hi I'm David from freedman's today we're
going to show you how to clean and
condition the World Cup supergrip saddle
and maintain this type of sticky or
tacky leather here is the method that we
use to clean this saddle for op Optimum
cleanliness and
grip this leather is a little bit
different than all the other Leathers
that are out on the market and takes a
little bit different care and
maintenance
we will be using the following products
saddle soap either in a liquid form or
in a cake
form oak wood
conditioner and some lukewarm water you
can use your lukewarm water to build a
foam to start to clean the
saddle you start to work the soap in on
the panels on the bottom side of the S
saddle making sure you clean off any
sweat stains or dirt or Grime that you
see along the way this saddle has just
come back in from demo and it's got
quite a bit of dirt on it so we got
quite a bit of cleaning to do here
today work the soap in in a lather work
it in a circular
fashion make sure you cover all parts of
the saddle up in the gullet all the way
to the
CLE
why am I using saddle soap versus one of
the other cleaners on the market and why
do I like saddle soap so much is that
where leather comes in contact with the
horse it's very difficult
to keep the pH level balanced in the
leather and over years and over a lot of
different work that's been done they
have found out that
by trying trying to keep the pH balance
level in the leather they have found
that the fatty acids in the found in
these soaps mix well with the salt
that's found in the animal sweat to
balance things out so for years and
years hundreds of years saddle soap's
been used on leather and it's lasted
over the years mostly because of that
balancing so I got these panels nice and
clean wiped off now I continue with the
Buckle pads or the Buckle
flaps buet
flaps make sure you get everything
underneath and I'm just trying to scrape
away here all the grime that is on the
edges of the saddle where it's come in
contact with the horse and the horse is
sweated we get a little bit more soap
and you can soap up your
billets making
sure you get all of the dirt off of
them now that we've thoroughly cleaned
the bottom side of the saddle and the
panels we can flip it over and start
cleaning the top
side we'll work the soap in the same
manner build a little bit of a
foam start to rub it in first I like to
do the skirts and of course under the
skirts and underneath the adjustable
bar a little bit up here in the head
plate a lot of
times a lot of dirt and grime gets
caught up and under here we have d-rings
in the front of our saddles for draw
rain so those have to be cleaned in that
area and go over to the other side
lastly I work up a little bit more
lather and then I do the
seat back of the
CLE again working it
circular
fashion when you're done come back with
a rag and again wipe off all the
excess give your saddle a little bit of
time to
dry now that you have your saddle clean
the best way to maintain the suppleness
and softness is by using oak wood
conditioner you can work this oak wood
into the
panels and everywhere else on the bottom
side of the
saddle now depending on how soft you
want all this Bridal leather to be
that's attached you have to use more oak
wood if you want it softer and less if
you want it stiffer cuz this will really
condition and nourish this
leather at this spot I like to put on my
oak wood on the back of my billets
because I can press down on them and
make sure that it goes into the leather
just because the saddle's upside down
sitting upside down so it's a lot easier
to work with then I turn it over and I
work them either out or
on to this Buckle pad or the Buckle
flap now I go through the
inside of the
flap again circular
motion these are leather solids that we
have here on the
inside and they're vegetable tanned
because we wrap our Cruiser leather
around the outside of
it so these have to be conditioned as
well now that we have the bottom side of
the saddle and the panels and the flaps
and the skirts inside all condition
conditioned what I like to do is I like
to leave the conditioner on Let It soak
in let it take some time and absorb into
the leather and I flip the saddle
over start the same process on the top
side again with your oak wood small
sponge easy to handle I start p on the
skirt working a circular
motion making sure that I get it even
all the way
through
now this conditioner that we're using
oak wood works really really well on
this leather keeps it activated keeps it
sticky now that you have your saddle
cleaned and conditioned I like to put a
little bit of friction to work this
really nice oak wood into the saddle and
there's no better way to do it than with
your own hands so I just work the oak
wood into the saddle with my hands
pressing working it in making sure that
it absorbs into the leather I like to
take time with with this I like to be
able to feel the leather feel the
conditioner sort of move into it and
once I've worked it in I just give it a
few more minutes to allow it to soak in
and then I buff it off I'm going to flip
it over continue the same process on the
bottom starting the
panels wiping off some of the excess
with your
hand back of the Billet
flaps back of the big flaps
even into the
billets I do advise you when you're
working with these billets and looking
at the Saddle at this level that you do
a safety check as often as possible that
way you'll know if anything's going
wrong with your saddle what the current
condition is and when you're going to
need some repair and maintenance now
that we've got the oak wood worked
in pass a soft cloth over it just to
buff off any excess
now we'll flip it
over start underneath the
skirts the big
flaps make sure you don't have it built
up in the front area at all around the
name nails or around the rivets or
d-rings buff it all in good see has a
little a little bit of a light luster to
it gives it a finished look show ready
look buff off the
seat sometimes you sort of got to just
make a little corner with your Rag and
run it through the welt put a little
pressure on it just to get out any
excess that may
have got clogged up in there when you're
rubbing the uh sponge across there with
your oak wood
I'm David fredman with Caren maintenance
with the World Cup supergrip saddle
thanks for
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watching