The Leather Halter

Like most people, We’ve accumulated a good deal of spare tack. it’s there in case we need it, but mostly we don’t. I want to preserve it, though, so twice a year I clean and condition/oil everything. This year, I had just finished oiling one of the brown bridles (all my everyday tack is currently black), and it was hanging on a hook in the barn aisle, waiting to go back into the tack room.? My mom came into the barn and asked where I had gotten such a gorgeous bridle. I said I no longer remembered, it was some horse’s at some point, but it’s just a spare now. ?Do you have others’? she asked. ?Yes, several. Why’? ?Well,? she said rather shyly, ?I would love to have it.? I’m sure shock registered on my face. ?But you don’t ride anymore.? ?My friend has one in her house as a decoration, and I loved it. And, it’s not nearly as pretty as this one.? So, I put a nice-looking bit on it and gave it to her. it’s now on a door knob in her house and apparently quite a conversation piece. That got me thinking. When we bought Sally about nine years ago, my husband gave me a beautiful dark brown leather halter with her nameplate on it. It was gorgeous. Show quality . . . too good to risk damage . . . and it’s hung in the tack room ever since, except for being cleaned and oiled twice a year. Until last week. That gorgeous halter is now on Sally, her nylon halter on the ?spare? hook instead. She looks like a million bucks in it, and it makes me smile. I know that eventually she’ll scratch the nameplate, and the leather will get a few digs and dings, but I’m enjoying it a lot more than I did when it was hanging on a hook in the tack room.

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