Jennifer invited this - but I'll take the blame, LOL!
Pet peeve #1 (a.k.a tack room etiquette): How do you hang up your halters? Ladies -I think most of my readers are female....
(now there's a poll topic! But I digress... )
Anyway, dear readers, how do you hang your tack?I really wish I had a picture, not to mention a tape recording of my mom reading us the riot act about this! Our tack "room" growing up, and I'll use "room" loosely, 'cause what it was was a pole in the barn with homemade saddle & bridle racks attached made neatly of cut wood, recycled metal coffee cans, & 2x4s, may not have been fancy or dust free, but it was organized. Bridles were to be hung up correctly by the headstall, not by cheekpieces, knotted reins or otherwise draped improperly.
Saddles were to be placed back on the racks where they belonged, not left laying about in corners with their edges curling up.
And halters & leads were located were you could grab them as needed.
They DID NOT get wadded into a knotted mess and hung willy-nilly on the closest protruding object. Not if we wanted to keep using them, that's for sure.
I've kept the habit. I won't say that the halter rack in the barn is the cleanest I've ever seen (have you seen the mud on those ponies lately!), but I do keep the halters buckled & hung with the leads attached so that I can easily grab the ones I need without having to unsnarl the whole mess.
And woe betide the one who leaves them otherwise! Grrr!!!!
Pet peeve #2: "But I don't feel like it tonight..." Ever met a dairy farmer who took much time off?
Milk cows require feeding & (yup) milking. Every a.m. Ever night. Just like horses require feeding and looking in on. Every day by someone. Okay, so maybe there are horses out there on 40 acre pastures that run pretty much wild & free as they choose. But they have access to food, water, & turnout, now don't they? If you own a horse and you're not providing opportunities for same, shame on you! The horse doesn't care that you don't feel like it. And when you chose to purchase said animal, you accepted the responisibility to feed it or have it fed, or find it another location with someone else to do so. End of story.
