Hoarders: Tack Trunk Edition

Most of you saw and/or participated in the "what's in your tack trunk" blog hop that was going around. Y'all had tidy little inventories of useful things and it was cute.

I was over here like "I have no goddamn clue what's in that giant abyss and I don't really want to find out". As Lindsey can tell you, I've been promising to go through it for like... a month. And hadn't. Oh and yes, it was/is my daily driver. I'd just sort of sit on the lid to squish it down and latch it each day.

But due to some unforeseen circumstances the other day,  I finally had time to go through it. Here's what I found:

bridle rack above

jumbled mess below

 I tried to make a bet with friends that there were 8+ sets of polos in there, but no one would take those odds.

stuff

This photo shows 7 full sets of polos in various states of cleanliness. There are also 3 pairs of polos and there was another full set ready for put on C-rage. That doesn't include two full sets of bandage liners or two full sets of boots.

I also had:

two sad pairs of bell boots

Two whips and a lunge line

eight bonnets

Plus there was this pile:

STUFF

So yeah, that's a quarter sheet, saddle cover, ogilvy pad, mattes shims, and you can just see the tboots. All good things, but possibly not things that actually fit in said trunk. This list actually isn't comprehensive. I had my CO sparkle helmet in a bag with a spare hat and gloves, plus my beater Ovation helmet and winter gloves, plus a couple of mismatched gloves and of course my brush box.

In my defense, I cleaned out the brush box a few weeks back to make room for fancy new brushes, so that part actually wasn't terrible.

I took everything out of the trunk, sorted it by whether it needed to be thrown away, given away, washed and put away, or washed and brought back. Then I threw away the trash, anonymously shoved shit to give away in barnmates' stuff, and tossed the other piles in the back of my car.

WE MUST REBUILD.

Obviously, an empty trunk helps no one, so it was time to start over. 

all I need is one cooler HAHAHA no

Here you see the bottom section of the carefully restocked tack trunk.

That's better

We started with a cooler, then added in the fancy CO for clinics and spur-of-the-moment photoshoots, included the tack cleaning kit (oh yeah, that was in there too), stowed the "bad boy" halter, the lunge line, and a dressage whip. My full set of DSBs (the only acceptable princess boot), one set of liners, and one clean-ish set of polos (much preferred to DSBs), and my mattes half pad. 

And look at that. You can still see open space in case I need to add something else. I do plan to keep two sets of polos and liners in there eventually, but laundry needs to happen first. 

 Add in the brush box and life is looking good.

o0o0o0o0o

 A couple caveats here--Courage's blankets live in an oversized rubbermaid tub outside his stall. You can barely see my wash bucket in the bottom right corner of the picture above--it also doesn't live in the trunk. I have an extensive horse-shit-organization system at home in my garage (which it looks like I'll be going through and cleaning asap).

Oh and I cleaned ALL the leather tack at the barn and reorganized. Now it looks like this:

three bridles, one martingale, one drop

I will admit that it's rather refreshing to actually know what I have around. Plus maybe now I look less like a hoarder? Just try not to think about how all that shit is now somewhere else. (such as in my car. hush you.)

How To Wrap Bandage Liners Like a Pro

Let's wrap this up nice and tight: First I had a Teach Me Tuesday about bandage liners, then I bought some and had a friend teach me how to use them. I got a couple of requests for a tutorial, but since at that point, I had officially done like one liner-wrap by myself, I thought I'd better wait. NO LONGER!! Here is your official Sprinkler Bandit's how-to of bandage liners for exercise wraps.

First off: Supplies!

You will need a normal set of fleece polos and your choice of liners. My favorite set up right now is to use Centaur polos ($16.95 from Riding Warehouse) and I go back and forth between my Roma channel quilted leg pads ($13.99 from Horseloverz) and Eskadron climatex bandage liners ($47.95 from Smartpak).

If you don't have liners yet, let me break it down for you.

