wet leather harness

DAPNET Forums Archive › Forums › Draft Animal Power › Horses › wet leather harness

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • December 28, 2009 at 8:48 pm #41234
    mink
    Participant

    wondering how you people deal with your wet leather harness in the winter. i keep cows in the barn and have a fan that runs near all the time on a thermostat .ive moved the harness ,bridles and collars outside to my attached lean to where i keep the tractor. any suggestions? mink

    December 28, 2009 at 11:32 pm #56577
    Rod44
    Participant

    Most amish keep their harness in the dairy barn. As long as you have it oiled I wouldn’t think it would be a problem. Are you getting mildew on it?

    December 29, 2009 at 12:16 am #56575
    mink
    Participant

    rod i had the amish oil it this june but i was starting to see some white on it . it cleaned right off with a rag . hanging on the outside wall maybe the cause? i didnt know so i hung it up outside under the lean-to roof, figuring the barn had to much moisture even with the fan. think it might have been the cold outside wall?

    December 29, 2009 at 1:29 am #56574
    Carl Russell
    Moderator

    I hang mine in the breeze-way behind my horse stalls. The door is always open. Sometimes I get some mildew, but I wipe it off, and oil the harnesses a couple of times a year. If it is too wet from working while it is snowing or raining, I will wipe it off, and sometimes hang them it the basement by the wood stove. I take the bridles and collars into the basement anyway in the dead of the winter.

    Carl

    December 29, 2009 at 2:19 am #56576
    mink
    Participant

    carl when the amish here did my harnesses ,they put them in a wire cage and submerged them in some kind of oil . i dont know how long they were in it as he told me to come back tommorrow afternoon and they were still in the cage but suspended over his vat dripping off. seems like all summer after that every time i used them on the hot sunny days the oil would come to the surface. what a messy thing to handle and keep wiping off, but i guess thats what keeps the leather from rotting…..mink

    December 29, 2009 at 1:21 pm #56579
    mitchmaine
    Participant

    hey mink, back when i was looking for horses stuff, maine barns were full of old harness, hanging in place for 30 years. covered with bird poop and who knows what else. a neighbor gave me a set of his harness. he threw it in a tub of hot soapy water, and scrubbed off the grime. rinsed them off abd when they started to look dry he would lightly oil them, and do it again when they started to dry, until they felt loose and pliable. they improved greatly by wearing in on the horses. they stretched it out and shined it up. looked just like new. leather harness can stand up to some tough abuse. like carl said, keep your bits warm. after looking at alot of harness, i would guess that the average maine farm team wore a 22 ” collar and weighed maybe 2900 – 3000 lbs. a little smaller than our teams today. they did alot of work with those little horses.

    December 29, 2009 at 4:46 pm #56578
    Rod44
    Participant

    I use nylon harness so I don’t have to worry about it.

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.