If there is anything all horses can do well, it is to get dirty. What owner has not put their reasonably clean horse out to pasture just to have them find the one mud hole to roll in? What horse has not come to the stall door, happy to see you, with straw and shavings all over their body? (Also, why are they SO happy to see you when they are covered in mud?!)
Your horse’s coat, made of dermal tissue, is the largest organ of its body. Healthy coats provide protection from insects, insulate the body in winter, reflect sunlight (so your horse doesn’t burn), repel water, and help cool your horse’s body through sweat in the summer. That is why grooming your horses regularly, including bathing, is so important.
Bathing Your Horse with Horse Shampoos and Conditioners
Grooming is an important ritual for our horses: it not only keeps them clean, but it is also a bonding experience. It is easy to spend time with your equine friend while looking for injury, heat, tangles, or bugs. Beyond brushing, currying, and picking out your horse’s hooves, shampooing and conditioning your horse’s coat is an important part of grooming.
Horse owners bathe their horses for all sorts of reasons:
- You have a show the next day, and to prepare, your horse needs a bath
- Your horse is especially dirty and sweaty from a ride, and a good brushing won’t do
- You want to ride, and your white horse comes out of the pasture brown
- At the end of a shed-out to help encourage the last of the loose hair and dirt off your horse
- To bring back your light-colored horse’s coloring after being stained by mud and dirt
- For bonding purposes
- To eliminate irritants from your horse’s body to keep their skin healthy
While bathing does not have to be done every day, it is good practice to establish a bathing routine so your horse is used to getting a bath and keeping your horse’s coat looking and feeling healthy. Horse shampoos combat skin irritation while hydrating and protecting your horse’s coat and skin. Horse conditioners strengthen, soften, and soothe a horse’s skin, mane, tail, and coat while alleviating dry skin, itchiness, and dandruff.
The 7 Best Horse Shampoos and Conditioners for Healthy Coats
Knowing you need to bathe your horse is one thing; choosing the best products is another. We have compiled a list of the top seven horse shampoos and conditioners that promote healthy coats.
- Ultra® Conditioning Shampoo
- Equiderma™ Sulfate Free Neem & Arnica Shampoo
- Ultra® Conditioning Liniment Shampoo
- Vetrolin White 'N Brite
- Ultra® Enhanced Intense Brightening Shampoo
- E3® Argan Oil Shampoo 32 oz.
- E3® Argan Oil Conditioner 32 oz.
Ultra® Conditioning Shampoo cleans and conditions hair while removing stubborn stains, allowing the hair to maintain its natural moisture balance. This natural, plant-based formula promotes a healthy coat, silky softness, and luxurious shine. Concentrated 1 to 4 (4 oz. makes 16 oz.), this shampoo is fully biodegradable, leaving all the harsh chemicals behind.
Equiderma™ Sulfate Free Neem & Arnica Shampoo deeply nourishes and protects your horse’s coat while imparting a long-lasting show coat sheen. It rinses away quickly and fights numerous skin ailments. This Ayurvedic-based shampoo has an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant formulation that is far more than just a traditional cleansing shampoo. The organic Neem leaf tea, Neem seed oil, arnica, pine bark, basil, chamomile, and cherry-bark ingredients calm hives, soothe sweet itch and insect bite hypersensitivity, control mites living in feathers, and inhibit the growth of bacterial, fungal, and dermatophyte-based skin issues.
Reach for the Ultra® Conditioning Liniment Shampoo with added muscle-relaxing properties for full-body conditioning. The powerful deep cleaning agents remove the toughest stains without depleting the coat of natural oils. Plus, the low-sudsing formula rinses out easily to eliminate residue buildup. Your horse will be cleaned and conditioned to a lustrous shine, and their muscles will be soothed during bath time. This luxurious shampoo contains witch hazel, methanol, and menthol crystals.
Vetrolin White 'N Brite provides a deep clean while keeping light-colored horses stain-free. Optical brighteners enhance the highlights on dark-colored horses, and they are gentle enough for everyday use. This shampoo adds incredible brilliance to coats, manes and tails, leaving them soft and shiny while easily lifting and removing the most difficult yellow stains. The coconut derivatives help moisturize and increase the absorption of brightening agents, making your horse shine like a diamond.
Ultra® Enhanced Intense Brightening Shampoo has been reformulated to enhance and intensify all coat colors and maximize the whitening capabilities for light horses. This rich, sudsy formula penetrates deep into the coat to loosen and dissolve the toughest stains, bringing up the coat's natural color and beauty. With no harmful dyes, this shampoo is gentle on the skin and has a lovely green apple scent.
Fortified with vitamins and natural Argan oil, E3® Argan Oil Shampoo restores smoothness and rejuvenates dry, tangled, and damaged hair. You can even use it as a dry shampoo with no rinsing necessary, making it useful in cold weather! Fortified with vitamins A, C, E and F, nano-encapsulated in a sustained and controlled delivery system, this shampoo allows for better absorption, penetration, and diffusion of vitamins, which help prevent inflammation and aid in the healing process. Made with water, sodium C-14-16, olefin sulfate, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium lactate, and natural argan oil, this is a great all-weather cleaner.
E3® Argan Oil Conditioner is a superior moisturizing conditioner formulated with 100% Moroccan Argan Oil. It naturally locks in moisture and restores shine and softness to dry and damaged hair. This conditioner contains vitamins A, C, E, and F that are nano-encapsulated, which allows for improved absorption and maximum benefits. It is safe for both horses and dogs.
For the best results, no matter the products, follow the instructions on the bottle. Monitor your horse after each bath to ensure they do not have an allergy to the products and to prevent over-bathing, which can lead to flaky skin that can be uncomfortable. After washing, use a sweat-scraper to eliminate as much water as possible on your horse’s coat, and let it air dry if you can.
Bathing your horse is a great way to keep it looking its best and keeping its skin healthy. With the right horse shampoos and conditioners, your horse will look great, whether in the ring or in the pasture.
