Horse Grooming

Grooming is an essential part of keeping your horse clean and healthy. Grooming supplies include all the tools necessary to keep the horse clean such as brushes, curry combs and mane combs as well as clippers, shampoos, conditioners and blades and scrapers. Horze Equestrian offers all the grooming supplies that riders need for daily grooming or for competition levels.

For daily grooming, most riders will want an assortment of brushes, plus a curry and mane comb. Most also choose to store it in a grooming tote or bag. The first tool that most riders start with when grooming is a curry comb. Curry combs are used to remove loose hair, ground in dirt or mud and bring them to the surface. Curry combs are generally oval in shape and may be made of either rubber or plastic. Next, riders use a hard or dandy brush. This brush helps to loosen excess hair and removes dried mud from the horse’s coat. Hard brushes typically feature medium length bristles of natural or synthetic materials on a wood or plastic backing. A soft or body brush removes surface dust and dirt from the horse’s coat. Soft brushes are available with natural or synthetic short or long bristles; long bristles are used to flick fine dust from the coat. Soft brushes feature a wood, leather or plastic backing and often have a handle. Specialized face brushes offer ultra-soft synthetic or natural bristles in a smaller brush that can easily be used over the horse’s entire face. Finally a mane and tail comb is used to remove tangles. A hoof pick should also be used to remove dirt and debris from the horse’s hooves. Grooming is generally done before and after riding. In hot weather many riders choose to hose down their horse after riding to help cool off their horse; in this case a sweat scraper should be used to remove excess water, otherwise a layer of water collects on the horse and can cause overheating. For riders that are just starting out, complete grooming kits are also available that feature a basic selection of brushes in a grooming tote or bag. Horze Equestrian offers a wide array of grooming brushes designed for daily or show use, including brushes with fun designs that are perfect for pony kids.

For competition grooming, riders will include the same steps that they use in daily grooming, but most riders will also choose to bathe their horse. Bathing typically includes using shampoos to remove all the dirt from the horse; horse shampoos may also include coat color enhancers, medicated shampoos are also available, but are typically only used when needed to treat skin conditions. Liquid conditioners may also be used on the coat, mane and tail if needed. Horze Equestrian offers a variety of horse shampoos by Carr & Day & Martin designed for all colors of horses. Once the horse has been bathed riders will often use coat polish to keep dust from settling on the horse’s coat while they dry. For most English disciplines, the horse’s mane will be shortened with the use of a pulling comb. Choosing to braid or not is often dependent on not only the discipline that the horse is being shown in, but also the level of competition. Typically, hunters will braid the mane and tail regardless of level, while jumpers will choose to braid at the upper levels, or if they have crossover classes. Dressage riders will often choose to braid the mane, but the tail is generally left unbraided. Eventers will typically braid for dressage, and may choose to do it for show jumping, but the horse is left unbraided for cross country. Braiding tools include special braiding bands and may include tape, needle and thread. A tail bag or mane tamer may also be used to help keep the mane and tail in condition for show day. Small clippers may also be used to trim to the bridle path, ears, muzzle and fetlocks for a neat appearance. Body clipping is typically used seasonally to remove the horse’s long winter coat. Riders who continue to work their horses during the Winter often choose to clip their horses; this helps to prevent the horse from overheating during exercise and makes it easier to cool out the horse after work. Riders may also choose to body clip their horses during Spring to prevent the long shedding out process. Additionally some horses, such as those suffering from Cushing’s, have long thick coats that do not shed out, and this can cause a host of problems during hot Summer weather. Horze Equestrian offers high quality clippers designed by Lister in styles for body clipping and light trimming.

Horze Equestrian provides a large selection of grooming supplies for the daily care of horses, as well as grooming supplies for a show ready shine.