How to Keep Rain from Ruining your Leather Tack
If you ride far enough and often enough, the day will inevitably come when you're caught out in a drencher. If you've planned ahead, you’ll reach for your slicker and slog on with a smile. When you get back to shelter, you'll scrape your horse and towel him down, then find yourself some dry clothes and something warm to drink. If you're smart, you'll also tend to your tack before the mud dries on and the leather dries out. Timely tack care can also prevent the blooming of mold and mildew problems which, once established, can become a major nuisance.
Water is no friend to leather, especially rainwater and its pollutants. At the microscopic level, leather is made up of a tangle of collagen fibers resembling a pad of steel wool. During the tanning process, hides are soaked in chemicals to prevent the fibers and their bonds from decomposing. Then natural fats and oils are tumbled with the hides (this was once a hand process known as “currying”) to keep the protein bonds from drying out and to make the leather supple.
When water penetrates leather, it forms temporary bonds with the oils that lubricate the interior fibers. Then it floats those vital oils to the surface where they evaporate along with the water. That’s why the leather feels stiffer – to both you and your horse. And that’s exactly what happens when your equipment gets drenched.
The Solution
The solution to preventing potential damage to your tack after a rainy ride is to take action and get some therapeutic oil back into that wet leather before its fibers completely dry. Remove dirt, sweat, and mud from the wet leather with a damp rag. If the leather is really dirty or traces of old conditioner have floated to the surface, use a non-greasy, neutral pH leather cleaner to get the surface clean.
Wet leather needs to absorb conditioner deep within its fibers to replace currying oils flushed out by water.
