From: Chelsea
Hi Jessica, Thanks for providing this wonderful service! I eagerly look forward to recieving your email each week. Your advice is always wonderful and easy to understand! My parents just purchased a new Henri De Rivel CC saddle for me for Christmas. This is my first saddle, so I am absolutely clueless as to what I need to do to care for it. Can you give me some guidelines on how to condition and care for it? I really don't want to ruin it:) Thanks for your help! Chelsea
OIL -- A new saddle does not need to be oiled, so no matter what anyone tells you, don't succumb to the temptation to soak your lovely new saddle with oil to soften it. Today's saddles are made from leather that is already conditioned. Oil will make it softer - by breaking down the leather. A good saddle, kept in a clean, dry environment at room temperature, is unlikely to need more than a light oiling once a year - unless you get caught out in the rain during a ride.
If you ride a lot, in all kinds of weather - cold, hot, and wet - you may need to oil the saddle lightly once a year. Never soak any part of the saddle in oil, and never apply multiple coats of oil. You can always add oil to a saddle, but it's nearly impossible to remove it when you've added too much - instead, you have to wait for it to ooze out onto your riding clothes over a period of months.
Neatsfoot oil was the old standard, but these days, it's almost impossible to find pure neatsfoot oil, and the compounds labeled as "neatsfoot oil" contain petroleum products that will rot the linen stitching in your tack. For this reason, and because there are so many excellent tack-conditioning products available these days, it's safer just to avoid neatsfoot oil.
SADDLE SOAP -- Saddle soap isn't really soap, and it's not for cleaning saddles, either. It's meant to provide a clean saddle with a protective layer of glycerin, so that the just-cleaned saddle won't get dirt rubbed into the pores of the leather when you go for your next ride.
Cleaning is important. There are excellent cleaning products on the market, but you can also clean with just water and a sponge (and very little water at that). Wet a sponge, then wring it out until it's almost dry, and rub the saddle clean. Some areas of a saddle will collect dirt more quickly than others, so you may find that a daily saddle-cleaning involves a quick once-over of just a few sections of the saddle, whereas a weekly cleaning needs to be more thorough. As soon as you see any dirt on the sponge, rinse it, wring it dry, and start again. The whole idea is to remove the dirt from the saddle, not to rub it back into the saddle. When your saddle is clean all over, that's when you can bring out the glycerin soap (saddle soap) and apply a thin coat all over the saddle with a damp (not wet) sponge. Then wipe it completely dry with a clean rag or towel.
STORAGE -- If you need to store your saddle for any length of time, clean it, wrap it in a clean towel, and put it on a saddle rack somewhere in your house. Leather is skin, and the conditions that keep your leather shoes in good shape will keep your saddle in good shape. Avoid high humidity extreme dryness, extreme cold, and extreme heat. Don't store the saddle in the garage, the attic, or the cellar. If the conditions in a room wouldn't be good for your own skin, they won't be good for your saddle.
KEEP IT CLEAN -- The best way to keep your saddle flaps looking good is to have a steady leg that doesn't swing and rub the flaps constantly. ;-) The next best way is to remember ALWAYS to wipe the inside of your boots before you mount (that's "inside" as in "toward the saddle"). Dirt caught between two layers of leather - for instance, dirt between your boot and the saddle flap - will damage both.
CLEANING AND CONDITIONING PRODUCTS -- Leather Therapy products, used correctly, should keep your saddle clean and shining for many years. Hydrophane also makes excellent products for tack cleaning, conditioning, and maintenance. Most riders and tack store owners have their own favourite products to recommend - those two just happen to be the ones I like best. It's usually a good idea to ask the manufacturer of the saddle for suggestions on cleaning and conditioning products, because tanning methods vary.
SADDLE STANDS --that let you turn the saddle upside down for cleaning are very helpful additions to the tack room. Maybe you'll get one for your birthday, since you got the saddle for Christmas. ;-)
WESTERN SADDLE OWNERS: most the above advice applies to English saddles and to older, well-used Western saddles, but if you're a Western rider with a new show saddle in the "light oil", pale finish, don't use ANY product on it without checking with the manufacturer! Most conditioning products, and some cleaning products, will darken the colour of leather. With a light-oil finish, you have to be terribly careful - even a greasy fingerprint will be obvious, and that won't help you in the show ring. There are special products that can be used on light-coloured leather without darkening it, and those are the ones you'll need to use.
Jessica
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