Taking care of expensive show clothes.

If you've been showing this year now is the time to get everything cleaned and ready to store for the off-season.  Follow all manufacturer's directions on the labels of your show clothes.  If it says dry clean only, then dry clean only. 

One of the things that drives me crazy is folks storing their expensive chaps on flimsy wire or plastic hangers. This is not the way to store them.  Invest in some good quality wooden hangers with pant clips such as the  one in the photo. Fold your chaps and lay over the bar This type of bar will also prevent creases in you chaps.  This hanger will support heavy chaps whether suede or ultrasuede. Hang a blazer over the shoulder area and you have two items hung up.  Place them in a "breathable" garment bag for storeage in a closet.  Breathable garment bags are available at most large retailers.  Use another of these hangers to hang your show pants on, the bar on the above hanger has a metal holding bar that locks the pants on the rod preventing them from hitting the floor. Place a rail shirt or matching jacket on the shoulders and another show element stored. Hang your belt on here also, thread the hanger hook through the hinge of the belt and buckle.

**Ultra suede chaps can be machine washed on gentle/delicate cycle with mild detergent.  Hang them to dry, do not store them till they are completly dry.  Also when you pull them out of the washer, you will need to rough up the nap of the ultrasuede, you can do this by rubbing each leg together.  Do this from top to bottom on the outside.
Suede chaps need to be cleaned too, the way to do this is to use a good dandy brush and brush your chaps from top to bottom in long stroks to rough up the nap and to get rid of dust and debris.  After the dandy brush use a soft finishing brush (like a clean face brush) to remove fine particles of dust.  If you have tooled leather yoke accents use Weaver Leather cleaning and then conditioning wipes on them.  

**Hats, I strongly suggest investing in a hat can for your hat, or keep the orginal box that your hat came in to store it, when not in use.  This will keep it clean and safe from people who might plop down on it smashing it. Use a Weaver leather wipe to clean the inside hat band to remove makeup and sweat.  Invest in a hat brush, this is a long handled horse hair brush that makes it easy to brush dust off your hat.  These can be found in shoe departments at farm stores or tack catalogs or ask your hat seller (haberdasher) if they have them available for purchase or if the know where you can get one.  You can use this brush on velvet hunt caps as well.  Also purchase a hat cover for those rainy days.  If your hat does get wet, let it throughly dry before storing it. 
When fitting your hat make sure it fits snuggly on your head, even with your eyebrows.  When trying hats on, shake your head "no" several times to see if the hat moves, if it does get a smaller hat.   The fit of your hat is important, it must stay on your head while riding your horse in a stiff breeze at a lope.  If it feels like it might take off as your riding, tip your head into the wind to prevent it from flying off.

**Boots, you've invested in a good pair that fit well and look good, lets keep them looking their best for a few years.  Invest in polish to match the boots, there are several colors available, boot cream and a horse hair brush.  After you clean you boots of all mud or dust, apply the polish let it sit to dry a few minutes then apply the boot cream, when you do this, its going to look very "cloudy" thats ok.  Once the boot cream dries you will buff the daylights out of those boots putting a really nice glossy shine on them.  Store in a boot carrier with newspaper stuffed lightly in them to absorb oders and sweat.

Well that just about covers everything.  Didn't take too long did it?  If you wear gloves clean them as well, leather ones you can condition with the boot cream, just put on like lotion, work it in and buff with the brush.  Pack them away with your hair accessories, clips, pins, pony tail holders, jewelry etc.

Happy Trails everyone.