I should preface the title by saying this is an easy solution for storing English style saddle pads. And more specifically, the quilted all purpose style pad many English riders have. Unfortunately I don’t ride western anymore, so I don’t really have a need to store western pads.
And while I am thinking about it, I’m not sure if western riders have quite as may saddle pads as we English riders tend to accumulate. Or I could be even over generalizing for English riders. Maybe it’s just me?
But this was a problem I was having, and I decided to fix it. And in the hopes of being helpful, I thought I would share this simple idea with you.
Saddle Pads Take Up Space
And they take up a lot of valuable space. Especially when you have a small tack room.
But there is a very easy, and affordable solution.
Amazon to the rescue! I found these skirt hangers on Amazon. You get a pack of 10 for $16.69
They are amazing. The hook swivels around. So you can hang your saddle pads straight, or if you don’t have enough clearance, at a slight angle.
And the hooks are nice too. They have a plastic pieces at the clamp, so you won’t inadvertently snag any of those fancy saddle pads.
Using A Blanket Bar As A Hanger
Ok, now that we have our hangers for our saddle pads, what are we going to hang them on?
I have an affordable solution for that too! Instead of rigging up a hanging bar for your tack room, you can use something that is meant to be in the tack room, a blanket bar.
I found this blanket bar at Jeffers Equine for $9.99. AND because the people at Jeffers are so incredible, if you use the promo code BUDGET, you will save 10% off your order!
Then you just have to hang up the blanket bar, put your saddle pads on hangers, and wa-la! Instant saddle pad storage! I already had my blanket bars in place. And thankfully, the blanket bar was high enough from the floor that I didn’t have to move it.
Now I can easily go through my saddle pads to decide which one I want to use. This is much easier than piling them up. And it also makes it easier to stay organized. Because when I’m done using the pad, it’s easy to put back.
Easy Saddle Pad Storage DIY
So not a long post today. I just had this idea and wanted to share it with you. That’s one of the benefits of being on vacation, I have time to write as well as get a lot of projects done at home!
And if you want to save this idea for later, just Pin the photo below to your Pinterest board so you can come back and visit this post at a later time.
I hope you find this post useful for getting creative with ideas for storage in your barn. And if you would like to see more of my little tack room, why not check out this post?
5 replies to "How To Store Saddle Pads Efficiently"
Question for you… I have a bunch of 8 ft poles… what’s the best standard height for them- 4ft? 5ft? Is there a rule of thumb when building standards- height versus pole length? Thank you
Hi Andrea,
It’s really up to you, and how tall you plan on jumping. Personally, I find the 4 foot tall standards work the best, and make more efficient use of the 8 foot poles, because you can get 2 standards out of the 8 foot long piece of lumber. And while if you do plan on jumping higher than what the 4 foot standards offer, you can always make more. But our horses only have so many jumps in them, so I opt for the lower heights. Many trainers recommend schooling over the lower jumps to perfect the process, and build confidence for you and your horse. Save the big jumps for the shows, and when you are moving up on how tall your jumps are.
In regard to the standard size vs. the pole length, I haven’t fond it really matters. I can build 5 foot standards and use 6, 8, or 10 foot poles, and do the same with 4 foot standards. If you are going to be building taller standards, and really want to get the most height out of a jump the most important part of the standard is the base. Because the taller your jump, the larger the base should be. I will make my bases a minimum of 16″ to attach to the upright portion of the standard, and if I am making 5 foot standards, I usually increase the base to 20″ to make the base very stable for taller jumps.
I hope that helps! 🙂
That is a really cool idea!
Do the clamps on the hangers leave indents on the saddle pads?
Mine have not left any marks on my saddle pads