Thursday, July 11, 2013

Higher Standards Saddle Soap Unboxing and Review


For the past few days, I have been on the USPS site obsessively tracking my shipment of the Higher Standards saddle soap, handmade by Libby Henderson, that I ordered last weekend. You can imagine my excitement when I opened my mailbox this morning to find the package!
I immediately tore it open. It was all packaged very nicely. The envelope was padded, there was brown shipping paper bundled around the soap to give it even more protection during shipping, and there was candy inside! That won me over right away ;) Included was a sheet of paper with contact information and instructions for using the soap and balm (which I am planning on buying!). 


Everything that came in the package - Soap, instructions, and candy!
A sponge is included inside the container. Directions are printed on the soap as well.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately, whichever way you look at it) I am a bit obsessive about tack cleaning. I think it's because I've never had the chance to have my own horse before, so instead of putting all my focus on horse care, I put it on tack care. I clean my tack after almost every ride, and I had just cleaned it the day before I ordered the soap, and I haven't used it since, so everything is spotless right now.

I did, however, have a cheap leather halter that was used as a turnout halter at my old dressage barn, and it somehow ended up at my house a year or so ago. One of the horses broke the chin strap, so I just cut the rest of it off, and it is now kept for the sole purpose of being a ghetto grooming halter. It was cleaned and conditioned a few months ago (and was really dirty and REALLY dry before that), and it has just been sitting in my house since. 
I decided to use it as my guinea pig to test out the Higher Standards soap. It was still pretty damn dry, so even though the pictures don't really show much of a change since it was already clean, I promise you, there's a BIG difference! It is SO soft and supple now! You can kind of tell in the pictures that it was wrinkly from being so dry, and the H.S. soap really helped make the leather more smooth. It didn't leave it sticky or slimy, either. It just feels really soft. It also didn't get too sudsy, which is great. I am impressed.


I bought the Lavender Vanilla scent. Two of my favorite scents in one! I think it smells really good, however, I have been using MOSS scented saddle soap for the past couple of years, so I am used to a much stronger smell. The Higher Standards scent is very faint, and you can only smell it if your face is near the jar or sponge. Many people like this faint scent better than the stronger scent of MOSS. I am a big fan of the strong scent of MOSS, so I almost wish the H.S. soap had more fragrance. For the people that are sensitive to scents, don't like strong scents, or have horses that want to eat your tack after cleaning with MOSS, then the H.S. scent would be perfect for you. I *do* really like this scent, maybe I'm just used to MOSS. The lavender vanilla is hard to explain. To me, it almost smells remotely like vanilla ice cream or an orange cream push-up popsicle, but more faint, and doesn't smell so sweet... more herby. It's hard to explain. It definitely smells awesome though! 

Another plus, it doesn't leave your hands feeling gross like most saddle soaps do. I usually scrub my hands with hand soap or dish soap after I finish cleaning tack, but with the H.S. soap, I just ran them under clean water and everything rinsed right off without any kind of help. It left my hands feeling really soft, without being greasy at all. Love that. 

All in all, I am VERY pleased with the Higher Standards saddle soap! It's definitely a favorite of mine. I can't wait to try the leather balm! 

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The search is on...

I am finally, FINALLY, FINALLY horse shopping! I've literally been waiting my entire life for this. I am absolutely ecstatic. This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me.

However...

It's proving to be just as difficult as I imagined it would be.

I have gone to see a few OTTB's, a couple warmblood crosses, and an unraced TB. In that small group of horses, I have already found everything from lameness, bad ulcers, missing teeth, rearers, "great feet" that turned out to be horrendous, "16+hh" that turned out to be barely 15hh, finding out all kinds of medical issues on the PPE the owner got when she bought him that she failed to tell me before I drove ~7 hours round trip to see the horse... Shall I go on?

It is just making me even more impatient to find "The One."



 

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