“AND DO YOUR LEATHER” ! Who hasn't exasperated as a (more or less) young rider when their instructor whispers these words to us in his (soft) voice that carries for miles around?!
It is common knowledge that the only way to keep your leathers looking like new over time is to maintain them very regularly, but there is a but : how can I do it well without it taking all day ?! 🤷🏼♀️
Between grease , oil , soap , shoe polish ... We don't really know what we should use anymore (and then sometimes we're a little lazy too! 😇) so, hop, hop, hop, we roll up our hands . sleeves and we tackle the chore of leathers with a smile 🧼!
I’m going to give you some “ quick tips ” to use after each ride to maintain your leathers without spending the whole evening! 🚿
Systematically, we will have two stages:
A. Cleaning 🧹 & B. Feeding 🧽!
Yeeeet, here we go!
1. My boots , ankle boots and mini-chaps : what do I do?
The first reflex , the simplest , is to give them a little soft brush at the end of the session: do you groom your horse? Well, we take the opportunity to give our shoes a wipe with a different brush in order to get rid of the excess sand that loves to get into the seams and zippers! ⚡️
⚠️ Never use glycerin soap here, otherwise you'll see your shoes/boots accordion unsightly at the ankles, then no longer adhere to our calves at all! ⛔️
Then, it’s time for shoe polish to make its debut! Transparent , brown or black , the choice is yours, but we apply it with a cloth over the entire boot, ankle boot and/or chaps... And we brush it to remove the excess material to the most meticulous 👞
2. And for my net , then?
This time again : two steps! We'll start by cleaning the net with glycerin soap ! In spray , in wipes ,solid or in gel , everyone has their own preference ... But personally it is the spray format that I find the most practical! A pshiit here, a pshiit there, a wipe and that's it ! 🧼
Finally, all we have to do is feed it and the softer the net, the better we are (and our horse too!): in one hand a pot of leather oil , in the other a brush : and He left to happily brush your leather, who will be grateful to you! 🥰
3. Ooooh OK, is it the same for the saddle ?!
Oh no, no, no ! … Well almost ! 🙈
The first soap step 🧴 is EXACTLY the same (phew 😅!) however we will replace the oil with leather balm for the second step! 🔅
Why ? Very good question, and there are many reasons!
- The oil will soak into your pretty pants the next time you wear them… And they will suddenly become much less pretty (especially if they were supposed to be white!) 😅
- We will tend to put too much material with oil whereas with balm it is much easier to dose the deposit correctly ☑️
- The leather of the saddle would become too soft even though we still want to keep a little rigidity! 💘
- Because it is like that and not otherwise (ok, this argument is perhaps not very admissible)! 🤪
4. Well, I'm going to go with Faux Leather , at least it's easy!
Ahaaaaa, but here too maintenance is important, it would be far too simple otherwise! For imitation leather, a wipe of Tack Cleaner with a cloth is recommended from time to time! 😎
To put it simply , each leather is fairly easy to maintain: a few minutes of weekly maintenance and we are off to years of use! 🥳
I hope that now all this is clear , let's meet at the Club House after classes to " Clean, soap, polish...Materials always looking good "?! 🎶
Take care of yourself (and your equipment ),
See you soon for new beauty tips (leather) ✌🏼
Mathilde 🙌🏼
