On a Rainy Day

It rained pretty hard on Friday afternoon, thank goodness, so I took advantage and cleaned Izzy's bridle. That boy is worse than a 16 year-old teenager. His stuff stinks and is constantly covered with ... funk.

If I never cleaned Speedy's bridle ever again, it would never be this dirty. I used to wipe my bridles down after almost every ride, but Izzy's won't "wipe down." After a 30 minute ride, it looks this bad. I gave up. Now, I try and clean it at least monthly.

Since wiping it down doesn't really get the gunk off, I do a full dismantle. I dropped the bit into the bucket to soak and dragged out the necessary creams and salves. I like to clean with Effax Leather Cream Soap. The Higher Standards soap is also nice, but I am temporarily out.

Once each pieces was scrubbed and cleaned, I used some Higher Standards Leather Balm to condition each piece. I actually use three different conditioners, depending on what I am conditioning. I use the HS for my bridles, Passier's Lederbalasm for my saddle, and a beeswax product for my schooling boots (can't remember the brand name). My saddle and boots also got some TLC.

By the time I finished cleaning and conditioning my bridle, I thought long and hard about whether Izzy should ever get to wear it again. Since he's not ready to go bridle-less, I slipped it on over the weekend. It looked so pretty as I put it on. I didn't wipe it down when I put it away, but it needed it. Oh well. It will get cleaned again next Friday evening because Izzy is going to a show.

​More on that later!