The Tack Room

Polo, horse-racing, show jumping, endurance riding, ploughing, carriage driving, mining with pit ponies, policing on horseback: all these activities need different tack. Paula Sells shows how the tack used in 27 different disciplines has become specialised for each one. She describes the tack rooms and their contents, conversations with the owners, meetings with Master Saddlers and the history and current challenges of each discipline. Each tack room has been selected for its importance in the discipline it represents: Badminton Houses tack room is dedicated to the Duke of Beauforts Hunt; Hyde Park Barracks houses the Household Cavalry tack; the dressage, eventing and racing tack rooms of Carl Hester, Mary King and Andrew Balding are featured; so is the fifteen-ton Mercedes horsebox which serves as portable tack room for the Weston-super-Mare beach donkeys. Tack rooms are treasure houses of traditional and modern, innovative craftsmanship and this lavishly illustrated hardback showcases the workmanship behind the scenes.