This is the time of the year that our tack starts to take some punishment getting caught in a downpour, splattered with mud or sand from the wet ground, a heavy day hunting and storage in cold tack rooms can all add up to some unhappy tack. Try to set aside some time once a week to give it a really good going over. Firstly, take everything apart every buckle and strap. Get yourself a tub with some clean hot water and give your tack a through wipe over removing all of the built up dirt and grease from the leather, be careful not to soak the leather put it to one side to dry naturally (not in front of the rad or on the ARGA) once the leather is fully dry take the conditioner and a clean dry sponge and work it into the leather (circular motions are best) once the conditioner has had a chance to soak in a bit you can put the tack back together ready to back on your very grateful horse. Conditioner should be used little and often as over conditioning the tack can make it overly soft and stretchy.
Use the time when you are cleaning your tack to check the stitching for any wear and the leather for any cracking. If you have some damaged tack give our workshop a call and see what they can do to bring it back to life for you.
If you think that you may have some discolouration to your leather we use an excellent product FC recolouring balm to put some of the colour back into your tack. We would recommend not wearing light coloured Jods for the first could of rides after applying.
Most manufactures have guidelines for caring for their products so check out what they advise on their websites.
