Of all the things that equestrians are kind of “renowned” for, the one I’ve always been most guilty of is the messy car. On any given day there may or may not be a passenger seat available (usually not), and you may as well forget about the backseat entirely. If anyone ever peers into my windows they would probably assume that I’m homeless (and/or a serial killer), given that it usually contains a tent, a sleeping bag, a full set of linens/blanket/2 pillows, chairs, toilet paper, a wide variety of clothing, and a really weird assortment of tarps, tapes, rope, knives, scissors, and tack.
I’ve always felt relatively unapologetic about this. Like… I know that I technically should be embarrassed by it, but I’m not. My vehicles are always a mess, much like me and my life. Kinda makes sense. Part of the package.
Plus it seems like every time I clean my truck out, I can’t find a damn thing. Or the one thing I needed, I took out. Like last time I went to a show, thinking I had my BOT dressage pad, but then I remembered that I took it out and stored it in the guest bedroom because I’m “supposed to”. I ended up having to go buy a new white pad at the show. So, ya know, being a walking disaster/hoarder sometimes has it’s benefits. I surrendered to my messiness a long time ago.
The only thing that’s changed about having a truck is that I now have another area to store crap… the kind of crap that I would never want to put inside of a car. The only problem is that the truck bed is kind of a black hole in my life, and I tend to completely forget it exists until I’m trying to set up my trunk tent. Then I’m like “geez, wtf is all this crap back here”? Because that’s typical.
Like those winter blankets that have been back there for a month. I should PROBABLY take those out and wash them. This post has actually prompted me to set a reminder on my phone for tonight so that I remember to go out and get them.
The rest of that crap is the spare tire for my trailer (which I usually keep IN the trailer when I’m not hauling, but forgot to put back in like 3 trips ago) and rubber mats. Don’t even ask. At least I took all of the broken jump standards and metal dressage letters out, finally, after like 6 months of toting them around. I’m telling you, I forget the bed of the truck is a thing that exists. Kinda like how I forget that the backseat isn’t technically supposed to be the backcloset.
I know I should be, but… I’m not sorry. And don’t even ask me to go through my purse right now. You think the truck is bad.
breedrideevent.com 
You should see how many toothbrushes I have in my vehicles…
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So guilty of this. With all three of the vehicles I drive regularly 😂 we had a tire on the boat trailer blow over the weekend and while searching for all the jack parts in the backseat of the truck, we located a wallet that had gone missing upwards of a year ago 🤣🤣 only half the jack parts though 🤷
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My husband regularly tells me that I live in my car. Which is completely unfair because the back seat of his truck contains way more junk than the back seat and the hatch area of my car.
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Nothing smells better than alfalfa in the back seat!
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ahem omg your truck doesnt have a trunk like mine does. As of right now my trunk alone has 10 saddle pads to be washed, a halter, a girth, a salt block and that is just what i remember. The backseat of my truck has 4 pairs of spurs, a pair of reins and a bit, two or three pairs of gloves, a dressage whip and crop, ollie’s car seat and god knows what else. I finally got smart and put a tote back there to put all the horse stuff in it so it stopped rolling around everywhere. UGH
I have hairnets and armbands in the console too.
LOL so yep I am right there with you 🙂
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I think I’ve got you beat…I have a donkey placenta in the truck bed right now. That I forgot to take to the dump, so vultures have probably descended on my truck in the work parking lot…whoops…
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yum!
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A few years ago I had horse shows two weekends in a row and hadn’t put everything back in my tack room upon the following Monday. A coworker walked by my car in the parking lot and when she came in she asked if I was in the process of moving. Nope, just a barn car. 😂
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My truck bed has a cover on it, and I had bought bedding and shavings, went to the store to buy bedding and shavings because I needed more, opened the back and went “shit how’s the new bedding going to fit?!” Totally didn’t even realize I had that back there LOL
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My car isn’t bad because it’s new and I’m borderline obsessed with it (also probably because I’m not riding right now), but my purse… It’s like Mary freakin’ Poppins in there. From a quick glance from my office chair, I spy: two wallets, a dog brush, screwdriver, keys, umbrella, two pairs of sunglasses, a tape measure, water bottle, dog treats, inhaler, human hair brush, one sandal, a package I was supposed to mail last week, a tennis ball and a pair of socks. I also know for a fact there are at least five types of meds in there (human/canine/equine), a full makeup bag, and an assortment of chargers.
