Rawhide Gear Care

[Excess]

Can someone explain to me the proper care of rawhide gear? I don't have any rawhide gear, but may in the future and just curious what the proper care is for it. Proper reata care? Bosal care? Romal care? I realize I may be asking someone to write a novel, but I'm curious. =)

[Sue]

Can someone explain to me the proper care of rawhide gear? I don't have any rawhide gear, but may in the future and just curious what the proper care is for it. Proper reata care? Bosal care? Romal care? I realize I may be asking someone to write a novel, but I'm curious. =)


Good question... I have alot of rawhide gear and it looks like Hell.

[doma vaquera]

OK this depends on how deep you want to go with it.

Ray Holes' Vaquero Rawhide cream is easy and quick. Just rub in and wipe off the excess (HA . . Excess! . . I crack myself up). You don't need to do this very often - maybe once or twice a year. I have a homemade rawhide cream recipe but it's involved and so I cheat and use Rawhide cream. You can order it online anywhere.

Untie your mecate from your bosal every time. Keeps the mecate from getting twisty and keeps your bosal from getting warped out of shape. Hang the bosal from the noseband not from the headstall to avoid warping.

Unattach your romals from your rein chains and hang them from the connector between your reins and romal. I prefer to have latigo connectors at the rein ends and between the rein and romal. They are more supple and feel better and will be the first to break in a wreck rather than hang on and tear your horse's mouth up.

Reatas . . . hmmmm this one can be very involved. The quick easy way is to just apply a LIGHT coat of Rawhide cream as needed, as it gets dry. As you are in a humid environment this may be very rare. I know the more involved way but that requires pure kidney fat and beef liver/burlap sack for winter hibernation. If you get cold in winter you need to winter your reata. You stretch the reata out in the fall sun (tie between two trees) Grab some beef liver (same stuff in the tub/meat section of a supermarket) run it back and forth along the whole reata a couple times and let it dry. Coil up and put in burlap sack, put in top of closet and forget until next spring/summer. Then bring out, apply rawhide cream and get to roping.
To prepare a green reata for the first time? Not going to go there - that would be a novel.

[alanbell]

I can only add that you can use white saddle soap in place of rawhide cream if you have to. It is almost as good. Also, a lot of folks don't untie their mecates from their bosals and the bosal will hold the shape that it is in when wrapped for quite a long time. I've seen them set up like that for years and they hold their shape . I've seen them WARPED out of shape from excessive pulling on the lead end of a mecate but not from being left tied. They just stay the way you have them set until you do something drastic. If you were to remove that mecate after years the bosal will hold the shape of the mecate in it even without the mecate there but I don't think it is warped out of shape it is SET in shape. You could re set it by placing it in a block shaper but it would never be exact. It will always have some memory of the previous shape. Maybe that is something you want to avoid but again I seen folks with collections of bosals and that has not been a concern and they leave them with a set of mecate reins attached. I've only recently (within the last 5 yrs) heard someone (Mike Bridges)recommend taking the mecate off each time. One way to avoid getting them warped out of shape from excessive pulling is to wrap from top to bottom so that the reins come out at the top and the lead line comes out at the bottom of your wraps. It can't hurt anything to take the mecate off each time but I have NEVER known anyone personally that did it. If your bosal gets out of shape from hanging it by the hanger then your core is really soft and your bosal probably won't hold its shape no matter what! Rawhide gets harder as it dries. We use the creams to slow down the rate at which it loses moisture and to try and replenish a little of the moisture. If you bosal is just hanging there and you are not in a high humidity situation it is slowly drying out. The outside braid is protecting the core whether it is braided or twisted. So the inside is slowly drying out from the time the outside braid was first put on. Flexing, bending twisting are ways to break down the fibres of the rawhide (or leather for that matter) and that is another way to soften rawhide but if it is just hanging there it is slowly drying out and getting harder. At some point years down the road it may get so dry that it hardens and shrinks and when that happens the braiding holding itself in place will start to crack because of the shrinkage (which is what is causing the hardening in the first place) and the fibres may tear and it will weaken. That is what happens to leather as you have probably seen with an old worn out saddle AND rawhide which is un tanned leather! This is also why it holds its shape so well. I guess you would have to hang it by the noseband over something that is in the shape you want it to stay in if your bosal is soft enough for hanging it to store to change its shape. If you are simply hanging it on a bridle hanger that is smaller than the inside curve of your noseband you might as well hang it by the bridle or if it is that soft it will shape to the curve of the bridle hanger and be too small to fit your horse. Most bosals are not that soft so it is not a factor. Rawhide is quite strong and has been used for things like door hinges, the slats holding a mattress, and as a bit in a horses mouth. Rawhide hondas have less substance holding their shape than do most bosals but they manage to stay pretty well unless some critter steps on them! Like I said I don't see taking the mecate off each time as hurting the bosal but I'm not quite sure how much it helps the bosal either.
Vaya Con Dios, Alan Bell