Hey, when ya’ll fall asleep half-way through, just remember, you ASKED to see this… 
This whole thing is gonna make me sound like the biggest neat-freak ever, which I am FAR from, LOL.
OK, deep breath~~
- Get stuff–jar of BLACK cream polish. Tin of BLACK wax polish. One of those cheap, sponge-tip polish bottles with BLACK polish. An old cheap dishrag or semi-soft towel/t-chirt, whatever. A soft cloth, like a fake chamois or something. Semi-stiff/soft boot brush.
between these steps do the little brush in the crevice trick above to remove the dirt line–if you do that AFTER you finish polishing, you’ll mess up all your work polishing the boots.
- rub off any large dirt clods or any other major pieces on the boots, so that all the stuff left is “cover-able” or removeable with polish.
- Take that polish-in-a-bottle junk and cover all the discolored spots or stains on the boots. This doesn’t leave a shine, but it does cover and color well, so use it under the other stuff.
- Take the rougher of the two cloths, and get a fair amount of wax polish on it–wax polish, not liquid or anything, it’s leaves a weird film–wax also leaves a pretty mice sheen. Rub the polish over the whole boot, especially in the lacing area, and where the boots have wrinkled. Don’t cake it on, just enough to even the color and “pretty 'em up.”
- Find a clean spot on the rag, and go back over the boot to remove excess polish, and to help work it in and even the color. This also helps to prevent clods of polish in crevices and stuff–not a fun thing to find some leftover polish redeposited on your freshly drycleaned TS!
- Now take the cream polish on a rag–NOT a lot, a little goes a LONG way–and use it on the toe cap, panels around the lacings, spur rests–yes I said SPUR RESTS-- swagger tabs if you have them, maybe heel area, but DEFINITELY the toes. Rub it in really well, and then DON’T touch it. Your fingerprints will destroy all the work you do.
- Now, you get to use the soft cloth. Take it like a shoe-shiner would, one end in each hand, and run it up and down the leg, buffer style. If you can’t do the “shiner shimmy” yourself, have someone else do it, it really does make the legs GLEAM. Now buff the foot part, especially the heels, and when you are completely finshed, do the toes. Rub them gently at first, then do a really fast, nice job of buffing the toe caps. If you can get your arms coordinated enough, they come out looking AWESOME. If not, just rub them off well with the soft cloth, and they should be fine.
If you have spurs, do the leather spurs traps also, you’d be amazed how bad non-polished straps can look next to well-polished boots. Also, get the EDGES of the straps–they tend to be lighter in color, but you can polish them and make them black. When you put the straps on, carefully tighten them so you don’t muss up the boot polish job also. (I sound so anal, don’t I?)
Now for the most important part–wear boot rubbers and CLEAN THEM OUT!!! All the work you do to clean the boots will mean diddly if you slap on some scuzzy rubbers, so dump them out, and then wash them, and then DRY them. Fold the heels inside-out, place your toe into them, then ease the heel onto your foot. If you keep yourself from just stretching them on, it’ll help to keep your boots looking great till that last swipe before the ring. And, if you really want to do a great swipe down before the ring, use the boot BRUSH, not just a chamois/cloth, and really pay attention to the backs of the boots, where they touch the horse. This area gets gross and dingy fast, so swipe it down, and make sure to remove sweat marks from the horse, cause they have a way of jumping to your legs right before the announcer utters the magic phrase, “Numbers to the judge…” You’d be amazed what you see on your leg from the back.
OK, now for a few dont’s~~
Don’t use saddle soap–it’s makes them sticky, and just not shiny–feels gross, plus boot leather is different from saddle leather, not too good for it.
Don’t use leather conditioner on the parts that shouldn’t be wrinkled–It really does contribute to leather wearing out faster, plus they’ll start to lose their shape, and it just doesn’t do any good.
Don’t use cheap stuff–that sounds elitest, but if you really want to take care of your nice boots, use nice stuff. (Not saying you need to purchase only Vogel boot oil, but I wouldn’t recommend grocery-store brand polish either, haha.
Bottom line–take care of your boots–waterproof the seams too, if you can–and they’ll look great for years. Hope that I haven’t just bored you all out of your minds. Heeheee…
OH, Thin Mint cookies–I’ll make everybody jealous now–My mom loves me so much, she bought us about 6 gallons of Thin Mint Cookie ice cream…if you all don’t have the joy of Edy’s ice cream, I’ll enlighten you: At Girl Scout cookie tiem, they make limited edition flavors; Thin Mint Cookie, and this year Samoa Vanilla. Thin mint cookie is CHOCOLATE ice cream with actual thin mints crumbled and whole in it–true definition of “devil’s food.” Samoa Vanilla is vanilla ice cream with Samoas…enough said.
Are ya’ll drooling yet? 
OK, wow that was long enough–hope ya enjoyed it.
Ciao,
KBird pony_scribb1er@hotmail.com
[This message has been edited by Kellybird (edited 03-17-2000).]
SUZ