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I’m the same way with my truck. When we go places as a family we typically take Husband’s car, so the truck has so much crap jammed in it. I avoid eye contact with the bed of the truck 90% of the time, only getting in there to shove stuff to the side when I need to hook up my trailer.
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Solidarity sister. I don’t have a truck anymore, so now my car functions as both. It’s always been horrifying, but I took it to the next level when I moved out of my old barn with all it’s lovely storage places and into my new one which afforded me … a single 2×3 cubbie… for two horses. Yeaaaaaaah. I’m so fucked. I might as well go invest in fancy car storage. Plus side, my car is unlikely to be broken into in the alley because I’m pretty sure it looks like someone sleeps in it. 🤷
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I’ve kept my back set free of stuff. My TRUNK, on the other hand… well, it now has a plastic bin full of the normal car stuff, which is tucked in behind the plastic trunk that holds most of the horse stuff. Well, most of the horse stuff that isn’t the bag of lunging equipment, the bucket of bathing stuff, the copious bags of treats, and the shoe box that’s really a Christmas box that’s left glitter EVERYWHERE. So I mean, theoretically my car has a trunk? Two, in fact?
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I’ll never forget getting pulled over in my Ford Ranger (Pinky!) and having a cop search through a stack of horse blankets, saddle pads and polo wraps 3 feet high that took up all the non driver space on my bench seat. I’m not sure what he thought he’d find, but eventually a second cop showed up, looked in my car and said “you have horses?” I said yes and he rolled his eyes and sent me on my way. I imagine him schooling the first cop as I left “look, if they have a cheap car and that much horse stuff they don’t have money for drugs.”
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hahahaha this is so true!
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My car is exactly the same! I don’t currently have space at the barn for things so everything I need on a regular basis is in my car. Since horses are klutzes it mainly means a lot of first aid stuff. I laugh about it because I park downtown and wonder if people think I’m a traveling medical professional or a serial killer because of the amount of first aid supplies but also the rope, huge rasp, and hoof knife laying on a package of baby diapers 😂
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Yeah, but when you are at a horse show in late May and a freaky cold, wet front blows through, someone in my house gloats that he keeps lord only knows what in the back seat. And it’s the day you actually need one of those coats that should have been laundered and properly hung in a closet. 🙂
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But I have SO MANY jacket and hoodie options in my truck! Needed one last week at Brownland when I had the rental car (which was disappointingly jacket and hoodie-less).
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I have not washed by tan-colored Jeep in MONTHS. I see no point to it since its gonna get arena dirt and manure dumpster fallout on it no matter what. While this suits me just fine, the CEO of my company looked horrified when I pulled up to the curb to pick him up at the airport in an absolutely filthy jeep wrangler. Clearly, I am not accumulated to giving millionaires rides in my barn car, but at least I wiped the alfalfa off of the seat for him!
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There gave been many times that if I found a random horse at the side of the road I would be able to groom and tack it up and ride away because of the selection of stuff in my car. And probably lure it towards me with some sort of horse feed in a bucket.
There is probably only two months a year that I didn’t have a winter coat in my car – July and August. Still might need it in June!
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I think I have a winter coat in my trunk too. And it is June tomorrow. UGH LOL I need help! 🙂
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Thank you! I immediately showed my husband the picture of your vehicle. Proof I am completely normal.
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“Normal” is relative for horse people
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My car is so bad, every time we have to use my car to go somewhere its a freaking project 😂, the front seat always has the junk mail that I constantly forget to bring in, muck boots and a gallon jug to bring hot water to soak my old guys food with. The back seat has a box that I shoved random crap in, including a year end awards ribbon, probably more junk mail, then there’s various tack, my son always has stuff sliding into him since he’s too old for a car seat now😂, I made him use one way too long just because it made me have to keep his seat clean. Then the wagon part(which is fairly clean right now because we went shopping over the weekend) usually has a saddle, helmet, gloves, saddle pad, extra stirrups and leathers, whip and stuff….oh and I still have the temp registration that I took off the window back there, because ya know, I could need it 😏😒someday lol
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I just have a sedan, and for the LONGEST TIME (as in, almost two years) the entire thing was taken up by Kona’s dog crate. So… no chauffeuring more than one passenger for me! LOL
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I just want to know how you got a picture of my car… 😉
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