Favorite Places - a Tour of the Barn

There are several places on earth that are my favorite in which to be:

~ My home or my children's homes. (Or anywhere my family is.)

~ The temple.

~ My classroom.

~ Kentucky Horse Park.

And...

~ the barn.

I am at home in most barns (er, ones with horses, that is!) and have been since I was 9 and began riding lessons at Horse Schuh Farm in Lafayette. I love the weathered wood many of them have, the aroma of horses and hay, the sounds of munching as the horses work on their hay, and the nickers and whinnies. Doing barn chores. Leaning over a stall door and visiting with its resident. And yes, I even love cleaning up what that resident leaves behind!

Since I adopted Abby at the end of April, I have been at the barn just about daily. It has become a very familiar place, and one in which I am very comfortable and at home. I thought it might be fun to write an entry about Abby's home so I took some photos last night and tonight.

The northeast entrance (where we bring the horses in for grooming, trimming, and saddling.)

 It leads to this welcoming aisle.

 You can see the southeast entrance to the barn at the end of the line of stalls. The indoor arena is to the right in this picture.

Next up - the lounge!

 Not that much lounging happens at the barn! Those windows allow you to view lessons and the door leads into an aisle that runs along three sides of the arena. I have used this room to clean tack, too.

 There are chairs to sit in if you choose. I use them as saddle holders when cleaning. (I just noticed that you can see my reflection in the window!)

The lounge has two more doors leading off of it. The white door is the office and the brown door leads to the tack room.

 There's a third door on the right (not pictured) that opens to a bathroom.

The lounge also has a working cast iron stove!

 I think it would be fun to set up tables and invite friends for dinner in the lounge and then have a barn dance afterward. Maybe this October?

 As you can see, the barn has a western theme. Even the office door sports a sign from the west.

 Tim stores my two saddles in his office along with an antique English saddle (on the rack above mine) and an antique child's pony saddle (left front) which I think is adorable! I don't think that the TV or VCR ever get used.

 There's also a mini fridge for water bottles, carrots, and medicines in the office.

Next up? The tack room! And it is pretty amazing in all it holds. (See that lariat on the far wall?)

 Saddles, bridles, halters, lead ropes, brushes, buckets, combs, longe lines, longe whips, saddle bags, chaps, a lariat, replacement hardware for broken tack... You can find it all in here.

 There are probably 14-16 saddles in the tack room and countless bridles, halters, and lead ropes.

 Speaking of such, can you guess which is my stuff?? The color kind of gives it away.

 Also in the tack room are cupboards full of helmets, dewormers, first aid kits, and just about anything you can think of that you might need when working with horses. And yes, the orange bucket is mine. So is the yellow one - I had to buy a four-pack of buckets to get the orange one.

 Some day I would like to take out each saddle, look at it, and give it a good cleaning. Some, I think, are vintage or even true antiques.

Saddles are stored on racks mounted on two walls of the room.

There are two walls of bridles, halters, lead ropes, etc., too. I think that is a harness on the top left but I have never looked at it closely.

Just as moms pack enormous diaper bags to take their babies places, and have rooms full of furniture, clothes, toys, and other necessities for their children, a horse also needs quite a bit of equipment in order to properly care for them.

And Abby is most definitely worth it!