Thought Experiment: You Can Only Keep 10 Pieces Of Tack

L Williams provided this thought experiment a few weeks ago. I feel like it's even more appropo now - maybe I have to chuck all my things in a truck and head for the hills. But if I could only keep ten things, this is what I'd keep.

For the sake of argument, assume the saddle comes with necessary fittings (plain jane girth, leathers and irons) and the bridle comes with a plain D-ring snaffle.

1. County Saddle. Here's the T - I'm a little disappointed in County. I love my saddle. Love. But holy crap County, you like actually need to get your shit together. I want to recommend this saddle to people. The Epiphany is heaven. The Solution is... the solution, for me. But I have heard way too  many horror stories first hand about these custom saddles just not fitting. The fitters not caring about the saddle not fitting. And that translates to me seeing a ton of brand new County's being sold on Facebook and eBay at a huge loss to a person who was just trying to do the right thing for their horse and their riding.

So yes, my saddle is amazing magic that made my butt sing. But the more I see about this brand, the more I feel I just got very lucky. This is a shame to me, because I think the brand has a potential to be a really top saddle that could help a lot of people and horses!

2. Mattes Pad. I ride with a Mattes pad for every ride, and I always have. I replaced my 15 year old Mattes pad with a new one when I got my new saddle, and since the advent of Hufglocken I placed an order for a custom pad with pockets for shims.

Three guesses to the color. First two don't count.

As an aside about Hufglocken - do not bother paying more for the tracking. It is really useless.

3. Woof Boots. This is a pretty boring one but hear me out. I have a lot of horse boots I like but to me, these are the most versatile. They're good for trail riding, jumping, strapping ice packs to legs, and I even ship in them. I've used them when turning out my fragile toothpick-legged idiot to protect him from new friends. They hose off and hold up. Runkle was turned out in a pair of these for months after he did his splint because I was so afraid of him knocking it again. That horse was a F5 tornado of boot destruction. I can't tell you how many bell boots went completely missing. He never lost or destroyed the Woof boots.

My first pair that I still have 5 horses later.
They're 8 years old now...

4. Shires 100g Combo. I live in the Northeast so blankets are going to be on this list. The Shires 100g combo is hands down the best blanket I have ever owned. Spicy uses almost exclusively this blanket all year. The combo neck means he's always completely dry and the 100g fill plus the neck keeps him toasty warm into very frigid temperatures.

5. Shires 200g Liner. I picked the 200g Liner to layer with the 100g Combo. Ironically, Spicy did not use his 200g liner at all this winter (#climatechange) but I'd still pick this over the 100g. That way if it was really frigid out I'd be covered, and the 100g Combo has a huge range I'd feel comfortable using it in.

6. Weatherbeeta Prime Pad. These pads are my absolute favorite. The forward cut fits my jump saddle perfectly, and the cut at the spine of the pad perfectly traces the shape of Spicy's back. It never shifts or rubs, and has reinforcement patched by the girth so I imagine these will last me a very (very) long time!

Prime pad in action!

7. Hybrid Halter. This halter from the Horse Education Company has become an absolutely essential part of my training. I use it every single day. As soon as this halter goes on Spicy knows he has to be 'on' his behavior. I should do a full review of this because it's really a versatile piece of equipment.

8. 10ft Clinician Lead. Along with the Hybrid Halter, this is a piece of equipment I use every day. The weight of it is perfect for ground work and it's held up to being dragged through poop, stepped on, and whatever other shenanigans I get into with it. It has no pulls along it and doesn't get knotted on itself.

9. The Fucking Micklem Multibridle. Sigh. I like want to punch someone for this but realistically speaking this is the most versatile bridle I own. It's ergonomic, and has the drop/flash strap in case I have a horse that needs it, but it doesn't need to be tight if the horse doesn't. I've used the lunge ring a ton and have ridden in all bitless configurations. Grumble grumble grumble.

10. Shoo-fly Leggin's. Everyone's done reviews of these. They're the best. New info from the last time I mentioned them - they were essential in helping me transition Spicy to barefoot. I firmly maintain the only reason he wasn't more footsore last summer was because these leggin's keep the stomping down to 0.

And there you have it. Were we to flee these would be the 10 essentials I'd pack. In fact, I probably wouldn't even need to pack it I'd just throw all of it on him at once and gallop off into the sunset. Stay safe out there everyone, and happy Friday!