So I've always been a stickler for clean leather tack. There is a simple pleasure in bringing out the grain and colour of the leather while cleaning it. Whenever I'd walk into the tack room, the smell of leather mixed with oil was the perfect companion to horse smells and wood shavings....sigh, I can almost smell it now.

Well it's been quite some time since I had that simple pleasure! Lets get back to reality here now. For the past three years my husband and I have been running a horseback riding stables in St. Lucia and not only was it impossible for me to keep up with the tack that had to be cleaned but the type of horseback rides we offer didn't make it easy. Did I mention St. Lucia? because anything leather in the Caribbean is a nightmare to take care of to begin with. Our Beach Rides and Volcano Rides don't exactly help the situation.

Now I'll be honest, I used to stick my nose in the air for Wintec products before. It just didn't feel genuine for me without knowing that it was authentic leather. However I had to face the truth unless I was about to become a slave to cleaning all my leather and constantly replacing billets and stirrup leathers (not exactly economical for an new business...or any business). So since I wanted our new horseback riding business in St. Lucia to survive I had to whip out that credit card and start buying Wintec.

Well I couldn't have made a better choice. Don't get me wrong, I still melt at the sight of a well made leather bridle and love to run my hand along the seat of a recently cleaned saddle, but my choice was a practical and safe one. I don't lose any sleep over worrying if the reins are going to snap today while some poor tourist is happily on tour, or that they'll suddenly end up without a stirrup for the next hour horse ride back.

Now there are lots of choices of synthetic tack around these days but for me price usually equates to quality. If you buy something cheap it's going to have a short and possibly unreliable shelf life. If the price is a bit steep you know there is a pretty good chance that it's high quality. So the best thing is to look for those good products on sale!

You might be thinking that this chick works for Wintec....remember I said earlier I used

to turn my nose up at that? No I don't work for them but I know I can't be the only person in the whole wide world that although they absolutely love their leather tack have to switch to synthetic. So if you are like me or your just curious about if it's worth it, then I can tell you undeniably YES! I haven't had to replace any of my tack as yet and I've only bought more because I needed it to expand my business. For our horseback riding in St. Lucia Wintec has really helped us stay safe with more time focused on the guest experience than making sure the tack looks legit.

Good Luck and Happy Riding!

#mornechouval #horsebackriding #stlucia #wintecsaddles #chicksaddlery