house, but as much as I love my horses I don’t want my house turning into a tack shop and I’d still have to dust them all the time anyway.
I just feel that there has got to be a solution to this! Thanks in advance for your advice
Andrea
You're right - there is a satisfactory middle ground between dust and mildew. The secret is a simple, two-part forumla: (1) keep your very clean tack in a dry and well-ventilated environment, and (2) keep it covered. The cleanliness, dryness and ventilation will help protect the leather against mold and mildew; keeping it covered will help protect the leather from accumulating dust.
To give your tack the best chance of staying clean, start by finding the right place to put it. It needs to be kept safe from weather/temperature extremes and out of direct sunlight, but as you've already discovered, plastic containers aren't always the answer - for one thing, they are rarely well-ventilated, so they're often an invitation to mildew and mold spores. If your tackroom is dry and well-ventilated, and you use a dehumidifier in the summer (when and if that's necessary, depending on your location and climate) and a heater of some sort, even just a light bulb, in winter (again, depending on your location and climate), the tackroom may actually be the best place for your tack after all.
That said, don't just clean your tack and bung the lot into the tackroom - you've already had a mold problem, so try to ensure that you don't have a repeat. When you clean your tack, do your best to clean the tack's environment at the same time. Take the tack OUT of the tackroom to clean it, especially if you're dealing with mold - you want that mold outdoors where the sun can deal with it, not indoors where it can simply move around and find a new home. Plastic containers that have already been contaminated with mold CAN be cleaned, but it's safer to discard moldy containers unless you're dealing with something costly like a plastic tack trunk. In that case, you can do your best to disinfect the trunk by pulling it outdoors into the sunlight and scrubbing it thoroughly with 90% soapy water (use dish detergent) and 10% household bleach. Then let it dry in the sun, and be sure that it is completely dry EVERYWHERE before you put any tack into it. Use a stack of old rags to do your scrubbing and wiping. Keep a plastic sack open nearby, and drop each rag into it after you've used it to wipe out the container. Don't use the same rag twice, because there's a good chance that you'll just be wiping mold spores off the trunk and onto the rag, then wiping them back onto the trunk again.
Drop by your local garden center and pick up some bags or tubs of dessicant (loose silica or silica gel or zeolite) that will absorb any extra moisture that threatens your leather goods whilst they're in storage. These bags and tubs won't last forever (check the instructions and you'll find out how often to buy new ones) but they will last a long time and help quite a lot. If your tackroom has built-in tack lockers, tack trunks, or tack closets, use the same precautions but give those structures even more time to dry, and possibly a little help from a dehumidifier or an extra light bar in the tackroom, because the drawback of built-ins is that there's no way to pull them out and expose them to the sun.
If a tackroom can't be made tack-friendly, then your house may be the best location for winter tack storage. Unfortunately, in most houses there's no ideal place to keep tack safe, sound, and completely out of sight. Your basement is likely to be too damp; your attic is likely to be too hot and may also be too dry. Unless your house has so many rooms that you are able to designate a small, dry, well-ventilated interior room as your "home tackroom," you may need to resort to the same coping technique that so many of us use: Find a room where the environmental conditions will be right for your tack and where your tack will (a) fit, and (b) be more or less out of most people's way, most of the time. Then put your tack there, and learn to think of (and teach your family to think of) tack as your legitimate self-expression and/or as a form of home decor. :-)
In case you have trouble getting these ideas across to your nearest and dearest, here's another way to rationalize the in-house tackroom: Considering the cost of a good saddle and bridle, everyone should understand your need to keep your tack in the house to protect your investment.
All that said, this doesn't mean that you should flaunt the fact that you're using part of the house as a tackroom. Some families and individual family members are less understanding than others when they find bridles hanging on kitchen chairs and bits drying on the drainboard, so be as discreet as possible.
In any case, before you bring your tack indoors, take the time to clean, condition, and protect it (if you're not sure what products to use, I recommend two excellent products from LEATHER THERAPY: the Leather Wash and the Leather Restorer and Conditioner). To the non-horsey members of your family, bridles will seem like enormous piles of leather spaghetti when they're in pieces, and saddles will look enormous when they're in the kitchen being cleaned, especially if you put them across the backs of kitchen chairs to clean them. Do all of the messy things in the barn and outdoors, then bring the nice clean tack indoors for winter storage.
2. Use fabric - not plastic - covers to keep your tack clean in storage. Plastic saddle covers provide a great environment for mold and mildew, so if all of your saddle covers are plastic, leave them in the barn and use your oldest and most disreputable-looking terrycloth towels as sadddle covers. If you have some fabric - again, not plastic - bridle bags or bridle-and-halter bags, use those; if you don't, store them on a rack that won't force the headstalls to bend sharply, and drape one or two more old cotton towels over them. Old towels are wonderful. They aren't stylish or form-fitting, and they probably won't be in your stable colours, but they WILL both protect your leather from dust and allow it to breathe. If you have some old, all-cotton pillowcases in need of a new job, they make excellent bridle and halter cases - just put the pillowcases over the headstalls before you hang the headstalls on the bridle rack.
3. Make a note on your calendar - say on the first day of each month - that will remind you to check your tack, launder the protective towels, and do any necessary dusting and/or tack-cleaning. Dusting doesn't take long if you keep the tack covered and dust it every month or two. It's important to check your tack regularly - it may remain perfectly clean, but what if a mouse has moved into the tackroom and is treating your valuable strap goods like beef jerky? This has been known to happen, and if it does, you'll want to find out and do something about it. Even if your tackroom is a room in your house and it's amazingly dust-free, mold-free, and rodent-free, if you leave your tack in storage for many months, you'll still need to take it out every few months and clean and condition it AGAIN just to be sure that the leather will remain supple and strong. It's worth making the effort - again, just consider what it would cost you to replace those nice bridles...
Jessica
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