LEBANON, Ohio — Mike Baker of Flint, Mich., swapped a two-horse trailer for three leather horse saddles from Julie Townsend of Muncie, Ind.   

Steve Gettings of Mt. Hope, Ohio, was looking for a birthday give for his niece and purchased some chaps and three sequined shirts from vendor Stacy Springer of Cynthiana, Ky.

For Mike Beck of Dover, Tenn., and Chad Thomas of Clarksville, Tenn., t was their fifth straight year making the trip to this Ohio show.

The Great Tack Exchange is a five-hour tack sale that attracts horsemen from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, West Virginia and Tennessee. Buying, selling and swapping anything that pertains to the equine takes place under one roof at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Ohio. The event is held the second Saturday in March. And this show shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

“This is our 35th Great Tack Exchange,” said Paul Ayers, president of the Warren County Chapter of the Ohio Horseman’s Council (OHC). “This is our chapter’s main fundraiser for the year and the money we raise from this goes out into the community.”

While most of the proceeds from this one-day event goes to the upkeep of the 30 miles of riding trails at nearby Caesar Creek State Park, it also helps bring attention to a variety of organizations and individuals, such as Bridge Riding For the Disabled, 4H clubs,  feed and tack dealers, trainers, vets and horse breed organizations.

“We started out small, using a tiny building here on the fairgrounds,” said Catherine Estill, Tack Exchange coordinator and member of the Ohio Horseman’s Council (OHC). “People don’t want to head to the nearest tack shop and pay top dollar, so they don’t mind coming here and getting good, secondhand tack at a reasonable price.

“Many attendees swap, trade or buy outright. And, they don’t mind traveling many, many miles to converge to what’s become a great gathering place of horsemen.”

The doors to the event opened at 11 a.m. and within minutes one particular arena on the premise is full to capacity.

“The horse enthusiast will find just about anything here, like tack, feed, apparel, trailers and even horses,” Estill said.

This event was born 35 years ago when founder Scarlett Rowland and three of her friends congregated with some other horse enthusiasts during the winter months. The first gathering attracted just 10 tables of wares and 10 members of this council.

Today, there are nearly 200 members of the Warren County OHC. There are 50 chapters in the state’s 88 counties, with a total of 4,100 members statewide.

As with just about any organization in the state, attracting new members of high priority.

“The average age of our members is constantly rising and every organization in the state has this issue,” Ayers said. “We talk about this at each of our meetings. It isn’t that people don’t know about us, it’s that they have too many other things going on in their lives.”