Today at work as part of my apprenticeship we were out at a yard saddle fitting when a customer asked if we could repair a headpiece…pictured below is said disaster!?
The story behind it is that the customers daughter had been cleaning her tack and once the headpiece was cleaned she hung it over the light-bulb to dry. She then forgot about it hanging there and when she returned it had burnt right through the padding!
These people were incredibly lucky that nothing actually caught light or their entire barn could have gone up in smoke. They were also very lucky that only the padding was damaged so I was able to simply put a new pad on.
Even without all this damage, leather doesn’t appreciate being next to heat sources so think about how you store your leather and if you are drying it out just leave it in a well aired space. The leather on this headpiece was incredibly dry when I got my hands on it but luckily I gave it a good treatment with some leather balm.
And remember folks
DON’T HANG YOUR HEADPIECE OVER A LIGHT-BULB