The Tack Room: The story of saddlery and harness in 27 equine disciplines

Polo, horse-racing, show jumping, endurance riding, ploughing, pit ponies, mounted police, carriage driving: all these different activities require different tack. Paula Sells shows how the tack used in 27 different disciplines has become specialised for each. She describes the tack rooms and their contents, conversations with the owners and the history, current status and challenges of each discipline. Each tack room has been selected for its importance in the discipline it represents: Badminton House (Duke of Beaufort’s Hunt); the Household Cavalry; the dressage, eventing and racing tack rooms of Carl Hester, Mary King and Andrew Balding. Tack rooms are treasure houses of traditional and innovative modern craftsmanship. The wide range of tack they hold reflects its evolution through our social history and the changing partnerships with horses in modern culture. AUTHOR: Paula Sells learnt to ride on Welsh Mountain ponies by rounding up sheep in North Wales. A keen huntswoman she represented Cheshire in a Pony Club eventing team which won at the Burghley National Championships. In 1998, after a career in tropical medicine, Paula became a member of the British Horse Loggers and works Shire-cross heavy horses. She worked for Riding for the Disabled and is now breeding flat racing thoroughbreds. 240 colour photographs and illustrations