I don’t think I’ve showed you something new here! No, it’s not an animal 😉 But it’s related to the animals and oh so helpful!

Last year hubby started another project, which lead to another project. (I don’t know who comes up with all this work for him…. ;P )

I had been wanting a tack room. (For those unfamiliar with the term “tack”, it basically means horse gear i.e., saddles, bridles, halters, etc). Mine has been in our garage since we moved in. I really wanted to move it to a specified place and have hubby build a hitching post (another project..hehe) nearby so tacking up the horses would be more convenient.

And the space I was thinking of would be big enough that it could also be a storage area for extra dogs things like, stacks of food, stacks of wood pellets, puppy pens and ex-pens that weren’t in use. Most of which was also stacked in the garage.

Which lead to the second project….

From this….

To this….

Hubby took the horses run-in shed that was at the end of the dog house and enclosed it into a room for all these items. But before he did that he built a new run-in shed for the horses. The run-in shed gives them a chance to get out of the weather should they choose too. Sometimes they just hang out under the trees instead. Our horses live pretty naturally, with freedom to move, explore and play in their area. We don’t have a grass pasture as some people do since we live in the woods, but they have room to roam and be horses, instead of being stuck in a stall. Without pasture, we have to feed year-round (except for the month or so that we can use my father-in-laws pasture in late summer). A “dry lot” which is what our horse area is considered, is better for my chubby horses since I can monitor how much they are eating.

The new run-in shed is so handy! He built it off the side of our hay barn. Then he made these handy doors that open into the horses’ area which makes for easy feeding. In years past I filled a wheel barrow (or sled if it was winter time) and moved it over to the area where we would feed.

The new storage/tack area is finished enough that we cleaned out the garage and moved everything in there. I just need to organize it and find a rack to hang blankets, bridles, halters and all my gear on.

I’m even going to do a little decorating eventually. I found some old cowboy pictures at my dad’s house last time I was there. My childhood home first belonged to my grandparents and there are still some old “treasures” from them there.

My dad and grandpa were both from South Dakota where the family had a ranch. My grandpa was a cattle buyer so of course, there were “cowboy” decorations that belonged to my grandpa.  I even have a pair of dress boats and several nice Stetson hats.

And the room is even big enough that my seed starting shelves fit in there too. They were in the dog house taking up a big spot before.

So thankful for all these new spaces and a handy hubby that can tackle pretty much any project!