Let's Ride!: Grooming

Grooming

Grooming is very important. Groom your horse daily... it's essential. Never neglect grooming your horse; if you do, the skin can get dry and dirty... especially not healthy at all. There may be a few problems, too, because grooming is good for your horse's own health. The coat looks dull from not grooming. Here are some good tips on grooming and bathing, and some how-to's. You should always do a complete, well grooming if it's for a show or a regular day with your horse. That's the key to a healthy horse...

Gleaming Grooming Steps

1. Take a rubber curry comb and curry the entire body (except the face). Curry in circular motions over the body.

2. Take a dandy or stiff brush and brush briskly to remove dirt and dust. Then take a body brush and brush the entire body except for the face. Brush more deeply to remove deep down dirt.

3. Then take a soft brush, and spray some water on the bristles.
Brush briskly to remove fine dust, and deep dust. Then spray a little bit of spray-on coat polish and brush the whole body, brushing softly but briskly to deffinetly get the dust and dirt out of the coat. Don't use it that much on the saddle area, for the saddle will slip a little when you ride.

4. Run the shedding blade over the coat to get out any shedded hairs. It'll also remove dust and dirt, too. Run the soft brush over the coat again to get any other dust that the shedding blade dug up.

5. Spray some detangler or conditioner on the mane and tail. With a mane and tail brush, brush the mane and forlock. Brush the tail, too, but brush it carefully, so you don't pull out any hairs. Take a water brush (which should be damp from water) and tame the hairs on the dock down. Do the same with the mane, to tame it down.

6. Brush the face with a face brush, which is a 4 inch soft bristled brush. Take a small sponge, dampen it with water, and clean the nose, eyes, ears (and around the ears) and mouth.

7. With a different sponge, clean under the tail, and clean the sheath/udders.

8. Pick out the hooves with a hoofpick, getting caked mud/dirt, manure and rocks out of the hooves. Apply any hoof supplement to the hooves to keep them healthy. Don't apply hoof polish everyday, for that just polishes the hooves. It really dries them out.

9. Spray some fly spray on your horse if he needs it, to keep flys away from him. Apply a roll-on fly repelent on areas like the face and around the ears.

10. Take a cloth (a terry cloth or stable rubber) and rub the horse down with it. Or you can take a sheepskin appliance mitt to polish the coat. For extra shine, I spray some Vetrolin liniment on the appliance mitt or the cloth and rub the horse down with it.

11. And for horses with pink or white noses, rub a dab of sunscreen on it so their noses don't get sunburned.