Horse grooming notes

[snaffle]

Tip one: The Big Bubble Bath of the spring we do with Orvus and maybe a medicated shampoo if needed. Since it's a wee bit drying we only do it once, maybe twice a year. But the stuff seriously gets the dirt out and is very cost effective. We make a rinse with a light white vinegar solution to help get all of the soap out, then condition with a heavy conditioner, let that sit for a bit, then rinse, rinse, rinse, the follow up with something like Cowboy Magic Detangler/Coat Condiitoner. Winter scurffies and dirties begone!
For white socks and tails we may have to go over them more than once with a "whitening" shampoo, bleach them, and use a solution of blueing rinse (be careful with the blueing -- it'll either make your horse really white -- or blue!). We like to run conditioner through a white mane or tail for about a week before doing the bleach treatment, and then once it's white, a hot oil treatment (African Six mixed with coconut oil works great) and a light shampoo and conditioning. To finish it off -- Fanci Full in Silver Fox.
Tip two: make your own liniment with rubbing alcohol and generic Listerine. You can buy a big bottle at the Dollar General for under $2, cut it half and half with rubbing alcohol (about $1.00 for a big bottle of that). Works great for pennies. Can be used to polish up your boots and tack at the last minute too -- really takes the gunk/dirt off (but don't make it part of a routine, really drying, just a pinch on a rag for a quick polish up). "Listerine" can also be boiled down straight, and the gunk left over makes a great fly repelling wound aid.
Tip three: if you don't like hoof lacquer use boot polish to rub into your horse's feet and buff up to make them "pretty" for a show (caution: have a steady hand when applying, and apply only to clean, smooth feet). Won't be as high gloss, but it also doesn't dry their feet out.
Tip four: This is actually one given to us by Reininlane -- so I'll give her the credit for this -- Suave Coconut shampoo/conditioner not only does a good job of cleaning/conditioning your horse, but has a fly repelling component to it, and again, is very inexpensive! Smells good too...
Tip five: if you have a dappled grey horse, give them a "bath" in buttermilk solution after shampooing, let set for a few minutes, then rinse; it makes their dapples come out. This tip was given to me years ago by an old guy who had Perch drafts; his horses always had the most gorgeous dapples, so I just took his word for what worked.
Tip six: after a hard day's run of showing, hunting, racing, whatever, rub them down good, wrap their legs in flannels, feed them grass hay, and cut your horse's grain by at least half, make up the rest with an oily bran mash, and give them a few bottles of Guiness in it. Settles them down and helps them to get rid of excess body fluid. Some horses immediately love it, for some it's an acquired taste -- sometimes "yummies" like crushed peppermints, carrots, turnips, or apples help the taste, so add a couple.

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Woolite.

Gods gift to show horse owners, especially the new Woolite Dark for my paint mare
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From personal experience I do not recommend Bleach it tends to yellow a white horse. It works great on a gray but I have never had luck on white horses. Showing paints all these years I have found a few things that really work well for me.

I only bathe the horses w/shampoo before a show otherwise when ever possible they just get hosed off. I use Wisk as a pre-soak on all the white. You use only a little and really scrub the white with the Wisk and leave it on while you shampoo the rest of the horse w/what ever shampoo you use. Pre-soak the white tail as well. You need to really rinse the horse well. I find that the Wisk helps repel the dirt and urine.

We keep the tails bagged at all times. I use any kind of conditioner on the tails but what works best for me is VO5 hot oil treatments and I leave it in the tail - it puts back alot of moisture and shine.

Another good tip is apple cider vinegar for an after rinse - it gets the soap off and in the warm weather helps repel flies. Your horse smells like a salad for awhile but it does help and doesn't dry the hair coat.
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The Oster whitening shampoo is golden. I was using it last summer, and I let a kid graze my horse a ways up a hill at the barn, and in the sun from a distance, my horse's white actually hurt our eyes when we stared straight at it.

To get him really white, I do round one with the whitening shampoo, let it sit for 2 or 3 minutes then blast it off, then put it on again REALLY thick, and let it sit for 2 more minutes before I blast that off. I'm a pro at getting legs white.
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Bleach is an old trick. The trick is to only use a small amount so as to not burn the skin, (capful in a 5 gall bucket was what was taught to me). I have not used it except for one time on her feet and socks. It worked but I think cowboy magic works just as well. I dread bath time here with our pony/horses, because I usually get a bath too hah.
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I am a dog groomer, and for white (also black coats) we use a mixture of your favorite shampoo, and laundry blueing. Start with watering down your shampoo (this makes it easier to apply...no glops that have to be worked around if you put too much in one spot, and also aids in rinsing, as the shampoo is not concentrated in one spot) 50/50 shampoo to water, then add your laundry blueing. Here is where you have to be VERY exact with your mixing! Only put 1 or 2 DROPS per quart (thats 4 to 8 drops to a gallon). If you make it too strong you will end up with a purple horse!The Budweiser clydesdales get their feathers washed with this recipe just before every performance. As I said before, you can also use this or any whitening shampoo on black horses also, because the way a whitening shampoo works, is it mutes the reddish tones in the coat, bringing out the blue highlights, which is what you are looking for in both white and black colors (grey horse too, from dark to light)!! The laundry blueing can be found usually on the top shelf above the laundry soap, by the prewash stuff at the grocery store. It is in a blue(go figure) bottle, and the name of the stuff that I use is Mrs. Stewarts laundry blueing.
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[linda]

Let me add my person favorite horse shampoo---Pert (buy the big bottle.) It is great, especially in the spring for getting out the winter's crud. It rinses clean, needs no conditioner, and leaves the horses smelling wonderful and very, very soft. I have a horse soap dispenser that fits on my hose and it only takes a few minutes to clean up a horse--and I no longer get a bath in the process. I am also blessed to have hot and cold running water outside so the horses can have warm baths instead of our very cold well water.

[AmberC]

I wash Nib with a Suave shampoo called Brilliant Brunette. I don't know if it really makes a difference but I like to think it does.

If you don't have hot water to your barn, you can use a Y connector (less than $5 at the hardware store) and put it on your washer hookup in the house and run the hose outside from there. Depending on how long your hose is, it can take a while to get the temp adjusted, though. This is how I bathe my dogs at home.

Bathing is kind of a pain at the barn I'm at now, we don't have a "wash rack" really, and I have to deal with a long hose that is a PITA to get rolled back up. So his baths will be much less frequent. But what I do is before I ride, I fill a bucket with water and set it in the sun. After I untack, I use my bathing brush mitt (the kind with nubs on one side and bristles on the other) to rinse the sweaty areas, using the bristles to scrub it away. Then I pour what's left over his back and scrape.

Then I usually hand graze him til he's dry, otherwise he finds the dirtiest area of the pasture and rolls! He usually still does roll, but at least he's dry then!

I also will usually start with a wet rag and wipe his head anywhere the bridle was touching and leaving sweaty marks (like behind his ears). And then wipe under the tail and between the back legs where the sweat tends to collect.