higher standards leather care review

A miracle happened the other day.

I didn't think it could have happened, but it did. I bought this old leather harness for cheap off Facebook. I was warned that it needed cleaning. I just didn't expect this. . .

Ewwww

So the harness sat in a box in a spare room for about a year. In the meantime, I had ordered some Higher Standards Leather Care for a friend for Christmas, then they donated some soap and conditioner to our Harry Hughes Youth Equestrian Center fundraiser, then I ordered my very own set. I used the set on my Ariats and now they look really nice. 

But I really didn't think the soap and conditioner could hold up to the dried up moldy mess that was this harness. 

Just ewww. I didn't even want to touch it.

Terry agreed to help me tackle this harness since she loves to clean tack. She recently cleaned her saddle with the soap (Fox's Vanilla Lavender) and conditioner I got her and she loved the smell and how nice and supple it made her saddle.

Some parts, after soap

We each started working on different parts of the harness. It was beyond dirty. There was probably 30 years of sweat, grime, poop, and grossness on this harness. I thought we would go through the whole can of soap, but we didn't. A little went a long way. And the smell made the dirty task bearable. The soap cleaned the harness right up and really worked its way into the leather. Terry commented that is seemed to condition as it cleaned. The stiff harness started bending and softening as we worked the soap into it. 

Then we used the conditioner. It smelled like chocolate, which was nice. The leather ate the conditioner right up. We used our fingers and worked the leather with the conditioner. A little bit of the conditioner was all that was needed to really soften the leather. It was a beautiful thing. I was in such awe of how amazing this product is! Like I said, I did not think this harness could be saved. 

All cleaned!

bridle

Breast collar. This was the stiffest piece and the piece that was white in the first photo!

Saddle

The leather on the harness is actually very nice and responded incredibly well to the soap and conditioner. I think at one time it may have been a good quality harness. It even has some really nice stitching details on the bridle, lines, and breast collar. 

Higher Standards Leather Care is great and did an awesome job of bringing this harness back to life. Lots of other blogs are raving about it and I am so happy I tried it for myself. Not only does the soap come in some great smelling scents, but it is a very effective product. Shyloh and I give Higher Standards two hooves up!

If anyone wants a harness, this one is for sale! I am going to test it on the two sizes of minions at the barn to see what size harness this is for sure.