Practical Horseman, September 1995
Leather Mate
This one-step leather cleaner and
conditioner is imported
from Italy and also can be found in stores under its
European
brand name, Urad. The lanolin and carnauba-wax (a substance
also found in automobile polish) formula is nontoxic and can
be used on
any smooth leather, but not on suede-type
surfaces.
Our tester, a professional hunter
trainer with over thirty
years tack cleaning experience, found the product
did the best
job of removing grunge lining a bridle or on the panels of a
saddle if she first scrubbed the tack with a sponge or terry
cloth towel
dampened with plain warm water, and then used
Leather Mate, which does not
need water, with its sponge
applicator.
The cleaner/conditioner, which
comes in neutral or black,
went on evenly and left even old, dry tack with a
lustrous
glow. The rich, soft appearance remained through the next day,
instead of
fading after a few hours as many other cleaners do
-- so in addition to
using it for basic tack care, our tester
plans to use it as a finisher at
shows, where the gleam of
cared-for tack can make all the difference between
so-so and
exceptional
turnout.
While its initial cost
seemed high for the small jar size,
our tester found that a little Leather
Mate went a long way;
the large number of applications she got from a single
jar
justified the
price.