Conditioning a harness

[Christina_M]

I need to condition my driving harness, but it's cold outside so I can't condition it outside. I'm worried that I'll get the conditioner on the floor from the harness. I was thinking that I could put plastic down on the floor? So I decided to ask the driving experts....How do you condition a harness without getting stuff all over the floor?

 

[hobbyhorse23]

I haven't really needed to do a deep conditioning on any of my harnesses yet but I know when I get a new one there's a lot of harness dye that tries to come off on everything. In that case I put newspaper down EVERYWHERE and use latex gloves to keep it from staining my hands. I think for conditioner it's a good idea to add plastic under that newspaper as oil would certainly be hard to get off your floor.

You might try doing a few light coats (waiting for the first coat to soak in then doing it again) instead of just dousing the harness. That might help keep the mess to a minimum.

Leia

 

[RhineStone]

I clean all my harnesses sitting in a chair on our porcelain tile floor while watching TV (I can take up to 8 hours to clean/condition/polish a harness, usually before the first show of the season when it is full of winter dirt. I don't take the time to wipe the harness after each workout, but I suppose I should). I put the harness on one of those collapsable saddle racks. I put an old towel on my lap for the part that I am working on (I take mine completely apart to clean/condition it). The cleaning supplies are at hand on a TV tray next to me. I have never used enough conditioner that it gets all over the place, I just put a bit on a rag and rub it into the part. I also don't have any problems with the black dye leaching off the harness. I do have to watch that I don't get black shoe polish all over while that is drying waiting to be buffed. In that case, I put the part back on the saddle rack, while I do another part. The saddle rack keeps everything off the floor, and at hand. And for the record, I am a bit of a "neat freak", so it's not like my house is a mess and I don't care about icky harness parts in my house. I just don't make that big of a mess!

 

[Annabellarose]

If I buy a large appliance for my home (or know that someone in my family is about to) I keep the box to lay on top of the carpet in the room that I want to clean my harness (or saddles) in. I carefully cut the box open at one of the corners so that the entire surface of the box can be flattened (it stores nicely out of the way against the inside wall of the garage until needed).

Be careful of newspapers as even multiple layers are just not thick enough to prevent any real liquid from soaking through to whatever is underneath.

Also, you can check with a carpet and/or flooring store or a surplus building supply store for small (rug size) carpet and linoleum remnants. A lot of stores sell carpet remnants very, very cheaply (and you could use a carpet remnant for years) and they throw the trimmings from installations away (check their dumpster).