09/11/2026
Leather Cleaning Tip - I came across this and thought I should share. The video does not fit the subject 🙂, I know.......
Leather doesn't dry out from use. It dries out from sweat.
Horse sweat is salt, and salt pulls the oils out of the fibres. That's why the reins go stiff and crack exactly where your hands sit, and why girth straps go before anything else — those are the places that stay wet longest.
So: wipe the sweat off after you ride. That one habit does more than any conditioner.
And condition when the leather stops feeling supple, not on a schedule. Over-oiling is its own kind of damage — it softens leather past the point where it will hold a stitch, and then the billets tear at the holes.
Every rule has a reason.
Christine
Double C Ranch · Charlottesville, Virginia
