Top 5 Tips to Keeping Your Horse Clean Before a Show
This article goes into detail about how to keep your horse clean before a show, with specific product recommendations .
Keeping Your Horse Clean Before a Show
Getting your horse clean before a show can take a lot of effort from bathing, clipping, and more, so making sure they stay clean not only saves you time but ensures your horse looks their best in the show ring. These helpful tips can keep them clean during the night, or during the day while you wait for your time to shine in the show pen.
1. Top Bathing & Grooming Products for Your Show Ready Grooming Kit
The day before your show you will want to give your horse a good deep cleaning with a nice bath. Using a brightening or color enhancing shampoo such as, Ultra® Enhanced Intense Brightening Shampoo, will bring out your horse’s natural shine and beauty. Some horses enjoy using their manure as a pillow, so you may even find yourself having to bathe them the morning of, but a great bath the day before will make removing those stains even easier. If your horse has white socks, you might find using Exhibitors Quic Silver shampoo is a great way to get even the most discolored and stained socks a bright white again.
Having a Spot-Remover Spray such as Cowboy Magic Green Spot Remover or our Ultra® Easy Clean Instant Spot Remover, is a great way to quickly get out and small stains the day of a show, without needing to give your horse a full bath. A full assortment of horse grooming supplies and tools in your grooming kit makes it easy to groom your horse the day of a show. The day before and day of a show, you should curry and brush your horse to lift any dirt from their coat, while then polishing the hair by brushing away the dirt, dust, and spreading the natural oils in your horse’s skin.
A coat conditioning and shine spray is a great way to repel dust, dirt, shavings, and stains after you have spent time grooming and bathing your horse. Whether you use something like Absorbine Show Sheen, Laser Sheen Hair Polish Concentrate,Healthy HairCare Hair Moisturizer, Vetrolin Shine, or our Ultra® Lazer Sheen, you can save yourself a few extra steps when it comes to grooming the day of the show with these products.
When you are ready to walk into the ring, a final spray of Ultra® Final Touch Finishing Spray will instantly create intense highlights on coats, manes, and tails for a beautiful shine that is sure to catch the judges attention. The citronella even helps repel flies and other insects, keeping your horse happier during their performance.
2. Mane & Tail Care Tips
If you will be braiding your horse’s mane or tail, it is important that it looks nice and clean without being slippery from heavy conditioners when it comes time to braid. Washing the mane and tail hair the day before the show will remove any dirt, dust, and left-over oils such as fly sprays and conditioners. The easiest way to wash a tail is adding some gentle shampoo into a bucket of warm water, and then dunk the tail into the bubbly water. Be sure to rinse well, especially at the top of your horse’s tail, so that no left-over shampoo causes your horse to become dry or itchy. You can rinse the hair with some white vinegar to remove any shampoo residue and add natural shine.
If will not be braiding, then you may opt to use a conditioner after the shampoo, to add a nice amount of moisture into the hair. Ultra® Mane and Tail Conditioner is meant to be used as a leave-in conditioner that stimulates the skin to promote new hair growth while preventing further breakage, in a non-greasy formula.
From mane and tail growth supplements to fake-tails, you can offer your horse a little help if they are lacking in their natural tail length or thickness for the overall show-look you desire, or daily care for at home, you can find many solutions to your mane and tail care.
3. Clipper for Every Job
Once your horse has been groomed, curried, and bathed, their hair should be very clean and easy for clipping. Whether you body clip or just trim up around their face, ears, and muzzle, clipping a freshly cleaned horse is not only faster, but it can prevent unsightly clipping lines and prolong the life of your clippers.
Body clippers are great for clipping a horse’s winter coat, or if a horse has trouble shedding, making sure that they look their best for horse shows. Face and trimming clippers are a great tool to keep in your grooming kit as a horse’s hair around their ears and muzzle can grow so quickly, you may find yourself trimming them often. Cordless clippers and pocket clippers are perfect for your grooming bag or even having in your show grooming box at the show ring, for those last-minute touch ups or stray hairs you may have missed. From Andis®, Oster®, and Wahl®, Schneider Saddlery always has the right horse clippers and clipper accessories for the job.
4. Sleazy Slickers, Hoods, and Mane Tamers
Now that your horse is clean, how do you keep them that way in the stall? Using a horse hood is a great way to keep them clean, and if they are braided or banded, keep their mane in place as well. Horse hoods can have many names from hood, sleazy, slicker, slinky, or mane tamer. Depending on your horse, and on the weather, there are many options to choose from. If you are showing in the summer or warmer months, something like the UltraFlex® Stretchy Mesh Stable Slicker Hood is a great way to keep them clean, without making them too hot. Large eye holes and a full-length zipper make it easy to take on-and-off throughout the day. There are full lycra slicker hoods, hybrids with a combination of mesh for added cooling, and full body slickers and lycra sheets to keep their whole body clean.
5. Horse Stable Sheets
A stable sheet is a great way to make sure your horse stays clean in the stall, especially if your horse requires something more structured or durable than a full body slicker, or if you need something warmer. With so many horse stable sheets to choose from, from cotton, poly cotton, nylon, Baker Original sheets, and more, you can even use a combination of a slicker or sleazy hood with a stable sheet to give full coverage from head to tail.
Keeping our horses looking their best at a show takes some work, but with a variety of bathing and grooming supply options, clippers, and horse clothing to keep them clean in their stalls, you will have everything you need to get the job done!