Grooming Tips

Grooming is an essential part of owning a horse whether it is a pet, breeding stock or show horse. It gives you an opportunity to form a special bond with your horse as you work with him. Always brush and comb with the hair, rather than against it, to keep the coat soft and shiny and the mane and tail free from tangles.

Do not bath a horse too frequently as bathing does remove much of the natural oil from the horse’s coat. To bath a horse:

Use your plastic/rubber currycomb or glove and move your hand in circles against the horse’s hair all over the body except face and legs. This will loosen all the dirt and shedding hair.

Next take your hard brush and do hard flicks with the horse’s hair to brush off all the dirt that you loosened with the currycomb. Do not use on face.

After the hard brush, take your body brush or soft brush and go all over the horse’s body, head and legs using long strokes. This will get off the remainder of the dirt and make the coat look soft and clean.

Now is an opportune time to clean the hooves with a hoof pick. Make sure you clean the area of the V but do not hurt the horse’s frog (the middle of their hoof). The hooves themselves can be buffed up with a very fine pot scrubber sponge.

To complete the bath, brush your horse’s mane and tail with a normal hairbrush.

Your horse will look good, be happy and so will you!