How do I clean my rubber reins?
Ah, good ol’ rubber reins. Love them – great in the rain, great for learning hand placement, great grip so your horse can’t slide them away from you. They also like to melt and sometimes get gooey. And they can be weird to clean.
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Reminds me of a dirty octopus! Time for a soak.
How to clean rubber reins
- Keep them out of the sun when not in use. Generally speaking, I like to let my tack hang out in the shade only, unless it’s a case of mildew and then the sun can help rid your leather of the spores. The hot sun can start to “melt” your rubber reins.
- Only clean the rubber part with water. I like to soak mine for a few minutes in the tack dunking bucket. Then you can wipe them down with a damp sponge or towel to get them totally clean.
- Avoid oils and cleaners. Rubber reins do have leather portions at each end, be diligent to avoid getting your leather cleaners and conditioners on the rubber portion.
Spend some time to thoroughly (and carefully) clean the leather, without getting cleaners and oils on the rubber part.
- Be aware that any sprays, like grooming products or fly repellents, can transfer to and possibly warp your rubber reins. Dunk and wipe your rubber reins as soon as possible after a ride to maintain their rubbery goodness.
- For cleaning the leather portion of your rubber reins, stick to your basic clean, condition, and oil as needed. If you love to dunk your rubber reins and the intersection between leather and rubber spends a lot of time in the water, add extra conditioning.
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Clean anything and store anything with this versatile hook. Easy to bring to horse shows, too!
This is castile soap-based, so it won't leave that gooey stickiness that glycerine-based soaps can leave in humid environments.
There no time like the present to clean your tack after every ride!
Keep your horse's leather from snapping with some deep conditioning.
Set them free upon thine enemy (JK, not really, but you can move them to a safer spot for everyone).
Thank you!
