Help for moldy leather

From: Arlene

Dear Jessica, I have been having terrible trouble with mold on my saddles and other tack. I lurk on a horsey e-mail list (I don't know if I should write the name of it?) where I know you are a member, and since this subject has been a topic of discussion recently I was hoping that you would say something. Since you haven't, I thought I would ask you directly because I have followed your advice on so many subjects over the last ten years, and you have been right about everything!

Here is the problem. I live in a warm and damp climate and tack mold is a problem for many people not just me (just in case you were thinking that I don't clean my tack, well I do, and frequently!). I know from reading your advice that moldy green leather is "healthier" and safer than leather that mold won't grow on, but I really hate the look and smell of mold, and I want to get rid of it! On this list, people have suggested some amazing things that I feel would be dangerous to use on leather: such as Lysol and Clorox! Also things like Listerine (isn't that a mouthwash, or is there another Listerine product for tack?), and vinegar. Help! I have seen the ads for Leather Therapy products and they sound great, but are the ads true or is it just another company claiming that they have invented a miracle product? I really want to get rid of the mold, but I would rather have moldy tack than tack that will break because I used something that will trash the leather. I'm just so grateful that my bridle is Biothane, because I never have to worry about that. If you don't feel that you can recommend or bad-mouth a specific product, I'll understand since you are a public figure, but I really would like to know your opinion of Leather Therapy. Please call me "Arlene" instead of my real name if you answer this on HORSE-SENSE, because my trainer is one of the people who recommended two "home" cures for mold (Clorox and rubbing alcohol), and I don't want to get him angry with me.

Thank you! Arlene

Like you, I want to keep my tack in good condition. I was brought up in a tradition of buying good quality leather and taking good care of it so that a bridle or saddle will last 30 or 40 or 50 years and still be strong, pliable, and fit for use. This is good from a safety standpoint - good leather is stronger and safer than cheap, brittle leather. It's also stronger and safer than cheap, brittle leather that has been over-oiled to make it into soft, limp leather. Good leather won't STAY good if you don't treat it right, though, and although a one-time, LIGHT, emergency application of a dilute vinegar- and water or Clorox-and-water or Lysol-and-water isn't likely to ruin your tack forever (so don't panic if you've already done this!), those are not products that you really want to apply to leather. Yes, some of those products can kill mold, but there's no good way to use them on your leather tack. It's "bad news, bad news": If you use them full-strength, you may kill the mold spores (but not necessarily all of them), but the bad news is that you'll also be "killing" your leather,drying out and damaging and weakening the fibers. If you add water to those products and dilute them to the point where they DON'T directly damaging the leather each time you use them, then hurrah, but the bad news is that if they're diluted to that point, they won't actually do any good. I wouldn't use ANY of those products on leather tack if I were you.

With all due respect to your trainer, most people who recommend "home remedies" such as bleach, alcohol, vinegar, etc., are simply repeating what their instructors taught THEM, and those instructors were, in turn, repeating what they had heard from THEIR instructors. There were many years when the only way to deal with mold on tack was to keep wiping it off the surface of the tack, over and over again - or to try to eliminate it by taking drastic action and using strong chemicals to kill it (and, sadly, destroy the leather's integrity in the process). It's possible to get rid of the mold in this way, but at a great cost - it's rather like getting scalped as a way to eliminate a pesky dandruff problem! ;-)

Times have changed, and we're lucky enough to have all sorts of lovely products that earlier generations of riders and grooms did NOT have. The Leather Therapy product you'll probably need most is the Leather Restorer and Conditioner, but you may as well invest in the full set of products, from the Leather Therapy Wash to the Leather Therapy Finish. ;-) I've tried a LOT of different products over a lot of years, including some very good ones, but I have to say that the Leather Therapy products go beyond "very good" to "superb". I've been using them exclusively since trying the first one in the mid-90s, and I recommend them highly.

You might be interested in reading some of the information on the company's website: www.leathertherapy.com. You'll find that some of the claims are made, not by the company itself, but by Mike Plumb's Horse Journal (nowadays just Horse Journal) and by the EPA.

Oh, and I probably WOULD have said something to the list if I'd been reading it! I belong to quite a few mailing lists, but this is a very busy time of year for me, and it's been a month or two or three since I've been able to spend time reading list mail. I'm assuming that the one you mentioned was probably Equine-L, which is a very enjoyable list full of very nice people. Whenever I have time, I do try to read list mail and participate when I think I can help someone, but there are some times of year when I have to delete all of my list mail unread for several months, and this is one of those times... so I'm very glad that you wrote to HORSE-SENSE.

Jessica

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