As Director of Merchandising at SmartPak, I’m extremely lucky to have the opportunity to help develop many of the SmartPak-brand products you see on our website and in the barn. I’ve been horse-crazy practically since birth, begging for pony rides as a…
Every summer my whole family goes up to Maine for the 4th of July week. We are lucky to have a small summer cottage that my grandparents build, and we’ve been going up to the lake since before I was…
Not sure about you, but whenever I walk into a tack store or booth at a trade show I gravitate right to the bridles, arguably the most crucial piece of riding equipment you own. Since the domestication of the horse,…
Have you ever wondered if you have the right size bit in your horse’s mouth, or stared at the size options for the bit you’re about to order hoping you are picking the right one? Over my years as barn…
Have you ever wondered if you should be wearing a protective riding vest, or stared at all the different types, styles, colors, and brands of protective vests and wondered how to choose the right one? As the store manager of…
Remember when you were a little kid and you had to wear paddock boots and those crazy garter straps, and you dreamed about being old enough to wear elegant, shiny tall boots? Or maybe you were like me, and one…
Have you ever wondered if you are wearing the right size riding helmet, or stared at the size options for the helmet you’re about to order hoping you are picking the right one? In my years as a barn manager…
Saddle shopping – to a novice it sounds like fun, but it puts fear into the hearts of all who have undertaken it before. Does it fit me? Does it fit my horse? Will my horse change shape? Does my…
I recently celebrated a work milestone – 10 years working at SmartPak. It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since I started. It feels like a lifetime and five minutes all at the same time. Life before SmartPak happened…
My non-horsey friend: “Where are you going on vacation?” Me: “Florida – can’t wait!” My non-horsey friend: “Cool – beaches or amusement parks?” Me: “Neither – I’m headed to Ocala to help my trainer and ride horses!” My non-horsey friend:…
Just down the road from where I grew up, there is a property knows as the Tolland Agricultural Center, or TAC as we called it. Consisting of a handful of buildings and a field in the back with two riding…
Transitioning from a co-op barn where I took care of my own horse to a boarding facility was a necessity, but not one I was really looking forward to. I’m one of those barn rats who loves the barn work…
I pulled my current horse, Tally, out of a field back in 2012. She was eight years old but had minimal training, and whatever limited human interaction she’d had to that point in her life didn’t enamor her to the…
Florida has been a dream of mine for many years. Not the Mickey Mouse, roller-coaster Florida, but the green pastures, miles of fence-line, horses as far as the eye can see Florida. This year, due to the generosity of my…
I manage a small co-op barn at a private farm with four stalls and two other horse owners. Usually we have all four stalls filled, but recently we lost a horse to a bad leg injury. That empty stall has…
