How to care for saddles, bridles and riding boots
Leather is skin. It was alive, it has pores, and it behaves like skin long after it has been tanned: it takes on moisture, loses it again, and stiffens when it is left to dry. That is the whole basis of leather care. Not making tack shine, but keeping it supple enough that it never reaches the point where it cracks.
Two things do that work, and they have to happen in order. You clean, then you condition. Cleaning lifts out sweat, sand, grease and the dust that grinds into the grain every time a strap flexes. Conditioning puts back the oils that cleaning necessarily strips. Do one without the other and you either seal dirt into the leather or leave it clean and slowly drying out.
Everything in this collection is built around that two-step routine, and around one deliberate omission: we don't make a grease.
Clean first, then condition: why the order matters
Any cleaner that removes grease is, by definition, degreasing your leather too. That isn't a flaw in the product; it's what cleaning is. The mistake is stopping there.
Cleaning also opens the pores. Leather that has just been cleaned and is still slightly damp will draw in a conditioner far more readily than leather with a month of dust sitting on it. Condition dirty tack and you push the grit inward and trap it against the fibres, where it keeps abrading from the inside.
So: clean, let the leather come back to just-damp rather than wet, then condition. Never dry tack on a radiator or in direct sun. Heat pulls moisture out of the fibre core far faster than it evaporates from the surface, and that gradient is what produces cracking along fold lines and billet holes.
For the full method, including how to handle stitching, billets and a saddle's underside, see our guide to maintaining saddles and bridles.
Why we don't make a grease
Grease is the traditional answer and it is genuinely good at one thing: making leather look immediately, convincingly cared for. It coats the surface, deepens the colour and seals the pores.
Sealing the pores is the problem. Leather needs to breathe, releasing moisture and taking it back up as conditions change. A greased surface stops that exchange. The outside stays glossy while the fibre core keeps losing moisture with nothing able to reach it, and by the time the surface tells you something is wrong the drying is already irreversible.
The second problem is practical. Grease transfers. It comes off on your hands, your breeches and your saddle pad, and a greased seat or a greased rein is a slip risk you notice at exactly the wrong moment.
Our approach is a liquid-based impregnation that penetrates rather than coats: it feeds the fibre from within, leaves the pores open, and dries to a water-repellent finish with nothing on the surface to rub off. If you want the comparison in full (soap, oil, balm, grease, and what each actually does), we've written it up in saddle soap, oil or grease: what works on leather.
Choosing between our products
- Leather Cleaner (250 ml). The first step. Lifts sweat, sand and old product residue without stripping the leather bare. Use it with the brush on grained surfaces and the cloth on smooth ones.
- Leather Care (300 ml). The second step. A liquid impregnation that soaks in and leaves the leather breathable, supple and water-repellent. No greasy film, no residue on your breeches.
- Leather Care Set. Both products with the cloth and brush. The straightforward starting point if you're setting up a routine from scratch.
- Cleaning Brush. Soft enough for grained leather, firm enough to work cleaner into the texture where a cloth just slides over the top.
- Microfibre Cloth (2-pack). One for cleaning, one for conditioning. Keeping them separate matters more than it sounds: a cloth loaded with old conditioner will smear rather than lift.
How often should you clean and condition?
There is no single interval, because it depends on sweat far more than on time.
- Ridden daily. Wipe the bridle and girth area after each ride, clean properly once a week, condition every two to three weeks.
- Ridden a few times a week. Clean every two weeks, condition monthly.
- Competition tack, used occasionally. Clean and condition before and after each outing, not on a calendar.
- Stored for the season. Clean thoroughly, condition well, then store somewhere cool with air movement. Never sealed in plastic.
Sweat is the variable that overrides all of this. It's salt and moisture together, which is the fastest way to draw oils out of leather, so tack that gets sweated into needs attention on its own schedule regardless of how recently you cleaned it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use saddle soap and then your Leather Care?
Yes. Saddle soap cleans effectively. Our objection is to using it as a substitute for conditioning, not to the soap itself. If your soap contains a lot of glycerin, rinse it back properly first, because glycerin attracts and holds water and leaving a lot of it in the leather is not the same as conditioning it.
Will Leather Care darken my leather?
Slightly, on first application, and most visibly on light and natural-finish leather. It settles within a day or two. On new or pale tack, test on the underside of a billet or the flap's edge before doing the whole saddle.
Is it safe on the seat and on reins?
Yes. That's specifically why it isn't a grease. It dries without a surface film, so grip is unaffected. Let it absorb fully before riding.
My bridle has gone mouldy in storage. Can I still save it?
Usually, yes, if the leather itself is still supple. Take it somewhere ventilated, remove the growth dry before introducing any moisture, then clean and condition. Full method here: how to remove mould from your bridle.
The leather is already stiff and cracked. Is it too late?
Cracks that have reached the fibre structure don't reverse. Nothing does that. But stiffness usually does, with repeated light conditioning over several days rather than one heavy application. Load a dry piece of leather all at once and most of it sits on the surface. On a load-bearing part such as a billet or stirrup leather, treat a crack as a safety matter and have a saddler look at it.
Can I use it on riding boots, chaps, suede and nubuck?
Yes to all of them. Smooth leather, suede and nubuck are all fine. Because the impregnation soaks into the fibre rather than forming a film on the surface, it doesn't flatten the nap the way a wax or grease would, which is what usually rules those finishes out. Boots crease at the ankle where the leather flexes most, so that's where conditioning matters.
Can I use human moisturiser or household leather products?
No. Horse skin sits at a different pH from ours and household products are formulated for furniture that never sweats or flexes. We've set out the reasoning in horse skin pH and why human skincare products are harmful.
Where are these made?
In the Netherlands, in small batches. We formulate them ourselves, which is why we can be specific about what is in them and what isn't.