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[RC] NEW Saddle Care HELP - neatsfoot it - tichenor06

New leather saddles, and bridles of all types should be liberally (literally) soaked with pure neatsfoot oil.  You can not add too much.
 
I hang my saddle on a kitchen chair in the laundry room, and either use my bare hands or have used latex gloves.  Using an old sock or cloth just doesn't get enough on it, and it soaks into them.  For a new saddle, I have oiled mine several times in one day.  I have also placed the whole oily thing in a big plastic garbage bag too, or hang on the fence outside.  You can do this on plastic bags or whatever.  Oil the saddle everywhere, and under flaps, if english and there is leather underneath, oil it.  It will protect the saddle.  If it is a leather seat, it will allow your butt to stick better.  But then again I haven't had a saddle with a slick seat, so I stick like glue to it.  And no, when it gets wet, you do not slide, you stick even better.  For my clean reins, I literally dip them in neatsfoot, and sluice off the extra with my hand hang on the fence or put in a ziplock bag if they were really dried out.
 
To clean your saddle just use a gentle glycerin saddle soap.  Easy.  It is not needed to reoil afterwards but you can.  The neatsfoot will, and may darken.  On my Crosby, it enhanced the color, and Solstice which is black, it made a bit darker (?).  Anything darker that you want you should take to a shoe person and have them dye it darker.  Neatsfoot should darken it up though.  Not sure what color your saddle is.
 
Pure Neatsfoot Oil, mine is by Horse Health Products, got it at the co-op, Jeffers also sells it, and I am sure other places do too.  Beware of fancy saddle stuffs, it may go nasty on your saddle over time.  Neatsfoot doesn't.  Leather when used is easy to care for.  It doesn't need to be micro-managed.  The leather that sits around, for some reason, is more to care for.  Sometimes for light touch ups and no cleaning, I use neatsfoot.
 
Happy Oiling!
 
LauraT
 
Think I will give my Solstice a cleaning and oiling today.
 
 
 

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