The Mystery of the Tack Shop
There is a store in Braga’s city center that is a mystery to me, and I’m determined to solve it. Here’s a picture from across the street:
When you’re in a new place, the strangeness of EVERYTHING blurs together at first. Every building is equally new and inexplicable. Then as you walk around and get used to your new home, you start to get familiar with some stores and restaurants but not others. A lot of time when I go walking, I’ll pass a store and wonder “Huh. I’ve never gone into this one, I wonder why not?” It really has to do with overload … I went into the first store when I was looking for a particular thing, and once I found it I knew where to get it, and didn’t branch out, and so never got to know the second store. It’s part of the survival stage, that first year or so or adapting.
But I’m entering the stability stage now, where enough has settled that I have sufficient brain to look around me some more. I’m noticing new things, and some of those new things are old things that I blocked out due to cognitive overload. This “tack” shop is one of them. It occasionally has saddles in the window display, though not always. The other day I suddenly asked myself “Whyyyyy does Braga have a saddle and tack store in the city center?” And then I speculated on what the answer could be, which is a thing I do. It’s natural for the human brain to use pattern recognition to minimize overload, and so we apply patterns wherever we go to fill in gaps. My brain seems to enjoy speculating, as I’m constantly weaving stories to satisfy mysteries until more evidence is introduced.
I’ve never seen any horses in the center. If this store serves agriculture, wouldn’t it be on the outskirts, closer to the farms? Is it here to serve the chariot races during Braga Romana, which didn’t happen this year and I’m still grumpy about it? Does a world-famous large-animal vet live above the store and insist on everyone coming to him? (This is my favorite theory, I picture him being an eccentric with a Poirot-style mustache and he’s terrible around people but a fantastic horse whisperer.)
Let me translate the store name, that’s a next step: “Correaria Moderna” translates to … Modern Rush. That’s not particularly helpful. Let me see how Google Maps identifies it … as a tack shop! Whoa! The reviews help, they seem to indicate that it is a leather goods store with a dedicated equestrian section, and that explains the saddles in the windows. Also, I’m nodding at the thought that you can’t make a paying business in the city center of JUST equestrian tack, so of course they would use their skills on other fine leather goods.
I wrote all the previous before taking the final, radical step: going into the store and taking a look around. The first thing that hit me was a glorious smell of leather, oh yeah, this is a leather goods shop. And it has some beautiful items:
There was a roped-off area up the stairs, and I took a sneak picture:
So I asked the lady at the counter, “Who buys the saddles?” This was a Google Translate conversation, she had very little English, so hopefully I understood enough. The military and law enforcement are her main customers, it sounds like. There is a military academy in Braga, so there must be a cavalry division. Or it’s part of their training. And I think I’ve seen mounted police outside the city center. So that makes sense. She indicated that all the tack is handmade on site. It is GORGEOUS, and I’ve already mentioned how good the shop smells. I wasn’t able to confirm that all the leather goods are made there, but the quality was unmistakable. I’ve been on the lookout for a purse recently, so I semi-impulsively bought one. That’s the problem with investigating retail mysteries, I feel compelled to pay for my inquiries.
Anyway, I’ve solved the mystery and now I own a fabulous new leather purse.
