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Discussion on Aaack...mildew!!!!!!
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug 22, 2001 - 11:08 pm:
Green fur is growing on my saddles!!!!! I just returned rested and relaxed from a week and a half honeymoon in New England to find moldy, mildewy fur growing on my bridles, saddles, and horse blankets.....yikes. When I am in town and it gets very humid, I close the windows, leave th lamp on in the tack room, and put out two or three buckets of damp rid to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately I was not around and nobody else did this for me.....(but my horse got fed and stayed happy which is the most important thing to come back to from a trip  )
But....my question is this...I immediately threw everything in the car and spent the evening last night scrubbing and cleaning. I am confident that I have completely erradicated the problem on both of my nice bridles. I am concerned about my saddles, though. The bridles I dismantled and literally scrubbed with soap and water in the sink and then saddle soaped, let dry and then applied a mixture of NF oil and beeswax. They are back to normal. The saddles I do not want to scrub in this manner because I do not want to damage them. One in particular is the lighter color Pessoa and I do not want to effect the color. The mold seems to be coming back, though, even when I have cleaned it well.
Any suggestions????
Thanks.
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 23, 2001 - 7:56 am:
Hi Karen,
relax you should be able to get this under control. I too had this on my saddle after it was stored in a damp location for a while. It's a fungus so what you have to do to get rid of it is to wipe your tack with a solution of 50% vinegar and 50% water, then clean in the normal way. It will take care of the problem. I had no discoloration after doing this. The vinegar eradicates the fungus so it is less likely to come back (hasn't returned in a year). Given how quickly this returned you might want to do something to get rid of the damp. If you have a plug in the tack room maybe purchase a dehumidfier to take out the excess moisture. Also, perhaps the fungus spores are in the tack room so you might want to wash down with the solution. I'd wait and see on that one though, as it's a BIG job.
good luck
TeresaA
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 23, 2001 - 11:06 am:
I use Lysol. It kills the mold instantly. It has never ruined any tack that I can see.
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 23, 2001 - 2:28 pm:
Use less oil, too. That seems to feed the fungus.
I use very little oil - mostly just a light swipe of glycerin saddle soap - nearly dry sponge, very little foam.
I've used several mixtures to kill the green fuzz - vinegar and water, lemon juice and water, lysol spray disinfectant, a few DrOps of ammonia in water ...
Trick is to keep the tack dry and don't over do the oil. I only keep what I am currently using at the barn and the rest of my tack lives in my comfortably air conditioned house.
Some saddle products have a "fur killer" in them.
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Posted on Friday, Aug 24, 2001 - 11:59 am:
Always happens when it's really damp here (what we call potato blight weather here in Ireland...). As Chris says, go easy on the oil. I just clean the tack in the normal way, no disinfectant. It goes away of its own accord when the damp goes away.
All the best
Imogen
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