Maki -I might be mistaken about the special tack costing ingots - in that case, I'm remembering wrong and will relent that point.  
However, it costs ingots to get special backgrounds, companions.

 Companions cost ingots and I budgeted to buy some. The owl for example is 50 ingots. If I wanted an owl companion for the 500 horses that would be $250. Not going to happen! But being able to afford a few now and then was fine. With them disappearing, nope, I'm not spending a chunk of ingots on a limited use companion. 

100 ingots = around $1
To fully equip gems to a set of tack is 6 ingots. So that's about 16 sets per dollar, sounds like an OK price. But if you want to tack around 500 horses that's 3,000 ingots or $30. 

$30 is a bit of money for me for a recurring cost. I was able to budget that in as a one-time purchase. As a recurring cost? Not right now, I'll have to do a little more playing with numbers to see if that's how I want to spend my cash. 
Especially since I end up selling many adult horses once they reach level 50 – do I remove the gem tack from them thereby losing a use? I highly doubt that anyone will switch to paying more then they are for them if I leave the tack on. 

Making the special tack effectively a re-occurring cost reminds me of expensive skins in other games that are just for aesthetics. However, certain tack came with benefits to shows or breeding and gems are supposed to influence that too. Making this a paywall for these benefits. 

This is just my feelings about pay-to-win games I've run into in the past, lots of horse games I've seen with similar methods where you really can't do well or enjoy the experience without paying. When I joined here, I could jump in, enjoy the game, and build up inventory without having to pay - which made me excited to spend my cash on ingots and subscriptions to support the game. Now however, I'm worried that if more parts of the game get retconned to force more and more purchases, I'm not going to be able to continue to enjoy the game. 

That's just my personal opinion though, I understand others have more to spend. I know some people can spend a lot (on campaign coins for instance) that I simply can't afford right now. Not being able to purchase a campaign coin doesn't impact the ability to enjoy different aspects of the game though. 

Right now I'm still enjoying playing and will continue my monthly subscriptions, however I am effectively unable to participate in purchasing these items or equipping tack, which is a shame. I would love to see more options added (like the Variation Pass Token) that would give a little boost and encourage people with the cash to splurge a bit without removing something players have already purchased. 

First of all, thanks for all the great updates! With how plentiful and steady they are coming in, one can't not admire your dedication. Love how quickly the horse image issue was fixed after players said they feel unhappy with it auto-collapsing on sticky tabs.

However, I share others' concerns with the latest tack update. I liked to infuse my tack with gems because yay shiny tack, but now it's effectively an ingot drain. I don't think I'll be willing to waste ingots for aesthetics or one extra use; and we can't forget about a major inconvenience for people who frequently sell their horses, as Talitha mentioned -- removing tack before sale will burn a use for them. And what pain would it be if you equipped a wrong piece by mistake (which I do occasionally), and had to remove it and again waste a use! In the end, insted of motivating me to invest in infused/special tack it pushes me to just stick with basic sets, which I believe is the opposite of a goal this update was aiming for. 

It's a bit radical suggestion, but if the repaires are not gonna be added, perhaps the ingot price of gem-infusing can be removed alltogether? And the number of uses for ingot-costing items -- significantly bumped up (like, to 2-digit numbers). Tack pieces, companions/backgrounds and gems would still get used up insted of sitting in piles, but using them won't feel like a money sinkhole. It's your call, but I hope you polish this update a bit more because right now it does feel a little jaggedy. 

I have enjoyed taking tack on and off my horses to reflect their current state in my stable - I add gems at level 20, take it off when I'm moving them into the petting zoo, etc. This style of play is effectively no longer supported, which does make me a bit sad.

Tack is not a necessity. Plain and simple. If you want to put 500 owls on a horse and can afford to do so by all means. It doesn't gain you anything. If you want to gem encrust tack for all your horses then by all means. You get zero benefits for it. Its not a paywall. It's not pay-to-win. You don't win anything. You don't gain anything. There is no upside to it. Its just if you want to. Plain and simple. 

