As much as I enjoy having a sparkly clean horse, they don’t need to be spankin’ clean 100% of the time for their health. On the contrary, a big part of my grooming regimen for my guys was to let them have a good roll in the dirt as often as possible.
Listen to a horse as it rolls & you will soon understand. They grunt, they moan & groan in absolute pleasure, making rolling in stinky, gritty, manure laden dirt seem like a seriously enviable experience & for them it truly is equine ecstasy. It’s chiropractic, it gets all the itchy places they can’t reach (think about that spot in the middle of your back) & it acts as a wonderful massage. If it’s a cold day & they have a shaggy, sweaty, post ride coat, letting him roll will help dry his coat exponentially faster. Perhaps most important: sometimes it’s just good to let a horse be a horse. I could wax poetic on the benefits all day…
On a hot day, it’s important to hose or sponge your horse off to help him cool down & then sweat scrape the excess water off. Be sure to grab a clean, dry towel and get those legs nice and dry. While you’re at it- lift the horse’s tail and rinse there too. Don’t get squeamish on me here, sweat + sand = sad, itchy bum & an invite to rub their tail. It’s also a really good way to cool them down when it’s hot. Plus, let’s face it- wouldn’t you want someone to do it for you if you didn’t have hands to do it yourself?
If you are getting ready for a show or just want to give your horse a good, deep cleaning, I make sure to find a mild conditioning soap that I always dilute with lots of water in a small bucket. Diluting will still produce the suds that we want to help lift the dirt to the coat’s surface & will rinse easier. To distribute the soap I use the scrubby sponge like the one you see pictured above. A sponge is great to use in sensitive areas like the face. (Double check with your trainer to see if he/she is ok with you washing off the horse’s face & remove the spray nozzle to give the horse’s face a gentle wash. Think of having a hose blasting in your face, not fun right?!) I like this particular sponge (above) because it has a soft scrubby surface on one side & a simple sponge on the other. I use the last of the soapy water to dip the tail in the bucket & to give that a good wash too.
When you are done hosing or bathing (& you are positive that all the soap is rinsed off) you will want to use the sweat scraper to remove as much excess water as you can. I also use a towel to get as much extra water off the legs as possible. If a horse lives in a box stall, always put him away completely dry.
Now that the tail is spotlessly clean, you can spritz it with a detangling spray & carefully brush it out. If you use that detangler on the horse’s body do not spray the mane or the saddle area! Just about everyone makes that mistake… once. 🙂
