To be a horse owner is to be impractical by nature and somehow practical by necessity. A horse owner is one who moves into a 17^th century fixer-upper with a failed septic system and rotted sills one day, and the next day trailers home a mare culled from a trainer's string of runners in the last week of Suffolk Downs' racing season.

A horse owner is one who, having become obsessed with learning to fly, takes up saddle repair to pay for piloting lessons.

As the weather gets increasingly course and cold, the daily question for horseowners of 'to blanket or not to blanket' forces other thoughts away.

Liz Cloutman, of South Hamilton's Round The Bend Tack Shop and the owner of horses Oz and Woody understands.

"I had to start the tack shop to support my flying habit, yes," she confirmed in a recent conversation.

My brain had lagged when she had gone on to tell of flying upside-down over Crane Beach in a homemade plane with an open cockpit. A moment earlier we'd been talking about Oz's bumps and bruises from polo days. I transitioned from picturing my friend's blond hair whipping in the wind as she exorcised Oz of polo mallet demons to Cloutman's hair stretched tight behind her goggled eyes.

Flying and simple serendipity got Cloutman into the tack business. Around the time that Cloutman started sprouting feathers a friend invited her along to a local workshop on saddle and bridle repair. Friendship - not interest - lured her, but when the needles and thread were passed around Cloutman found her calling.

"It turned out I was pretty good at it. So I got into doing harness repair. Thirty years ago, September 1981, I started (my first business) Interleather," Cloutman said.

With modesty making a sort of fiction of facts, Cloutman let on that she worked for the U.S. Equestrian Combined Training Team when it was was headquartered on Bridge Street in Hamilton and did some successful wholesaleing.

Some years passed. Children and foals came into her life and eventually Round The Bend Tack Shop was born. Architecturally and emotionally an extension of Cloutman's home, the shop is an expression of Cloutman in every way.

Specializing in wool blankets - including custom blankets sewn for Cloutman by a company in England, the store features carefully chosen goods. Telling of one of her talents Cloutman explained, "I like the challenge of putting together a bridle for someone which will look good and fit properly, it's the same for blankets."

When all is said and done, what matters most to Cloutman is comfort and well being for horse and human. These days little distresses her more than a poorly fitted horse blanket.

"My mission is blankets that won't injure a horse's withers. A lot of people don't know that a poorly fitting blanket can actually cause nerve damage," she said, stressing her point.