Two long time friends, husband and wife, decided in January that they were selling their (500 acre) farm and getting out of horses --except for his personal horse. They have been into horses as riders, trainers, and sometimes instructors for 60 years. They decided to move 2000 miles away and bought a condo near a nice boarding stable for the one remaining horse. They are both in their late 70s, no children, no relatives that live close.
Wisely they had an estate sale and sold all household property except a few things that they will take with them.
Unwisely, they held back all the horse equipment to sell at a 4-H tack sale. Of course they didn’t ask me for my opinion --or I would have suggested they put all horse equipment into the estate sale — good friend that I am, I took my pickup over to help them take: “a few things” to the tack sale where they had rented a table ----
And here’s my point. I don’t think they ever threw out anything horse related. I loaded bins of bits, 30+ bridles (not oiled or cleaned, clearly been hanging in the tack room for years), 22 saddles --a few of which, maybe 4-5 were very, very nice and high end --the rest were unusable due to age, cracked leather, no fittings, etc. A 50 gallon bucket of crops and lunge whips, old riding clothes, sheets, blankets, (not clean), bin after bin of brushes, half empty grooming products, 22 saddle racks (wall kind), five standing saddle racks, bridle racks, boxes and boxes of quilts and wraps --and saddle pads --holy cow! so many saddle pads! It took two pickup trucks fully loaded including the cabs, and one SUV also loaded to the gills --and they were still looking at stuff they would have to leave --they have until 3/31 to empty the barn that is now part of the sold property. Did I mention the number of lead ropes? Ok --you get the picture –
Now, here’s the warning part: this tack sale is huge --it is the largest I’ve ever seen --tables for venders like my friends were numbered --1 to 600. All were filled with folks selling stuff. Awesome for buyers, not so much for sellers --more of a tack exchange than a tack sale.
I helped my friends carry their loads into the tack sale, where the Mrs. started putting on price tags. Mr. started stacking saddles on top of saddles on top of saddles --remember they had rented ONE TABLE.
I had brought a dressage saddle (just one) that didn’t fit my horse --and I found a gal pal on the other side of the room who had space on her table --I put my dressage saddle there with its clearly marked price and sold it within 15 min. (Bates, adjustable tree with all parts and original paperwork from manufacturer).
Here’s my point —my friends had brought so much stuff, that it was really hard for interested people to make their way to anything without stepping over or moving a bunch of stuff.
Now the saddest part —announcement after announcement was made that venders MUST remove all unsold items at the end of the sale time. I over heard Mrs. ask Mr. what they were going to do with what was left —he said, “I guess we’ll have to burn it all.” I don’t think he was joking.
Fact is, had they started selling off, giving away, throwing away the horse stuff even as little as a year ago, they would have been able to display and sell the cream of the crop and maybe make some money. I suspect burning is a real possibility. I don’t know where they would take all that stuff to donate it —the handicapped riding programs don’t want old stuff, and I doubt they’d want that much to sort through.
If you are one of those who keeps saddles, bridles, etc because you might use them someday, think about someday —we will all be in the same situation at some point. We will have to sell, give away, or burn our favorite saddles, bridles, bits – consider finding a good place for your things before then.
