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Thanks^
@Nick_S gives good advice.
If the leather is brittle, apply neatsfoot oil to the underside, and let it rest somewhere warm for a bit. You might repeat this process but be moderate as you can overdo it with this stuff.
To improve the tanned surface, if you have a friendly cobbler ask them to use their buff/polisher on it, a bit of beeswax is applied to the brushes, then as it warms the leather you can bring out the natural oils in the leather and helpes the cracking reduce.
Also doing this by hand can work, or a polisher attatched to a drill. It needs to be warmed so much elbow grease is needed, and a few drips of sweat actually helps.
You could also improve it a lot by extensively riding it thus warming/sweating into it.
@Skülly