Mink oil for tack ? Curious

[Blueeyedroan]

So yesterday I brought home my Ariat Heritage Contour boots that I have been horrifically abusing for a fair few years now. Scuffs , rubs , worn , salt stains , thrown in the corner crumpled without boot trees …. These poor things have seen it all. They looked and felt like trash.
Gave them a good wet rag wipe down and let them dry . Still look like trash.

Then I spied my trusty old Dakota Mink Oil…. The stuff you buy to put on work boots.
And I’m like well , my work boots are leather. And I’ve worked in steel toes long enough to know that the mink oil noticeably extends their life span.
So I thought - what the he’ll - I have nothing to lose with these old beat Ariats I may as well put it on and see what happens.

My. Boots. Have. Never. Looked. Or. Felt. So. Nice . OMG.
It worked better than the expensive Passier Ledersbalsam I would usually have used.

Now I’m curious …… do I condition my bridle and saddle with it ? I ride in the bush , ride in the rain. My bridle gets sweat stains . Mink oil is meant to seal that out.
Would it wreck or permanently grease up my saddle ? Or did I just find a miracle product at the local work boot store ??

Thoughts?

[PDDT]

When I bought my first bridle 40 years ago, my coach told me to warm up mink oil and soak it overnight. The bridle lasted forever and stayed soft and supple.

You do have to be careful how much you heat the oil. I deep fried a pair of reins…

You could use it on your saddle but I would test it underneath to make sure it didn’t change the colour of the leather.

[Willesdon]

Modern leather should not require oil before use. After extreme use, a different matter, perhaps. My saddler told me to use oil on the underside of the leather as the it would penetrate better without discolouring the surface. And not too much because modern leather should not require oil…

[endlessclimb]

I use mink oil occasionally. It does give a different feel than the lederbalsam-type conditioners.

I don’t find that it does any harm, but didn’t notice a crazy improvement either.

[eightpondfarm]

it softens wonderfully. That may or may not be good for you. I think mink oil tends to grow mold on leather faster than other products. I use it on hard boots to limber them up, but no longer use it on tack.

[FitzE]

Did it not have an issue of causing damage to stitching? Or am I remembering a different product that had that issue?

[CLB15]

I’ve heard that compound (?) rather than pure neatsfoot oil dissolves stitching

[anon15718925]

I don’t know about tack but I’m pretty sure when I first started riding horses as a kid (age 10) I can recall my grandma (old farm woman - grew up on a farm and then married a farmer) putting mink oil on my first pair of boots (western - I believe they were a plain black pair of Justin brand boots). I didn’t know the purpose as a kid and as an adult have always conditioned my boots and tack with Lexol. I don’t recall the boots ever getting damaged by the mink oil and I don’t think it was used all that often - I outgrew the boots within a year or so anyway.