Cob Jockey

One of the extras Mary gave me was a CWD tack cleaning kit.

It's sitting on a wine rack, if that helps with scale at all.

It's designed to hang on a stall when open, but I found that it also hangs nicely on a wine rack, for anyone who may be interested in combining their imbibing with their tack cleaning (cough cough Austen):

Elastic bands keep everything in place.

Inside is their cleaning soap (shown here open), a sponge, their conditioner, and a soft, velvety mitt for applying the conditioner.


I used the soap to clean my saddle, Micklem, and girth, and was not impressed.  It just didn't do that good of a job, coming from Higher Standards Leather Care as I do.  It appears to be glycerine based.  It did okay on the not-dirty saddle, but was fairly ineffective against my dirty girth.  I'll probably use it on the saddle because I should, but stick to Higher Standards for everything else.

Freshly cleaned saddle wearing its protective leather CWD hat.  I find the hat hilarious for some reason.

However.

The conditioner.

Oh my gosh.

I texted Mary and I was like "Where has the CWD conditioner been all my life?" and she was like "One of our best kept secrets!"

Not sure why this is a secret.  My tack has never felt this good.

In the can, it's a solid, soft and oily, and that's in a 64 degree house.  It would probably be liquid in a warm barn in the summer.  If you are familiar with Lederbalsam, it's softer and more wet, rather than waxy.


It comes with a an applicator mitt, which is awesome, because you can get conditioner all over the hand and work a large area on the saddle, or put it on the thumb and fingers and get both sides of your strapgoods at once.  Way faster than my paintbrush method with the Lederbalsam.


I swiped the mitt gently across the conditioner and swiped it gently across my tack to apply.  It glistened like it was wet.  Depending on the tack, between 10-60 minutes, it was completely absorbed, leaving even my cracked Micklem bit straps feeling soft and with a well-cared for gleam.  Plus no requirement to wipe off excess like the Lederbalsam, which leaves my tack feeling tacky.

Right after applying the oil.  This Nunn Finer bridle that I got used was not well taken care of in its previous life.  It started soaking up the conditioner immediately, you can already see it going in this picture.

Nunn Finer figure 8 in various stages of conditioner absorption.

Browband still soaking, but the bridle has absorbed it fully.

At $28.99 for a 200g tub, it's pretty pricey, but it also takes a lot less of this (and a lot less effort in applying it) to condition compared to my Lederbalsam, and I only condition once every 1-3 months, so I feel like it's a good value.  I'll definitely be buying this again when this tub runs out.

Two thumbs up!