Hi,
I just got a new horse, and he came with a very nice and expensive leather halter, however, it is covered in mud and is very dry. I would really like to restore this halter if possible. Any tips? Also, is there any way to restore the rusted metal nameplate and buckles that are on it? Thanks so much!
Well good leather responds to cleaning and deep conditioning, with the saddle soap and oil of your choice.
Rusting is another matter. If you have nickel plated hardware flaked so the steel is rusting, thatâs never going to be fully as new. Maybe one of those hardware store rust removers?
From past experience I wouldnt trust a very old leather halter in a situation that mattered, like tied to a trailer in a strange place. They do lose integrity, even the good quality ones.
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Buy him a new nylon one with a matching lead rope in your colors. Make sure the new halter has a breakaway strap.
Then buy some saddle soap and a bottle of neatsfoot oil or a tin of Lederbalsam, and take the leather halter home and scrub off the mud and then clean it and then condition it. But first remove the nameplate and get some rust remover and see if you can shine it up. Like the hardware on the halter. Then hang the halter on a nice brass hook in your tack room or living room and keep using the nylon one until it gets covered in mud. When that happens, go out and buy a new nylon one and toss the muddy one.
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P.S. Donât buy a yellow nylon halter (if they still make them). It will turn brown very quickly. Buy one as close to the color of the mud in your pasture. In my case that would be a sort of reddish orange.
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I have a rope halter for groundwork, a leather halter for trailering, and an old nylon halter on a fast release trailer clip that goes on the binder twine loop at the wash rack. But my horse is very rarely actually loose with a halter on. See recent thread on halter accidents.
So my halters donât tend to get that dirty.
Sorry, iI should have clarified. This halter is in good condition, just gross from being turned out in. I would probably only use this halter for shows, (if it cleans up nicely)
Well, glycerine soap, a scrub brush if necessary, and a long soak in neatsfoot oil works on all old tack.
Taking off the name plate and using a rustoff product plus a scrubbing pad is a good idea.
I rescued a box of hardened leather straps from my moms basement, gave everything a good oiling, and reconstructed half a dozen bridles that my sister and I abandoned 30 years earlier. Every thing was functional after cleaning and oiling. Leather revives beautifully.
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Crisco or lard has always been my go-to for disgustingly dry tack. As for rust, if itâs not too gunked up in the hardware, get a bronze brush and some Blue And Rust Remover and go to town. If the hardware is completely gunked up, see if you can track someone down with a good sonic cleaner. Iâve sonic cleaned bits to get grime and rust off and it works really well.
I remember reading on one of the old threads here that people have done really horrible things to filthy/old leather that sound like they would be ruinous but ended up working out well. I remember one poster talking about running a leather bridle through her dishwasher (no soap iirc, just hot water) and another talking about tossing a moldy halter into a load of laundry with the soap and everything. Iâm not that brave, personally, and it sounds like they used these methods on tack that was much older/dirtier/farther gone than your halter, so that there was really nothing to lose by experimenting in such a manner.
I bet nothing gets dirt out of stitching like a run through one of these machines, though. :lol:
Oh, you mean like tossing moldy/dirty/filthy leather into a big bucket of warm water + castille (or vinegar) and letting it soak for 5 minutes?
Totally done that â and⊠if you let it dry and oil it after, totally works!
About 15 years ago when I was in Pony Club we inherited a huge bin of a BNTâs old tack trunk contents. Dozens of halters, bridles, martingales, girths⊠it was a very exciting time to be in the club⊠when we opened the bin every single piece of leather was limned with mold and crud :eek:
My DC had us sit in a row like an assembly line. She had us toss it in a muck tub of warm water with a hefty amount of vinegar. One of us would pull bridles out and pass it to someone who would wipe the crud off with a rag, then pass it to a girl with a bar of glycerin to vigorously scrub, then pass it to a girl with another rag to wipe down, and then pass it to the final person (me!) who oiled and hung each piece.
I volunteered last year at the PC Rally⊠and some of that tack was still kicking as âextrasâ.
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Worked for an old Irish TB trainer in my youth. We would toss a gross halter into a bucket of warm water with a dollop of ammonia for an hour or so, then take it out clean up all the loosened crud, and condition the hell out of it with glycerin saddle soap.
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Iâve never turned a haltered horse out. Some halters just seem to collect mud hanging on the pasture fence!
My go to, a good wash with Murphyâs Oil soap, rinse, let dry until just âbloomingâ then oil, and oil again. Then saddle soap a couple of times, finish with Passier Lederbalsm.
I left some very hard dry but not dirty bridle parts soaking in a tub of mineral oil for 6 months, because I basically forgot about them/couldnât be bothered. They came out as a very functional double bridle.
Thanks to everyone for all this detailed advice. People keep giving me old leather stuff and I havenât done anything with it except contemplate tossing it because it looks too far gone. Iâll try these methods and see if some pieces are redeemable.
If you are someplace warm, place just oiled halter in plastic bag, tie it shut and leave the whole thing in the hot sun for the day and bagged for maybe 2. Works wonders.
