How to Clean Your Horse’s Tack

Whether you are new to the horse world or a long-time horse lover and rider, the care of your horse’s tack (leather such as saddles and bridles) is important to your riding experience. If you have gone to the great expense required to buy a saddle, you will not want to waste it because your saddle becomes hard and cracked with improper care. Simply follow these few tips to help maintain optimal beauty, comfort and longevity in the tack.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Saddle soap
• Sponge
• Cloth
• Bucket
• Saddle conditioner

1. Before you begin the cleaning process, you need to select the right type of saddle soap. Go to your local equine store and look carefully through the saddle soaps, conditioners and treatments. You will see both bars of saddle soap and squirt bottles containing liquid saddle soap to choose from. Which kind you choose is not the issue, but make sure to pick something that will be easiest and more enjoyable for you.
2. After you have purchased the saddle soap, pick a sunny and warm day to clean the tack when you have plenty of time. Find a place to securely hold the saddle and hang the bridle away from the stall and the main throughway in the barn. Fill a small bucket halfway with warm water, then add a fair amount of soap into the water. Swirl it all around until you get good suds.
3. Get a clean cloth or small sponge and soak it is the sudsy bucket. Take it out of the water and squeeze some of the liquid out, keeping it only a little wetter than damp, though not dripping. Hold the sponge or cloth firmly and start at the top of the saddle and then work your way across the whole surface in small circles.
4. After you have covered the whole surface, reaching all the spaces everywhere in these small rotational circles, rinse out the sponge or cloth in warm water. Make sure it is only damp and run it over the entire saddle’s surface, taking away any remaining soap residue.
5. Take a clean sponge or cloth and spritz it with saddle conditioner. The purpose is to keep the saddle leather soft and supple. Once again, take your cleaning cloth or sponge and rotate it in small circles to condition the leather. Get as much coverage as possible and reach all places. After you have covered all surfaces with the conditioner, take a clean damp sponge and go over the saddle one more time to remove all the conditioner residue off the leather.
6. In order to clean and shine all of the metal surfaces on the bridle or saddle, simply dip a clean sponge into water of any temperature. Gently scrub the metal to make it shine. When you are cleaning the bit of horses bridle, make sure there is no residue of any chemical or cleaning liquid on the sponge.