Horse Grooming

Grooming your horse is essential for their health and happiness. Regular grooming helps remove dirt and debris, stimulates blood circulation, and allows you to check for any injuries, abnormalities or even parasites such as ticks. Some horses love being groomed and others less so. If your horse isnt a huge fan of being groomed, you may be able to pair the activity with some positive reinforment in the form of treats such as Huds & Toke Horse Treats. Also see if you can find some preferred "itchy spots" that they might enjoy having scratched!

Healthy skin and a shiny coat definately starts from the inside out and we have a range of coat supplements that can ensure your horse is getting what they require nutritionally. Rugging your horse can also be useful if you need to maintain a high quality coat for the show ring or for protection from biting insects. However, keep in mind that the horses natural hair coat has evolved to serve a useful function for the horse such as insulation from heat and cold and protection from rain. Applying a rug interferes with this natural protection. Rugging should be undertaken only if you are able to monitor your horse on a daily basis and use the lightest rugs you can get away with. There is a tendency to over-rug horses in cold weather, but there is a greater chance of your horse overheating from being too hot in rugs than there is of them suffering being too cold.

Horse Shampoos are helpful (essential?!) in getting embedded dirt and mud from your horses coat, followed up with a conditioner to ease grooming of manes and tails. Applying a detangling product such as Cowboy Magic and other similar products not only creates a gorgeous shiny mane and tail, it also allows for much easier detangling and should be a staple in every horse owner's grooming kit. Once you try it you will wonder how you ever did without it!

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How often should I wash my horse?
   Washing your horse too frequently can strip their coat of natural oils. Unless you have a specific need to wash them with a shampoo frequently, generally, a thorough wash once a month is sufficient, with spot cleaning and regular grooming in between to keep them clean.
2. What is the easiest way to get knots out of my horse's mane or tail?
   The easiest way to detangle knots is to use a detangling spray or conditioner. Gently work through the knots with your fingers or a wide-toothed comb, starting from the bottom and working your way up to avoid breaking the hair. For really nasty knots and dreadlocks, you may need to resort to using scissors to either snip a bit of the hair holding the knot, or possibly even to cut the knot out entirely.