Eques Horse & Rider Magazine

Ok. Sleeves up. Let us start with a brand spanking new pair of boots.

Step One. Take a tin of Parade Gloss, a bowl of boiling water and a piece of old towel. Get yourself plenty of polish on the end of the towel, dip in to the hot water and then work in to your boot. Finish one boot and then start on the other.
Step Two. Boot two. Work it the same way as you did the first boot.
Step Three. Go back to the first boot and using the rest of the old towel . Not a hard, scratchy one. You need soft but with the fluffy gone that brings nuisance fibres. Polish until your arms drop off.
Step Four. Repeat Step One.
Step Five. Don't polish your boots after you have layered on the polish.
Take your hair dryer. Click on highest heat and lowest speed. Apply heat
to your boot so that the polish 'melts' in to the pores. It is interesting to watch. The polish where the heat is applied becomes very shiny and you see it melting over the surface. get up close and personal with the hair dryer. The polish must melt. You can repair scuffs that have burred the leather or the dull bit that is marked by the stirrup leather by adding a little extra Parade Gloss and being careful how you melt it.
Step Six. Boot two.
Step Seven. Polish, polish, polish. As in buff with a soft cloth not more boot polish
Step Eight. Your boots are now so shiny you just wan't to look at them, not wear them.Now go and ride in your boots. They may flake off a little polish at the crease over the ball of your foot and maybe around the ankle but just buff with a soft cloth. Scuff marks on the toe or heel can be brought straight back to new with a touch of Johnsons' One Go floor polish.

First time will have taken you all afternoon. The next time that you do them will take around 30 mins - 60 mins and you should be able to do your boots in far less time than that. Follow up polishings:. This method also applies to seen better days boots that you want to rejuvenate. First step this time will be to clean then with methylated spirits. They will look milky and foggy looking but this is needed to make sure that every scrap of loose polish or dirt is gone. You do not want to work any dirt back in to the leather.. Repeat steps one to eight. If you do happen to use too much polish and there is a build up, do you be afraid to scrape it off. Use the metho and then take a bread and butter knife. Turn it over so that you are using the back of the blade, rather than the sharp sie and use that to carefully work the flakey polish away. The knife works the same way that a bone would.