Here are the Romas:


The only color option I've found is white. This is the 12" model and it's 18" long. As you can see, it's a rectangular shape with hard corners. These are mildly harder to wrap into your bandage. The material definitely has two different sides, but it's hard to tell which one is supposed to go next to the horse because they look the same. (hint: it's the towel-y side, not the soft flannel-ish side).




Here are the Eskadrons:

I got these used off of facebook and was told they were the 10.5" model. Here is what I can tell you: either they stretch like a SOAB or they are the 12" model. They are slightly bigger than the Romas. They are also softer. The inside/outside delineation is clearer, and the lack of hard corners makes wrapping about 30% easier.

Does that 30% justify the extra $30 in cost? Your call. (My vote: buy these used for the same price as Romas new. They really are better.)

NEXT

The process. 

Of course, I decided to take pictures for this tutorial now that it's dark at 5pm and the aisle lights went out in the barn. Thus, pictures were taken while it was 9f in the indoor. My apologies.

Next off.

Here is what we need to wrap one leg:

One bandage liner.

One neatly-rolled polo wrap.

One bad flash photography job not required.

Go ahead and roll the liner like a standing bandage--outside rolls against itself, like so:

Then lay the edge of the liner against the inside of your horse's cannon bone and wrap to the end of the liner.

This is not a contest to see how tight you can get it. If anything, I go a little looser than a standing bandage. You don't want them to slide down, but this IS NOT a pressure wrap.

even harder? photographing this moment

Now here's the tricky part.

While holding the liner in place with one hand, start the polo wrap. You want to start dead center on your liner. Just like with regular polos, do a wrap, then a second wrap over the top to anchor your bandage.

yup had to straighten this up after i took the pic

Now your liner is starting to stay in place by yourself, but keep one hand gently on the liner and polo until it is fully stable. You don't want it to twist/bind on the leg.

If your anchor wrap is solid, the rest is pretty easy.

On Courage (medium bone, 16.1h OTTB), I do the anchor, then one wrap below, then do the cradle on his fetlock, then work back up. It is important to wrap under the fetlock to secure your liner and keep dirt out of the wrap.

This picture I actually wrapped a little too low, but I was using one hand and it was bloody cold. Back off, ok?

You want to make sure the liner is covered at the bottom. If you used the Romas, this is when you swear a little because those stupid corners are really hard to wrap in. If you used the Eskadrons, pat yourself on the back.

I've always been taught to do a loop around the fetlock, then an anchor straight across, then another loop around the fetlock and head back up the leg. If you also wrap this way, STOP. One pass under the fetlock, then wrap in nice, even rolls up the cannon bone.

Now you're at the top of the cannon bone/liner. Most likely, you are very close to your horse's knee. There are two ways to finish this wrap. The first way I was taught produces a very clean finish and keeps the bandage very tidy.

This way entails making sure your liners finish RIGHT BELOW the knee joint when you first put them on. If you wrapped this way, you take your last pass around the liner and overlap aboue 1/4-1/2" of polo over the top of the liner material.

Your result is very polished and correct in any company.

OR

You may want to let the whole world know how trendy you are, that you have liners, or that you're totally copy-catting all those trendy-cool-strange horses you see in pictures on the internet. This entails letting your liners finish a little higher on the knee when you first wrap them, then wrapping up to the bottom of the knee with your polos and finishing about 1/2" below the top of your liners.

I've done it both ways. I would NOT recommend the second method for the roma liners--again the hard corners are not your friend here. It looks fine on the eskadrons. I guess it's just a matter of preference--I like the tidier finished top for lessons and clinics and daylight, but if it's pitch black at 5pm and I'm the only one at the barn, HELLZ YEAH we're gonna pretend we're Euro dressage stars.

liners peek out

liners covered up

So there you have it. Two methods to wrap bandage liners. Who else is in love with the look? (And frankly, the function too. This at least doubles, probably triples the amount of interference protection a polo provides, plus the added benefit of protecting the leg from the polo. So much win.)