Help A DQ Out: How the heck do you clean laced reins?

[Displaced_Yankee]

Venturing over from the dressage board, the land of rubber reins, web reins, leather reins with stops etc.

How the heck do you clean laced reins? There are so many nooks, crannies and edges. Just a quick suds with a tack sponge does not get into all the grooves and a good scrub with a toothbrush gets the soap to the grooves but I struggle to get all the soap out of the grooves. What is the secret? Special tool/technique/leather cleaner? Surely you all don’t just clean the ‘outside’ of the rein like I do just to make it look clean.

I do clean my tack regularly. However, the thought of cleaning laced reins tires me. I think the laced part of the reins has only been really cleaned once or twice in the two years I have had the bridle! (I have a used hunter bridle to match the brown Wintec I have been borrowing while I have been starting my young horse under saddle.)

Thanks!

[StormyDay]

I’m sure someone one here has an actually good tip… however I just soap up my reins and then use the hose to wash them off in the wash rack… I have a bridle that is 10 years old that still is in show condition using this technique, so it hasn’t ruined anything/failed me yet! :lol:

[RockstarPony]

Kitchen sponge! The green side of a Scotch-Brite can scrub the nooks pretty well, and then you flip it to the yellow to soak the soap up again. Honestly as a WS I usually just wiped them as well as I could with a tack sponge most days, and then got the nooks and crannies if it was a slow day or we had a show coming up.

[luvmyhackney]

I clean mine with soap on a sponge. Use a soft bristled kids tooth brush to get in the grooves. Then dip in water, swirl, dry with a towel and condition with soft cloth and toothbrush. Mine are still going and so supple after 5 years.

[Huntin_Pony]

Clean the flat parts and buckles/ends as usual.

Then, start at one end of the lacing and bend the rein back on itself at each hole where the laces go through the rein. This will cause the laces to slip slightly away from their normal position so you can clean under them. Unfortunately you have to do this on both the top and bottom side of the rein. If you get suds in the holes, blow a little puff of air through to remove the suds. This takes a while, so I probably only do it one out of five times I clean the bridle, or when the reins are really sweaty (like after hunting) or before a show.

[comingback]

@Huntin' Pony

Clean the flat parts and buckles/ends as usual.

Then, start at one end of the lacing and bend the rein back on itself at each hole where the laces go through the rein. This will cause the laces to slip slightly away from their normal position so you can clean under them. Unfortunately you have to do this on both the top and bottom side of the rein. If you get suds in the holes, blow a little puff of air through to remove the suds. This takes a while, so I probably only do it one out of five times I clean the bridle, or when the reins are really sweaty (like after hunting) or before a show.

This is pretty much what I do. I use a wash cloth as I feel like I can get them cleaner than with a sponge. I also use Effax Leder-Combi I (sp?) so suds aren’t an issue. I do this after every ride, and it only takes a few minutes.

[Displaced_Yankee]

Great, thanks everyone!

[GoneAway]

Elbow grease and lots of it. But also, school in rubber or web reins, keep the lace reins for showing.

[Pocket_Pony]

I don’t suds my sponge up too much and just do a whole wipe down by folding the sponge in half over the rein and then pulling the rein through. I do this a couple times and then go back over it more carefully for any extra dirty spots. I then have a lint-free towel and I sort of fold it over my fingernail and then use my fingernail to get in the nooks and crannies.

[MCF1991]

I saw a fellow groom using a hoofpick to get the built up crud out of the nooks. I usually don’t pay it any mind unless I really have a lot of time. I scrub scrub scrub and then use a wet rag to get the suds off.

[Training_Cupid]

@Pocket Pony

I don’t suds my sponge up too much and just do a whole wipe down by folding the sponge in half over the rein and then pulling the rein through. I do this a couple times and then go back over it more carefully for any extra dirty spots.

This. Until I switched to rubber reins! (Don’t show hunters)

[JoannaHCR]

I scrub down with my soaping sponge (Higher Standards Leather Care as the soap ) then, I use a thicker old sock, put my hand in and run the rein through my hand several times, then using my fingers and finger nails through the sock to get most of the suds and crud out from the lace. The other method I use is the toothbrush one for the really, really deep clean.

[spaceagevalkyrie]

tooth brush

[M_O_Connor]

1. Wipe down with HOT water and ammonia solution (the worse the crud, the stronger you make it). This will remove ALL the dirt and caked suds (there should never be suds, but preventing them is in step 2).

2. Condition with a barely damp sponge and plain glycerine soap…if there are suds, the sponge is too wet. Or it’s the wrong sponge (many sponges are terrible for cleaning tack).

Stroke away from the v’s <-----stroke---- =>=>=>=> <-----stroke---- so you don’t jam the soap into them.This means you do each side of the rein separately. Wipe one way on one side, and the opposite way on the other side.

3. Done. The end.

[Midwest_girl_in_an_E]

@Pocket Pony

I don’t suds my sponge up too much and just do a whole wipe down by folding the sponge in half over the rein and then pulling the rein through. I do this a couple times and then go back over it more carefully for any extra dirty spots. I then have a lint-free towel and I sort of fold it over my fingernail and then use my fingernail to get in the nooks and crannies.

This…but never considered a toothbrush!