How To Take Care Of Your Leather Items

Horse riders are especially in love with gorgeous leather bridles, saddles, gloves, boots and halters. And who can blame them? These items are beautiful, fashionable, and durable. But, taking care of your leather items is something we tend to forget way too many times. Whatever the reason for that might be, you should always take care of your leather gear if you want to preserve its quality and aesthetics. If you’re not sure if you’re doing it right or you’ve just bought your first leather item, we bring youtips on how to take care of your leather gear.

Yes, leather is our all-time favourite choice, but you should keep in mind that it can dry, stain, crack, warp, and so on and on. That’s why it’s crucial to treat it properly! So, how to do it? Let’s just start by saying that it’s super easy and it won’t take too much of your time.

Your prefered style

You might wonder what do any of your preferences have to do with the way you take care of your leather items? Well, maybe you don’t want your leather boots to look all polished and shiny like you’ve just bought them and you want them to reveal how much you love wearing them. If that’s the case, you don’t have to care about them at the same level as the person who wants them to look like you’ve just removed the tag.

A lot of riders love that rustic, worn, rugged style as it shows how dedicated they are to their equestrian life. Ride hard or go home, right? You should never ignore your taste, even when we’re talking just about taking care of your riding gear.

When you were buying your last leather product, you were probably asked if you want to buy leather care products. And yes, most of us usually say no to that suggestion as we see it just as a marketing trick that makes us spend more money. But, the truth is you need all these creams, polishes, waxes and conditioners if you want to make your leather last. Also, don’t buy the ones that combine all these products in a single one. Each of them exists for a reason!

Clean

You should always start with cleaning. Some people like to skip this part and go straight to polishing the leather. But, polishing will not get rid of dirt and you should only polish clean areas, not the ones that have mud or anything else that needed to be cleaned. You can gently clean your leather gear by using water and a cloth, or you can simply buy a very mild soap, like saddle soap or glycerine soap made specifically for cleaning leather goods.

Polish

When polishing, you’re taking care of the way your leather boots or bridle will look and feel. It provides that actual shine and it’s not doing much to protect your items for external factors, such as the rain and sun. So, you should always add more care if you wish to preserve the quality and not just make it beautiful. Many polishes have a moisturizing element nowadays, so make sure you read the product description to choose the one you want.

Also, if you have patent leather items, the polish you choose will be different to standard leather polish. In fact, the best way we have found to polish patent leather items and get them super shiny, is to use full fat cows milk!

Condition/Cream

Buying conditioners or creams for leather items will ensure your favourite boots, bridles or anything else made of leather gets the moisture it needs. This will prevent the leather from drying out and cracking. In other words, polishing products make them look great, but a condition or cream makes your leather last longer. Most leather conditioners are similar to lotions, so you just need to gently rub them into the leather. You can use these products as often as you want but experts suggest every 6-12 months. 

Additional tips:

• always leave your leather items to dry naturally
• instead of a cloth, you can use wipes for leather
• if you put on leather glove whilst cleaning your leather items, you will keep your hands clean, whilst also conditioning and cleaning your gloves
• Patent leather can be cleaned with full fat cows milk
• Aim to clean leather with saddle soap at least once per week, to keep your leather supple, clean and looking good

If you need any help with selecting cleaning soap or conditioning cream, visit us in store, we have a great selection of products and we would be more than happy to help!