If you leave backgrounds, items, tack and companions on for the entire lifespan of a horse until they retire you will get a long-standing use out of your items. If you are constantly pulling things off your horse and switching them out, that is your choice to make. These items are just to look pretty and you lose out on nothing by not using them.

@Maki, you said "if you want to gem encrust tack for all your horses then by all means. You get zero benefits for it" -- are you sure this is correct information? Because on the "Tack" page in Wiki is states "Minerals may be crafted and added to tack as gemstones. By adding gemstones to tack there are boosts to bonuses for the tack." Perhaps this hint is a left over from the old version and is outdated now, I genuinely don't know.

Personally I wouldn't call this new change a "paywalling", but I think I get what others are talking about. There are many certain techniques for getting players to spend money on a product. I'm not exactly a gamedev myself, but a very seasoned gamer, and I've seen it all. Now these techniques, they are always based on your choise -- no game can literally take your hand and force you to give money. And they are by no means bad as a concept, but one can utilize them in good or bad faith. You can offer additional features for a price to let people have awesome gaming experience -- or you can hide unholy quantities of cosmetics or even gameplay advantages behind real-money currency (ideally with a recurring charge! ka-ching) and exploit people's desire to have a decent experience. HoFa doesn't do the latter, and so far I was VERY happy with its handling of "premium" content. It's just turning previously permanent "premium" items into consumable ones is a tiny (yet) step away from that great handling, and it's understandable why this change rubs some people the wrong way.

Ria, you are correct about the Wiki. Gem tack does give a bit of a bonus to showing but not so much it would be what most consider "overpowered" or as we talked about in the studio while doing gem tack, pay to win. 

Ria - I think you expressed perfectly what I've been trying to. 
 
Yes, no game can force you to pay for benefits or aesthetic choices. If I was just opening up a new account and saw that these items were consumable, I would be a little sad to miss out on decorating my horses but still be able to enjoy the game - I am still playing and enjoying it.
 
I think what got me was the change of pervious items which I purchased under the stated use now being changed to lessen their value. It felt like it came out without any consideration for people who had already spent money on items that are now not as valuable and give me anxiety that more steps like this are coming that will turn this game more and more like others I've experienced.
 
I was very happy to see the new custom coins/Variation Pass Token/re-roll tokens come out since they were completely new concepts that did not retroactively change what I have already purchased while also giving people with the budget options to spend ingots on the game. I would love to see more things like that implemented, vs.. changing what we already have spent ingots on. 
 
p.s. the benefits from tack, backgrounds, companions are very confusing. I remember the valentine sets being sold with a 'slight twin boost' but their descriptions in storage have no wording regarding this.  
For the companions - I guess based on the wiki and some sales info I assumed all gave some slight show or twin boost? Is the owl completely cosmetic?  

I agree with Talitha on the point of purchasing items and not expecting them to have uses to then have them added later. Whether intentional or not, it feels slimy. Especially for someone who would need to save their pennies to buy something they think is permanent only for it to not be permanent. I would be beyond annoyed if, say Genshin Impact, which has character skins, decided that this item I spent money on thinking it would be permanent was now going to expire in such and such amount of time. I am vaguely annoyed about it in terms of Horse Fable, but I am also likely in the top percentages of "wealthy" players of Horse Fable so this doesn't really effect me as much as it would someone who bought, say, one set of valentine's day tack for the twin bonus expecting to keep it forever then finding that it will eventually go away.

Majority of the tack costs bits so its not like you cant tack up your horse. I have seen other games have uses on their tack. Ingot tack is far and few between so if you get it, be diligent about its uses. It's not like no one can tack up their horses and are completely missing out on something huge because of this. It's still available to everyone just with variations. Its no different than those who are upgraded and those who are not. 

I would also like to add that Ingots are not hard to earn. I earned hundreds without having to buy any.