I wanted saddle racks that I could mount on the outside of our corrals and round pen — something that folds down when not in use, and that would keep my saddles and bridles and everything else off the ground and in order. Ugh, and I also wanted to keep them out of reach of Siobhan who thinks that everything on the planet is meant to be chewed. I swear she is worse than a goat.
We have a scrap lumber pile I’m trying to burn through, so this project was perfect for it.
You’ll need:
- a length of 2″ x 4″ (my scraps were 41″ long, so that’s what I used)
- pencil
- measuring tape
- a rope hook
- an eye bolt
- screws (if they don’t come with the rope hook)
- a drill motor
- screw driving bits to fit the rope hook screws
- (optional) a drill bit
- (optional) a coat hook
Instructions:
In my case I needed to mount the racks on a board that I could then hang off the corrals. If you are mounting these to your wall, you’ll do it slightly differently than shown.)
- Determine your location for your racks. Like I say, I was just using a board that I could hang off my corrals.
- I recommend mounting to a stud.
- Use your pencil to mark where the eye bolt will go in the wall. (If you do like me and mount it to a board, you’ll want washers for the back of the bolt)
- Pre-drill a hole for your eye bolt.
- Screw the bolt into the wall
- Hold the butt end of your 2 x 4 against the wall below the eye bolt. Place the rope hook through the eye bolt and rest the flat piece on the top end of your 2 x 4. Use the pencil to mark the screw holes for your rope hook screws.
- Pre-drill your 2 x 4 at the marks you just made for your screw holes.
- Attach your rope hook.
- At this point you can simply hang your saddle rack as-is. I wanted something that would also keep the bridles untangled and out of the way, so I attached a coat hook to the end of the 2 x 4 as shown.
You can get as fancy with this thing as you want. I didn’t want to as I’d exhausted my ability to string swear words together coherently, which usually is my sign to stop practicing carpentry for the day.
