From Tack Tragic to Tack-tastic: Your Spring Show-Season Leather Reset
Your Essential Leather Care Guide from #TeamClean
Show season is creeping closer, which means it is time to retrieve the tack that has spent winter gathering mud, sweat, dust, and quietly judging us from the tack room.
The good news? Getting it ring-ready does not require a full-scale tack-cleaning ceremony or five different products layered over one another. You just need to clean first, condition second and know when your leather needs a little extra love.
First things first: check it
Check:
- Stitching, particularly around reins, cheekpieces and stirrup leathers
- Billets and girth straps for cracks, stretching or weakness
- Buckles, hooks and fastenings
- Any dry, stiff or worn areas
- Mould hiding in creases or underneath flaps
If something looks unsafe, cleaning will not fix it. Put it aside for your saddler or replace it before show day. Tack has an uncanny ability to fail at the least convenient moment—usually just as your class is being called.
Step 1: clean away the winter
Conditioner is not cleaner. Smearing it over sweat, grease and grime simply creates a beautifully moisturised layer of muck.
For a proper spring reset, start with CDM Belvoir Tack Cleaner Step 1. It lifts built-up dirt and grease without excessively wetting the leather, and its pH-neutral formula will not over-dry the leather or damage stitching.
Spray it onto the leather and wipe it away with a clean cloth or CDM Sponge, paying particular attention to stitching, creases and the areas that sit against the horse.
If you find mould, use a separate cloth and do not put that cloth back into your regular tack-cleaning kit.
For routine cleaning between deeper resets, a tack sponge and your preferred saddle soap are still a perfectly good combination. The important bit is doing it regularly enough that the sweat and grime do not get the chance to settle in permanently.
Step 2: condition and protect
Once the leather is clean, follow with CDM Belvoir Tack Conditioner Step 2.
Step 2 is a glycerine soap spray that nourishes the leather, seals its pores and leaves a glossy protective sheen. It creates a barrier against salt, dirt, grease and water while keeping the leather supple and ready for work.
Clean first. Condition second. It really is that simple.
The complete system in one handy tin
If your tack cupboard needs both steps—or you want a genuinely useful gift—the CDM Belvoir Leather Care Duo Tin is our hero pick.
The reusable tin contains full-sized 500ml bottles of:
- Belvoir Step 1 Tack Cleaner
- Belvoir Step 2 Tack Conditioner
It gives you the complete two-step system without any guesswork and keeps it all together in one tidy pack. Less faff, more fabulous—and no hunting through the tack room for the bottle you swear was there yesterday.
When your leather needs more than Step 2
If your tack is particularly dry, stiff, new, fine or has been thoroughly soaked, bring in CDM Belvoir Leather Balsam after Step 1 instead of the everyday Step 2 spray.
The lanolin and beeswax formula provides a more intensive conditioning treatment. Apply it sparingly to clean leather, allow it to penetrate for around 10 minutes, then buff with a soft, dry cloth.
This is the treatment option—not something you need to layer over your tack every time you clean it.
The secret weapon of your Grooming box or Fatmax
For when your boots looked clean until you walked through the warm-up…
Belvoir Tack Cleaning Mitts are ready to use straight from their resealable packet. Keep them in the truck, float or show box for:
- A quick wipe over your tack before entering the ring
- Cleaning marks from your riding boots
- Refreshing everything between classes
- Surviving a wet or muddy multi-day show without unpacking the full cleaning department
Each packet contains 10 double-sided biodegradable mitts, and there is no water or sponge required. Use one, reseal the packet and put it back in the show box for the next emergency.
The TCH spring leather reset
- Inspect stitching, billets, buckles and reins.
- Remove dirt, sweat and grease with Belvoir Step 1.
- Follow with Belvoir Step 2 for everyday conditioning and protection.
- Choose Belvoir Balsam instead when leather needs a deeper treatment.
- Buff with a clean, dry cloth.
- Put a packet of Belvoir Tack Cleaning Mitts in the show box.
There you have it: clean tack, conditioned leather and no midnight panic before the first show of spring.
Shop the complete leather-care range
Clean first. Condition second. Put your best boot forward.