ok, well this may seem very dumb, but i was wondering if it would be at all possible to use black shoe polish or something to change the color of my brown dressage saddle. I would like to have black tack, without having to buy another saddle.

thanks.

well - it's possible
I've done it with 2 saddles, & 1 pair of riding boots

HOWEVER
forget those white or beige jodphurs! you'll need to soak them for HOURS after every ride. No matter which leather dye-setting product you use, they just don't seem to do any good.

I used leather dye on 2 saddles - and they looked nice, but the dye would rub off on everything - which made it quite a hassle. they also needed touch-ups every year. Also - the area where your stirrup leathers sit will get rubbed off REALLY quickly.

For the riding boots I just got one of those liquid sponge-applicator shoe polish things in black. It seemed to go straight over the old colour of the boots fine. You needed to re-do it before every show - but hey, need to polish boots before every show anyway.

to sum up that ramble
my 2c is don't dye saddles

they have some western saddle die that my friend used (she had a bunch of scratches and just used the same color die that her saddle was and it covered it up ) but i dont know what its called humm i will find out htough.

How dark is your saddle as it is? If it's a pretty dark havana, I wouldn't bother trying to dye it because like Perfie said, it's a messy business. I've almost ruined white breeches on a saddle that was black in the first place, it's not much fun.

You can darken your saddle more with neatsfoot oil/olive oil. I've never really though it was a big deal in dressage to have perfectly matching tack, so long as there's nothing too flashy or out of place.

The best way to turn a brown saddle black? Take the brown saddle to a tack shop that accepts consignments/trade-ins and trade it for a black saddle.

^^^ Lol, I agree...

Brown saddles are nice...

Hi, thanks everyone for your responses. i just decided to get rid of that saddle and get a black one. lol best solution there is