By Janine Carter

If you ride horses, you know that tacking up a horse refers to the equipment worn by a horse to allow us to ride them with more ease. There is a wide range of tack and all has to be fitted to the individual horse. Tacking up requires a certain amount of expertise by the rider in order to make any discomfort for you or or animal minimal.

There are two kinds of horse tack. English and western. It consists of a halter, saddle, saddle pad, stirrup, bridle, girth (for English) / Cinches (for Western), lead ropes martingale, harnesses, and breastplates. The bridle consists of the headstall, chin strap, bits (fit into the horses mouth) and reins. There are basically three kinds of bridles: single, double and hackamore. There are four kinds of girths: webbing, leather, string and nylon. There are a large number of different kinds of saddles that people use all over the world. Jumping , dressage , polo , park , racing , English side saddle, Western side saddle, and military. Based on the rider there are also other kinds of equipment.

All equipment has to be cleaned regularly to increase the life of the leather, especially after every use. If you allow the salt from a sweating horse to stay on your leather tack it will make the leather hard and shrink making it dry out and last only one season. Wipe tack with a wet sponge and then with a horse tack cleaner that is available on the market. After cleaning check to make sure you don’t need to apply leather oil to keep it fresh. For the most part, horse saddles and tack are made of leather, but with today’s technology, many are made with synthetic materials. This synthetic equipment is lighter, less expensive and many times can be thrown in the washing machine for cleaning. Leather tack, on the other hand is expensive and needs a lot of care. Try to store your leather items in dry cool places such as storage containers or even in your home where the humidity is less.

Doing everything possible to preserve your tack will save you money in the long run. Tack is very expensive to replace, although now that the Internet is selling tack and saddles, you are able to get discounted prices. Just search to get the best price available. Show equipment is usually the highest priced as it has lots of silver with high quality leather lacing and concho’s to add more flare to the horses appearance. A general purpose saddle and accessories is usually the best way to go, especially for beginning riders. As you progress, you may want to upgrade to the more expensive equipment. Also, there are lots of used saddles and tack available at a much cheaper price.

If you have any questions on Horse Tack or Posh Pampered Pets, please call 979-221-7251. Our home office is located in Waller, Texas, with warehouses located throughout the United States such as Dallas TX, Houston TX, New York NY, Denver CO, Chicago ILL, Seattle WA, Kansas City MO, Miami FL, Raleigh-Durham NC, Washington DC, Los Angeles CA, Fayetteville AR, Philadelphia PA, Phoenix Arizona, San Antonio TX (Texas).

About the Author: This article was written by Janine Carter, owner of Posh Pampered Pets. If you have any questions regarding

Horse Supplies

or

Posh Pampered Pets

, please feel free to call 979-221-7251 or email

info@poshpamperedpets.com

.

Source:

isnare.com

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