Grooming Tools
First, set up a tote or tack box with the basic grooming tools you need to give your horse an average grooming. If you have more than one horse and want to keep their grooming tools separate, you can color-coordinate their individual totes and brushes.
As you wield the brush and curry comb, check your horse for nicks, cuts, bites, skin problems, and other things you might not see or feel unless you get hands on and up close. While daily grooming is highly recommended, many people only do it before and after riding. However, your horse will really appreciate it if, on occasion, you retrieve her from the corral or pasture and just groom her, instead of always preparing her for work.
Curry Comb
Curry combs are typically made of stiff rubber or plastic, with a ring of pointed edges around the outside. They loosen the surface mud from your horse's coat. They come in round or oval shapes and are designed to be used in a gentle circular motion. Always begin your grooming routine with the curry comb, going over the horse's body to loosen the dirt. Then whisk away the loosened dirt with a body brush.
You can spend as much or as little as you want on horse brushes, as they come in all price ranges. But if you can afford it, buy good quality natural horsehair brushes from the start. Nice brushes make the task of grooming easier and much more pleasant for both you and the horse.
Body Brush
A body brush is made of somewhat stiff fibers designed to really get down to the skin and brush dirt to the surface. Be careful not to get a brush with bristles that are too stiff, as you may inadvertently cause your horse discomfort. After all, we're talking about an animal with skin sensitive enough to feel a fly land on its butt, so imagine how a really stiff brush feels! You certainly don't want your horse to learn to resent grooming out of discomfort. Instead, get a brush that's stiff but still flexible, and learn to use a flick of your wrist to get that loose dirt to the surface.
Finishing Brush
This type of brush is the last you'll use in your grooming routine. That's why it's called a finishing brush. It is very soft and used to brush away the last remnants of loosened dirt while leaving a polished shine to your horse's coat.
Face Brush
Brushes for the face are also very soft and come in different sizes. You will want a fairly small one to do the delicate areas around your horse's nose, eyes, and ears. Avoid using a brush with stiffer bristles on the face, as the skin here is quite thin and delicate.
Mane/Tail Brushes
Mane and tail hair grows slowly, so you should be careful to pull out as little as possible. If the mane or tail becomes knotted, use your fingers to loosen the knots before you run a brush through the hair. You can also buy a style of comb with teeth that rotate to help untangle knotted hairs without pulling them out.
Simple hoof picks come as steel picks with vinyl-coated handles of differing colors. Also common are hoof picks in a pocketknife style that folds in half and is handy to carry in your pocket out on the trail. One particularly handy variety has a stiff brush on the other side of the hoof pick. The brush allows you to brush mud and dirt off the horse's hoof before picking it up and to brush off the remnants of what you pick out of the hoof.
Pick out your horse's hooves both before and after riding. Doing so before you ride allows you to pick out anything that might bother the horse's feet on the ride and perhaps cause him to go lame. Cleaning feet after riding allows you to inspect for and remove any stones or pieces of sticks or anything else that the horse may have picked up and gotten stuck in his hoof while on the ride. You don't want to put him away in his stall or pasture to stand all night with a rock in his shoe.
If you plan to show your horse, you will need clippers. Even if you don't plan to show, clippers are nice to have on hand to remove the shaggy hairs around the face and fetlocks and give your horse a neat, trimmed look. Also, if your horse is amenable to clippers, they are more efficient to use than scissors for trimming a bridle path behind the horse's ears.
Buy clippers intended for horses, not dog grooming. Clippers need to be sturdy and suitable for a horse's coat and mane hair. Keep extra blades handy, since clipping coarse horsehair dulls them fast. Most horses don't like the whirring sound of clippers, so get yours accustomed to the noise gradually. To do so, let your horse see and sniff them, check them out and feel them. Turn on the clippers and let the horse hear them from nearby. Talk quietly and reassuringly to the horse while the clippers whir. If the horse handles this well, she may be ready to feel them against the coat while they are on. At first, have your horse on a lead rope, not on crossties. You may even need an assistant to help hold the horse until she learns to stand still while being clipped. It also helps to use cordless clippers so that you can easily move around the horse and not worry about where the cord is.
