Ugly saddle color

[ddmarie]

I just got my new Collegiatte Parfaire via UPS today. The size I needed to fit my horse and myself only came in a carmel color. I chose this saddle because it was in my price range and fit us well. However I do not like the color. The seat and knee pads are a yellow orange color. Does anyone have this saddle and did you have any luck darkening it? Can it possibly be dyed a darker color? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[BAC]

For most saddles oiling should help darken it and over time normal use and cleaning/conditioning will help to darken it even more. I would try to avoid dyeing the leather. Walsh's Blue Ribbon oil is great for new tack, it has a little bit of stain in it so it darkens faster without having to over oil.

[ddmarie]

Thanks for the info. I will try that oil. I have never had a new saddle before. Not looking forward to breaking it in.

[BAC]

After its been oiled sufficiently you might want to buy some CWD cream conditioner. Use it after cleaning if you want the saddle to darken more, it does a great job. It came with my saddle, which had been oiled at the factory, and they recommended I use it to darken my leathers to match the saddle. You can buy it from CWD's website www.cwdsellier.com (http://www.cwdsellier.com) I think.

[GGsuperpony]

When I decided to darken my old newmarket-color collegiate saddle, everyone said it couldn't be done. The seat and knee pads looked almost like the leather was painted, if that makes sense. They were originally a very unnatural yellow color although they had mellowed over the years.

At any rate, an entire can of hydrophane darkening oil applied with a paintbrush in multiple sessions over about a week worked WONDERS. It is perfect now! I would just absent-mindedly oil it while I watched TV every night and after a week, the oil was gone and the saddle was beautiful!

So I definitely recommend the Hydrophane darkening oil! Although I am sure the Blue Ribbon oil is good too.

[ddmarie]

Thank you all for the replies. I love the saddle but hate the color. My bridle and martingale are dark and now I have this yellow and caramel saddle. I am sure over time and oil it will look ok. I just prefer the look of the dark brown tack. Oh well. Thjanks again.

[luvs2ridewbs]

Why do they keep making tack this color if everyone hates it? Is it popular on the breed show circuit or something?

[ddmarie]

There is one person out at my barn that likes the light color. However she is a western pleasure person and their saddles are the light caramel color. I was at the local tack store the other day and all the Butet saddles were the same orangish tan. I really do not like it. don't know why they make tack this color.

[GGsuperpony]

I don't think everyone hates it. I just got my new Dover catalogue and the picture on the front is Georgina Bloomberg in a saddle that looks just like the caramel color (http://www.charlottejumperclassic.com/uploads/galleries/2008_Charlotte_Jumper_Classic_Photos/cjc_08_88.jpg) of the Collegiate (http://www.equestriancollections.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=WB00160R). I don't know what kind of saddle hers is (but I am guessing not a Collegiate!).

[meupatdoes]

Why do they keep making tack this color if everyone hates it? Is it popular on the breed show circuit or something?

The saddle fitter who does my horses says that out West every one goes nuts for the lighter colors, but in the East people will only have dark. People will not even look at the same exact saddle if the demo is in the 'wrong' color so the bringing of demo saddles needs to be carefully tailored to the geography.

[lauriep]

I don't like my leather "colored" either light or dark. I want it just the natural color it comes from being tanned so I can make it the color I choose. I can't stand it that the tack mfgs. now think they know what color leather I want.

[HARROLDhasmyheart]

The saddle fitter who does my horses says that out West every one goes nuts for the lighter colors, but in the East people will only have dark. People will not even look at the same exact saddle if the demo is in the 'wrong' color so the bringing of demo saddles needs to be carefully tailored to the geography.

Granted I can't speak for all of the West, but I haven't noticed this trend at all. Not to say that there's anything wrong with a light saddle! Just that they're less prevalent than dark ones.

And one thing to remember when oiling yours: wear old britches or jeans for the first few times after you oil it; the oil WILL come off on your pants and quite possibly stain 'em!

[superpony123]

regular use and cleaning should help darken the saddle up, but try using hydrophane :yes:

and trust me, you have NOT seen ugly until you've seen this one old saddle in my barn. actually, there's two. 2 ANCIENT beval LTD's which, as you know, are expensive saddles. one of them has no blocks or knee pads or anything, flat as a pancake, etc. you can tell its old just by that, but god, the color? i'm not sure what color it was originally. the seat, it doesn't even feel like leather. it was, at some point, but i don't know what it could be now :lol: most of the saddle is a dark color, almost black, but thne the seat? it is PURPLE. well, no, it's more of a salmony with a tinge of lavender. it's unbelievable. i don't know what color this saddle was originally. it even has some kind of white line that goes around it. it is the freaking UGLIEST SADDLE I'VE EVER SEEN. i laugh a lot when i see the beval LTD tag on it. i tried to figure out how old it was, but the numbers on the flaps are long worn off. then there's another OLD beval LTD which is actually fairly decent i guess, certainly not recent, but could be 10 or so years old. i guess it was newmarket when they bought it, but no one ever thought to use any form of oil. god, that thing is ORANGE. literally. it's the color of an orange peel. it's downright hideous. actually, only the seat is really that color, but the flaps are still very newmarkety. it's pretty ugly! i feel bad for the lesson kids that use that saddle. they take it to shows sometimes (small schooling shows in the academy division usually) cause that thing is just an eyesore !

[mvp]

is the tanning process. Back in the day, there was another day before that during which the tanning process that was thought to weaken leather on the way to getting it dark.

So people who knew what they were doing bought the very light New Market colored tack. "London" was a slightly later synonym. The idea was that you bought excellent quality, cared for it carefully and kept it forever during which time it would get just as dark as the Havana stuff. I think this myth was formed during the Stubben era, before the Crosby one.

