How to keep your saddle in tip top condition.

Keeping your saddle clean and condition is more important than you think. It’s not just a matter of having nice clean tack, or only tack cleaning when you are competing. Many of The Saddle Bank riders often ask; what should I used to clean my saddle? In this article we will discuss what we at The Saddle Bank think are the best tack cleaning products to and what we use to keep our 1200+ saddles clean and conditioned.

What is your saddle worth?

Your saddle has a monetary worth! How much did it cost you?
The cleaner you keep it the more value you can retain in your saddle, because although you may not be needing to sell your saddle at this moment in time you will likely need to sell it at some point in the future when your horse changes shape, you get a new horse, you give up riding, or decide to upgrade your saddle.

So what are the best products to clean tack?

What happens if I don’t clean my saddle?

On a day to day basis you won’t notice the damage caused to your saddle from not tack cleaning. However, what happens is dirt and grease gets onto the leather, coats the stitching, and builds up on the leather. When you then ride in the saddle, and your stirrup leathers, and boots push the dirt and grease further into the leather. When this build up is not removed for a long period of time it requires a real deep clean, and doing so can then discolour the leather, leaving the flaps looking very worn. With the grease and dirt building up on the stitching, you wont notice if your stitching is damaged, loose, and requiring attention from a saddler.

Over extended periods of time left on sweat, grease and grime can cause the leather to deteriorate and stitching to become damaged or worn. 

How often should I clean my saddle?

It depends how often you ride. If you ride daily, in good weather conditions, a thorough clean and condition once a week will keep your tack in good condition. Some people like to give there tack a wipe down after every ride. That is great if you have time to do so.

If you ride in wet, or muddy conditions and your saddle gets dirty, it is important to clean your tack after use to remove and mud and dirt from the leather.

What should I use for tack cleaning?

With our experience of cleaning hundreds of saddles, we have hand selected two products which keep our saddles in fantastic condition, and which we feel are the best products to clean your tack.

The first product we use is NAF Soft Soap. We switched to this product over a few years ago as we found it really easy to apply, and it brings your tack up lovely and clean. It’s a glycerine based saddle soap, with citronella which is a little unusual at first. If you are used to using traditional saddle soap bars, you may find the thick, sticky consistency strange at first. But you will soon love the product as it is so easy to use and makes saddles, and boots look lovely. This is a great product for maintaining tack cleanliness.

If you have a leather saddle you will want to proceed to conditioning the leather after you have cleaned it. We use Carr, Day and Martin Leather Balsam to condition the leather. This has been a firm favourite of ours for over 15 years. It will ensure your leather stays supple, soft, and if your leather is dry it will rehydrate it.

We offer both of these products in our Saddle Care Kit which you can get here.

If you have a synthetic saddle such as a Wintec or Thorowgood saddle then the Wintec Synthetic Cleaner is our go to product, click here to get yours now!

How should I clean my saddle - Tack Cleaning Process

Cleaning your tack does not need to take long. However, it should be done thoroughly.

Get a bucket of preferably warm water. Use a clean sponge, and dab into your pot of NAF Soft Soap.
Apply the soap to the saddle, in a circular motion to gently lift the grease and dirt.

Do not use any abrasive sponges on your tack as it will wear the leather down. A simple soft sponge is fine.

Start with the seat, move onto the skirt(small flaps), then the large flaps and knee rolls.

Once you have applied a layer of NAF Soft soap and cleaned the outer of your saddle, wipe the saddle over with a clean sponge. Use a teatowel/microfibre cloth to wipe over the saddle and remove any dampness/residue.

Clean your sponge, lift the skirt, and clean the stirrup bar. So few people clean there stirrup bar, but it’s a really important part of the saddle, and one which should be kept clean. Don’t forget your D rings either. Its much easier to maintain the cleanliness of a saddle, rather than having to scrub it once a year.

Once the outer is clean, you can then lift the flaps, and repeat the process underneath. Ensure you get right into the top, and any nooks/crannies, and don’t forget to clean the underside of the main flap; dirt and grease still gets there! Its really important to maintain the cleanliness of the girth straps too!

Following this, gently flip the saddle over and clean over the panels and underside of the flaps.

Once your saddle has been cleaned with the NAF Soft Soap, you can then condition the leather..

In human terms – you have just had a shower, and its time to moisturise!

Using Carr, Day and Martin Leather Balsam will keep your leather in tip top condition. Each tub comes with a sponge, so its very easy to apply. Again start at the seat, and work through the saddle rubbing the balsam into the leather. Once the saddle has been coated with the leather balsam you can then take a tea towel, or preferably a microfibre cloth, and buff the balsam into the leather. This will remove the excess, and polish your saddle up, making it look amazing!

The Saddle Bank highly recommends these two products we have suggested above. Following lots of requests from people asking what we use on our saddles we now stock both products, and offer them in our Saddle Care Kit!

You can get your kit here >  SADDLE CARE KIT 

Keep your saddle in the best condition possible with The Saddle Bank’s Saddle Care Kit.

Learn more about how saddles should fit….

If you are a horse owner or rider and would like to learn more about saddle fitting, and how the saddle can impact your horses performance and welfare, click on the link below: