Giving A Horse A Bath

When it's a really hot day, a fun way for you to cool off with your horse is to give him a bath! Most of the time, you will end up just as wet as your horse plus you'll be nice and cooled off!

Horses have varying degrees of tolerance for baths. Some love it and some will put up a fight every step of the way! Some will move constantly and some will stand there calmly.

One thing that helps with my horse is to have a squeegy tool handy. I have to wipe the water out from under his belly as fast as I can or he gets very agitated and antsy. If I wipe the water off as quickly as I can, he stands much better for a longer time.

It can be challenging bathing a horse because they don't all like them but there's a few reasons why they need them.

A cleaner horse will attract less flies. It won't get rid of them but it helps a little when you spray the fly spray on after a bath.

Another very important reason for bathing horses is sweat buildup after a ride. If you don't ever give your horse a bath, they get a thick layer of sweat, dirt, and oils that builds up and will rub under the saddle pad and could cause sores.

If you show, judges don't generally pick the dirty horses to win. They pick the horses that have been well cared for long before a show.

You can pretty much use any kind of shampoo on your horse. Some people say that you should use specialty horse shampoo because it won't dry their coat and mane out as much but I know plenty of people who always use regular people shampoo, even the cheap stuff, and their horse ends up looking fine. I have one friend who even uses dish soap.

My favorite shampoo to get my horse's white legs clean is Cowboy Magic. I've tried a few others but they haven't worked very well. I normally invest in one bottle of shampoo per year and the one I used last year was terrible. I don't want to say what brand it was but I had a yellow horse with a yellow mane for the whole summer.

Some people prefer to use the real deal and stick with specially made horse shampoos. I happen to be one of them but in a crunch, I will use people shampoo on my horse.

The best way to start is to use a curry brush and get out the chunks of loose dirt. Brush your horse down as good as you can. Rub the soap in the best you can and really lather it up or it will take forever to get it out.

Make sure that when you are doing the mane, you really scrub it using your hands. Make sure to get all the way to the center, right along the neck. That will make it much easier to band their mane for a show.

I usually do the tail last. I start at the top and suds it up really well with my hands. As I rinse it from the top, the soap will run down and then you can rub it in a little further down. I keep moving down the tail until I get to the end. You have to be a little careful with their tail or the hair could break.

After I'm done with the tail, I use some Pantene leave in conditioner on the tail and mane. This helps to make it a little shinier and smooth and keeps it from breaking so much.

When your horse does really good for a bath, you should reward him some way. You can give him a treat or let him graze in a special spot. Next time, he won't mind his bath so much! The goal is to make it a nice experience for your horse!

If it's a bad experience for the horse, they'll remember and the next bath won't be any easier. My horse still isn't crazy about baths but he tolerates them a little better now.

You can also give your horse a special treat after a bath. They'll remember the treat part and be a more willing participant next time around.

There's a lot of opinions on how often to give a bath. Do you think more or less are better?

I was told at a recent show that in order to get a white horse's legs ready for a show, wait until the day before the show, no sooner, and then shave the legs all the way up. The fur underneath will be nice and white and you won't be able to tell that they were even shaved. They also said to use White and Bright on the horse the day before the show and they'll look nice and bright for the show.

One more trick is to use Ivory bar soap on the white parts. It really does make them look super white! Just rub the bar on the spot that you're cleaning, then use your hand to lather it up. Rinse and you have bright whites!

Like I said earlier, Cowboy Magic shampoo is my favorite. It goes on blue so that you know when you've gotten it all out again and it really helps to brighten my horse's mane and tail. It really brings out the white. The spray that I've used works pretty good but sometimes makes more of a mess. Some shows I don't even bother to pull it out.

Your horse will roll around in the mud!!! So much for that bath, your horse will be dirty within a few minutes, unless of course you are able to keep him in a stall!!

Even though I know that he will get dirty again right away, I still feel like it's important to bath my horse. It gets the buildup down.

It happens every time! A nice roll in the dirt right after the bath. Now I know why people say not to get a white horse if you're going to show. It's hard to keep them white when they spend most of their time in the mud and love rolling around in the grass.