Sometimes I pack for a model horse show with different goals. If I’m flying or traveling with friends, I may need to make my packing as compact as possible. This is generally how I operate. But I realized at a recent show that I was spending way too much time packing and unpacking in the hall, time that could be better spent socializing or just getting my head straight.

(The picture, of bits of greenware horses drowning in a slip bucket, is probably NOT a good way to pack.)

My style has often been to unpack everything in the morning, then repack at the end of the day. I deviate from this a little when I’m in a hurry. But I’ve realized a couple of things:

  1. A horse that has to stay out for callbacks can very much derail my packing plan
  2. I’m spending a lot of time moving boxes in and out of the hall, as well as stashing them at my table.

I’ve been admiring that some people bring horses in little slotted tubs all ready to go for performance, that’s interesting to me.

I do like having china or fragile horses have their own separate box, and then I pack those boxes.

The collapsible dishracks (as shown in the image above) seem really great for making a lot of room for horses to stand up where you can enjoy them without risk of dominoing. I have bought some for home, and I have to remember to take some with me.

For plastic, I tend to like having them packed in cardboard apple boxes. I have usually packed on their side but I’m starting to see the merits of packing the bottom horses upright.

What are your packing strategies?

  • DrButterscotchEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    I’ve only been to china shows recently and for that every horse has its own box. For the ones I didn’t have their original shipping box I made custom ones with an inexpensive memory foam mattress topper cut to size. I try to load these into large totes to save some trips. Unloading is a bit of a pain, but I try to be organized and arrange my horses by class on the table. When a horse doesn’t need a callback it just goes back in its box and when I have a full tote it goes back in the car if I feel it will be safe. For plastic I interchange pony pouches and just line them up in the totes so it’s really easy. I don’t fly to shows so it’s not difficult.