How to Organize Your Horse Trailer Dressing Room

The modern equestrian typically finds that traveling with a horse requires good timing, expert planning and practiced organizational skills to get where they are going without mishap and without forgetting anything. Having a checklist on hand when loading your trailer's dressing room or tack room prevents you from leaving necessities behind. When you have to use your trailer's tack room as a dressing and undressing room, it requires even better organizing to keep everything in its place and right at your fingertips.

Things You'll Need

  • Saddle cover
  • Portable saddle stand
  • 2 small tackle or toolboxes
  • Horse grooming supplies
  • Paper sacks
  • Feeding tub
  • 10- to 15-gallon water tank
  • 2 large water buckets with stall clips
  • Medical supplies
  • Helmet cover
  • Boot cover or pillowcase
  • Hanging bag or suitcase
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Instructions

    • 1

      Place your saddle in its protective covering on one of the saddle racks attached to the dressing room wall, positioning it so that the pommel is closest to the wall. Set your saddle pad and girth over the saddle. If your trailer doesn't possess attached saddle racks, purchase a portable stand to hold your saddle.

    • 2

      Pick up your bridle by the headstall and hang it on one of the hooks attached to your dressing room wall. Center the buckle of the reins on the hook over the headstall to keep them from dragging on the floor; split reins need to be loosely knotted together and placed the same way.

    • 3

      Roll your lead rope into a loose coil and hang it over another hook.

    • 4

      Consign all of your horse grooming supplies in neat rows to a tackle box or small toolbox so that you can find everything quickly and easily. Your grooming kit should include a rubber or plastic curry comb, a Dandy or stiff brush, a Baby or soft brush, a hoof pick, hoof brush, two small and one large sponge, a mane comb or hairbrush, one or two towels, a water brush for scrubbing away stains, and hoof dressing, writes Susan E. Harris in "The U.S. Pony Clubs Manual of Horsemanship."

    • 5

      Separate your horse's daily grain rations into separate paper bags labeled for morning, noon and evening feedings for each day you will be away from home. Place all of the grain bags into a round feeding tub and push the tub underneath your saddle stand.

    • 6

      Fill a 10- to 15-gallon water tank with the water from your own hose that your horse normally drinks. You will need approximately one tank for every two days you will be out. Many horses refuse to drink water from strange places, so bringing your own may help keep your horse hydrated

    • 7

      Bring two large water buckets with stall clips and set them next to your feed.

    • 8

      Place all medical supplies into another tool or tackle box, stack it on top of your grooming box and slide them next to your grain under the saddle. Medical supplies should include bandage material, bandage tape, a pair of bandage scissors, a roll of duct tape, anti-bacterial ointment or spray, a roll of cotton batting, sterile gauze, a bottle of wound cleaning solution and leg wraps.

    • 9

      Hang your helmet -- if you wear one -- in its cover on one of the bridle hooks.

    • 10

      Cover your boots in their protective bag, or wrap them in a pillowcase, and place them on the floor under your helmet.

    • 11

      Place your show coat, breeches and show shirt -- or any other clothes you may need -- in a hanging bag or suitcase and suspend it from a bridle hook next to your helmet. Put any needed toiletries in a pocket on the suitcase.