We all have a list of scents that bring us back not to a place, but to a time.

One of the flashback-inducing aromas from my history is the combination of oiled leather and dried alfalfa: the tack shop.

I spent a lot of time in tack shops as a child. Actually, it’s not just the tack shop, it’s also the arena, the stable, the fairgrounds, the feed stores and the livestock auction with the zillion-miles-per-hour auctioneer and the dizzily steep terraced seating.

The thing is, my mom is horsey.
My mother has always been a girly girl. She loves floral patterns, trashy romance novels, decorating cakes, baby clothes shopping, torch singers, Victorian-era anything, and most of all, horses.

It was a funny twist of fate that brought her a daughter who is so much like her in appearance and opinionation, but so vastly different in taste.
I wanted nothing to do with my mom’s girly things.
I liked punk rock and abstract art and the bustle of big cities. I was absolutely, utterly uninterested in dolls, ruffles, and most of all, horses.

I will say that despite my lack of interest, I was a decent sport.
I tried my best to please my mother and got on a horse that bucked me across an arena. Thankfully, I managed to hang on by a thread and avoid death by trampling.
After that, she accepted our different interests with grace and didn’t push it. I was still required to come along to whatever event or shop she was going to, but she understood and accepted that I was probably going to spend the afternoon drawing on scraps of paper, chatting with people about imaginary nonsense or rating the shops by how much I liked the colors of the of bright nylon leads and patterned wool saddle blankets.

I’ve been missing my family a lot these days and spending a bit more time than usual reflecting on old memories. A couple of days ago, I walked into a shoe shop and the smell of the leather brought me right back to being eight years old in the tack shop, keeping busy picking the best saddle blanket in the joint.

Recalled through the lens of adulthood and new interests, I realized that saddle blankets are absolutely beautiful objects often made of 100% wool and they’re more than thick enough to use as rugs.
It doesn’t hurt that the cost of a saddle blanket is dirt-cheap next to comparably sized wool rugs.

Saddle blankets come in two approximate sizes: normal is about 30” square and double is 30” x 60″. I’m partial to the double size blankets for rug use.

Here are some good ones I found online that would look AMAZING against a painted white or polished wood floor.

Free Spirit Saddles and Tack eBay shop

Tack Wholesale

Show-N-Style

Tack Market

Thanks mom for the memories and the unintended décor lead. I miss you.