Don't punish or reprimand the horse for moving away from the clippers at this stage. Simply take the clippers away when the horse stops moving to let him know that standing still is what you want.
You may choose to clip the winter coat on a performance horse to help him get less heated during winter workouts. A clipped coat is also easier to cool and dry out after a ride, which is why many people clip. Just remember that you're clipping off the horse's primary protection against the elements, so you may need to compensate for that lack by blanketing him for the rest of the season.
If it is too cold to bathe a horse, she probably needs a heavy blanket if she is clipped. A full-body clip in the northern climates in winter means heavy blanketing, indoors and out. Watch for sore and chafed areas where the blanket rubs the horse. Check the horse several times throughout the day to make sure the blanket isn't coming loose and posing a danger of entanglement.
Types of Clips
The level of clipping you choose depends on how hard and how often your horse will work in the winter, how cold the winters are in your area, how much blanketing you want to do, and how much you want your horse to go outside in the winter.
Trace clip: Just the areas on the lower part of the body from the middle of the side to the top of the legs are clipped.
Blanket clip: A blanketlike area of unclipped hair is left on the horse's back from the withers to the croup.
Hunter clip: The entire body is clipped except an outline of the saddle. (Set the saddle or saddle pad on the horse's back while clipping to serve as a template.)
Shedding Blades
If your horse grows a nice winter coat, you'll need a shedding blade in spring when that coat starts to shed. The traditional shedding blade comes as a long, thin metal blade with a leather handle on either end that can be folded and bent to form a loop. The blade is smooth on one edge and has small teeth on the other to get that loose hair out. A flat rubber mitten with little bumps on both sides helps lift mud and loose hair, and you can really scrub at the mud without hurting your horse.
Towels, Wipes, and Miscellaneous Items
Always have plenty of clean towels and washcloths around the barn. They are useful for any number of things, from grooming to first aid to cleaning tack. A roll of paper towels and moisturized hand wipes also come in handy.
Another handy item is a grooming apron, especially at horse shows. The apron protects your clothing from getting covered in horsehair, dust, and mud. One with pockets in front holds your brushes, hoof pick, or braiding equipment.
Vacuums and Blow Dryers
Yes, you can buy special vacuum cleaners for horses that suck mud, dirt, and shedding hair off the horse. You can also use the reverse end of the vacuum hose or a regular hair dryer to blow-dry the horse when he is wet. Of course, you have to get the horse accustomed to the sound and feel of these mechanical tools, just as you do with electric clippers. If you show your horse or have several horses to groom, these can be time-savers. Otherwise, elbow grease and good brushes do the trick just as well.
Bathing Items
Horses shouldn't be shampooed too often, although for the show ring, it's almost inevitable that they will be bathed regularly. Choose a product that's labeled and intended for use on horses. Some equine shampoos are moisturizing or conditioning, intended to make your horse's coat shine. Some are specifically antifungal. Others include fly-repellant products such as citronella. Shampoos also exist especially to clean and brighten gray and white horse coats. Rubber mitt-style brushes are great for shampooing. The rubber bumps give the coat a good scrubbing without harming the horse's sensitive skin.
Braiding Kit
The turnout tradition for many horse show classes requires you to braid your horse's mane in a certain style. The braiding style depends on the equitation discipline. In general, the more braids you put in a mane, the longer the neck appears to be. Just a few thick braids make the neck appear shorter and thicker. Mane braids can be left hanging, tucked up into themselves in neat little bobs, or looped into the next braid in chainlike links. Braided manes are often, but not always, accompanied by braided tails, which can be left in one thick long braid or woven into tight, smaller braids.
Braiding kits, available at most tack shops, typically include rubber bands, a three-pronged fork that splits the hair into three even sections for easier braiding, and instructions. Making nice-looking braids takes a lot of practice, so don't wait until the night before a show to try your hand at it the first time and expect good results.
What does hogging mean?
Hogging, also known as roaching, refers to a mane that has been completely shaved. Some gaited horses are shown with roached manes in certain horse show classes to accentuate the neck and topline.
Sweat Scrapers As the name implies, the sweat scraper scrapes excess sweat and moisture from the horse's coat after a ride or a bath so the hair can dry out faster. They come in numerous styles in plastic or aluminum.
