BATHING YOUR HORSE

Things to Consider…

There are a number of benefits to bathing your horse. A good bath will leave your horse’s coat looking shiny, healthy and visibly more appealing. Having a clean horse is important, but even more important than that is how you clean your horse. First you need to consider what shampoo you will be using. It’s best to use a horse shampoo that is pH balanced or as natural as possible. This will help to preserve the natural oils in your horse’s coat. You can also use a specially formulated horse conditioner to help with the replenishing of your horse’s natural oils. Another option would be to bathe your horse less often, and just do a rinse after a workout instead.

If you do a lot of showing you will probably be bathing your horse more often than the occasional show person. Bathing too often can dry out your horse’s hooves and cause them to crack. What you might want to do to help prevent this from happening is to paint the soles, walls, and heels of your horse’s hooves with some type of sealant found in most supply stores.

Another key factor is temperature….if it feels too cold for you to bathe your horse, then it probably is! Wait for a nice warm day, unless you have a heated wash room.

Bathing Steps

If you don’t have a designated wash room, at least try to find an area for your horse to stand where the water will run off and he won’t be standing in a big mud puddle when you’re done. If you don’t have a place to tie your horse, have someone hold him while you bathe him.

Before you can begin with the bath, you must try to remove as much of the loose dirt and hair as possible by simply giving your horse a thorough brushing. Comb the mane and tail to prevent tangles from turning into your worst nightmare. Now you are ready to begin.

Start out by mixing a couple ounces of shampoo in a bucket with some warm tap water until you have a sudsy mix. Wet your horse with a gentle stream starting at the leg and working your way up. You can use a sponge, rag, or wash mitt to apply the soapy mix to your horse. Scrub your horse down beginning with the legs and rinse each area promptly so that the soap doesn’t have a chance to dry on the skin leaving it dull and possibly causing irritation to your horse’s skin. When rinsing your horse, always rinse from the top down.

For real problem areas that are heavily soiled, you may want to apply shampoo directly to that area. This is especially crucial if you have a horse with white legs that tend to be hard to clean. There are a number of whitening products that work quite well for this. I’ve found that a nice soft rubber curry works wonderful for those hard to clean areas. Scrub making circular motions and you will see dirt coming out that you didn’t even know was there.

To wash your horse’s tail, you can hold the soapy pail up and actually submerge the tail into the bucket. This makes it a little easier to get the majority of the tail wet. You may still need to put a bit more shampoo on the tail and use the hose to keep it wet while you massage the tail working the shampoo throughout.

When washing your horse’s face, don’t ever spray the horse’s face with the hose and never get soap anywhere near your horse’s eyes. You and I both know how much that burns…..it’s no different for your horse. Use a wet cloth or sponge to wipe your horse’s face clean. If there is a soiled area, make sure to cautiously clean it with as little soap and water as necessary.

Once you’ve thoroughly scrubbed and rinsed your horse, you will want to dry him off. You can use a sweat scraper to remove the excess water and then some type of towel to thoroughly dry him off. Make sure your horse isn’t left wet in a drafty area or he could become ill. You can put a cooler on him, walk him and stall him up with some clean straw bedding. After all, you didn’t put all that time into cleaning him up just to have him go roll in the dirt.

Now you can relax and rest up for the big day at the show.