At some point--before leather and tanning all over the world basically went elsewhere in a handbasket--the British and German manufacturers who made nice tack figured out how to do that in all colors. At the same time, or perhaps a tad later, people seemed to forget how to condition and care for tack. Many have never even shaken the greasy, reeking hand of pure neatsfoot oil.

Still blaming the consumer: When they stopped eating beef and started caring about the incredible pollution associated with traditional tanning, it became hard to get really beautiful skins and to tan them to the previous destructive but lovely Earth-trashing standards. Of course you can still get that in the most expensive saddles.... because, well, colonialism continues. (I know, I left lots of steps out of that argument.)

So now you have "Caramel"...on a good day. You also have that opaque, painted-on looking color seen especially on the textured, sort of thick-looking calf-skin of the seats and flaps of middling-quality saddles.

Happy? Don't even ask me to consider the demise of the pigskin seat...

[tikihorse2]

Don't even ask me to consider the demise of the pigskin seat...

My, my...this takes me back! I remember how it was a selling point. Some saddles featured "pigskin-grained" seats--I think this was meant to make them like more expensive saddles, no?

And your saddle was supposed to fit so perfectly you didn't need a saddle pad... (I'm REALLY dating myself here!) :eek:

Kim

[Sulta]

Before you darken it....just try oiling it! I have the same saddle, bought about 3 months ago. I hated the color, but it fit my daughter perfectly. I bought the darkening oil to try and tone it down. Never used it!

After I just oiled it a few times with Tanners oil, the ugly orange is gone and it's a nice dark reddish color, with little to no orange tone left.

It looks SO much better than when we first got it.

[ddmarie]

Ok. So I oiled the saddle and the knee pads are a reddish color but the seat... Still YELLOW. Sulta when you oiled your saddle did the seat take longer to darken? Comments at the barn are " New saddle? It's Kind of orange isn't it?" People can be so rude.

[Noctis]

I have an OLD OLD OLD Collegiate of the same unfortunate color...the whole thing is a lovely dark color now, the knee rolls are still a little lighter, but that darn seat...its still quite yellow. Not lemon or banana, but after years of oiling, even with hydrophane, its still...yellow tinted. I've given up. It doesn't look bad now, it is much much darker, but I dont know WHAT they did to make it that darned color! At least my butt covers it!

[gottagrey]

Ok. So I oiled the saddle and the knee pads are a reddish color but the seat... Still YELLOW. Sulta when you oiled your saddle did the seat take longer to darken? Comments at the barn are " New saddle? It's Kind of orange isn't it?" People can be so rude.

It is not going to darken in the time it takes you to text message the woes of your ugly saddle color. Be patient, be prepared it could take weeks or even months - don't worry about it. You have a new saddle that fits your horse and that is the most important thing... use a thin saddle pad or even no saddle pad - the sweat from horse will help break it in better - and help mellow/darken it as well. I've had a couple of saddles like that - both mellowed into a beautiful color.

Be careful of some of that dyed tack - I just bought a new martingale - cleaned and oiled it - guess what the rag I used turned red.from the dye. That means 1 thing - it's coming off tack onto rag...

Remember - just be patient, don't be discouraged, and most of all do not let the color worry you- it will darken and mellow some - but it isn't going to happen in an instant

[LARGEBORE]

If your saddle does not absorb oil easily it is because of one reason.
The saddle simply has an artificial finish on it.
Some call that painted others call it corrected.
But essentially they take a piece of poor quality leather and cover it with a coating that in some ways resembles plastic. This coating covers up the defects in the leather and allows the saddle maker to use cheaper leather.
Unfortunately the leather is no longer as flexible and supple as you would expect becuse of the coating. Additionally, when the coating does wear off you are left with limp, not supple leaher...

The London color as I understand it was to show the more natural state of the leather. ie: you could see the defects and judge the leather appropriately. Then you could use a high quality oil like Hydrophane and build the color tone that you desire. This was typical of Herme's and Crosby saddles. The German saddles were totally differnet as they used very highly corrected leather. The Germans like that plastic like finish and did not oil their saddles.

[FrenchFrytheEqHorse]

One thing you can try for the seat is warming the oil up in the microwave for a few seconds, then painting it, letting it sit, then wiping it off. Do this a few times. The warmth of the oil helps to open the pores of the leather and makes it accept the oil more. Or you could drape a hot towel over the seat before you oil it. Again, the heat will open those pores up. But that being said, if your saddle has an artificial finish, which many of the collegiates of yesteryear had (haven't seen one since about 1999), it might be a lost cause.

Re: "caramel" color of Georgina Bloomberg's saddle- that's just an extremely nice piece of equipment that's been properly cared for in it's time. That's the color of most high quality tack when properly cleaned, stored, and oiled. My antares was also "yellow/orange" when it arrived, but now is the same color as GB's. I rarely oil it anymore, but when it was new, I put the oil in the MW for 20 seconds, then applied it.

[Sulta]

No - when we oiled ours, the seat and knee patches darkened/colored at the same rate. So, they got the same amount of oil and changed color accordingly. We gradually oiled it over several days, several times, so it was not just one oiling. Since then, we've only lightly oiled it once a month, and it is continuing to darken as we use it.

[Jessi P]

When I was a kid and got a new saddle, I had to go over and over the new saddle with ammonia, to remove the waxy covering they put on new saddles to protect them before purchase. Do new saddles still come with that waxy covering for protection? Just wondering, because that wax does prevent the oil getting into the pores - could that be why the seat of the saddle isn't darkening?

Just a thought...