Care & Feeding of Your Harness

Tricks of the Trade How to polish your harness for beauty and protection. Congratulations on the purchase of your new Ideal harness from Coachman’s Delight! You may find that your harness comes out of the box unpolished. Before you use your harness, you should polish the leather. This not only makes your harness beautiful, it lends the leather some protection from the weather. Polishing your harness now, when it is brand new will make cleaning it up for shows or other events a lot easier. If you show frequently, you can follow the instructions below before each show. Every time you repeat these steps, the harness will look better, and the whole process will take less time. If you seldom show, or use this as a work harness, it is still a good idea to polish the harness following these methods once a year. The methods outlined here represent just one system of polishing harnesses. This system is what we have found works best for us, after many years of showing, and countless harnesses polished. We do not have any ties to the products we recommend here. You may try other techniques and products to suit your style. Coachman’s Delight can not be responsible for damages or unsatisfactory results due to the interactions of other products or methods not outlined here.  Collect all of the items that you’ll need as pictured above. Use a clean work surface with good light.  A small dish of clean cold water (the colder the better) Kiwi brand “Parade Gloss” shoe polish, black or brown, to match the harness.  Kiwi Shine Cloths, or a small light color clean cotton cloth or raw cotton Kiwi Horsehair Brush or a nylon stocking, any color, length or brand The piece of harness you are polishing. Work methodically, do each part of the harness in order from front to back. To polish your furniture, we recommend NevR-Dull metal polish. Start by wrapping the cotton on your finger to make a swab on the end of your finger like a thimble. Dip the swab into the water, allowing it to absorb some of the water, but not to the point of saturation. As you work, experiment with different amounts of water to find the balance that works best. Swirl the cotton over the shoe polish, so that the polish fully impregnates the cotton. Avoid large clumps of shoe polish on the cloth. In small, rapid circular motions rub the shoe polish onto the leather distributing the polish evenly in thin layers over the leather. Do not try to apply thick, heavy layers of polish. This generally makes the leather very difficult to buff to a nice shine, and smudges more readily than if applied in thin, hard layers.  Important: Only apply shoe polish to the top side and edges of the leather, where it will not be rubbing on your horse. Do not polish the side of the leather that will be against the horse when the harness is on. If you do the polish will rub off onto your horse. This will give you a grooming nightmare, and may irritate the some fair skinned horses. Furthermore, the polish seals the leather. If all sides of the leather are polished, the leather will not be able to maintain a proper moisture balance, which may lead to premature break down. Check your cotton swab regularly to see when all of the polish has been used on the leather. When the fabric is showing through the polish, reapply more shoe polish on to your cotton swab. The leather will generally accept two or three layers of shoe polish. The leather is nearing saturation when the cotton stops showing through the polish after many swirls. A mild shine should be developing on the surface by this time. Wet Buff When enough shoe polish has been applied for the leather to begin to shine, you can give it a quick wet buff with your cotton swab. Dip the swab in the clean water so that it soaks up more water than you’ve been using to apply the shoe polish. Using light quick strokes buff the leather once over. Dry Buff Fold or roll the nylon stocking so that your have a firm flat surface to buff with. Using very quick, strokes, with medium to light pressure, buff the leather with the nylon. A rich, deep shine should develop on your leather. Not all cuts of leather respond to polishing the same. Harnesses are made up of many different cuts and grades of leather, so some sections will take less work to polish to a high luster than others. Your harness may loose some of it’s shine with use and cleaning. If you have been thorough with your first application of polish, you may be able to simply buff the harness after cleaning to regain the shine. In places that experience more wear, handling and cleaning, you may have to re-apply shoe polish more regularly.   The contents of this document may not be copied, or duplicated in any form, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of Coachman’s Delight, Inc.