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How to Bath a horse

2K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  BayGirl102 
#1 ·
Hi I am new to the forum and have what is probably a very silly question. How do you properly bath a horse? I have always had dark horses that never seemed to get really dirty and hosing them off worked fine,but now I have a white horse (few spot appaloosa). He has dark skin but white hair. Anyway he gets filthy and I want to bath him but I am not sure how exactly. I have mane and tail shampoo and the same brand conditioner but not exactly sure how to go about it. Could someone please post the steps? I only have cold water if that makes a difference.
 
#2 ·
Depending on what soap you are using will depend on the steps. However most are straight foreword. I like to use a shampoo from calm coat. It smells like coco nut.

Rinse, let the water sit for a bit
Fill up a bucket with the soap and get lots of suds
Use a scrub brush and work in the suds from the bucket
Let sit for a bit, like 2 mins.
Rinse
Let dry
Spray with coat conditioner.

If he is still dirty you can use blue shampoo to get him white. It comes in both purple and blue and you do the same thing you would do to wash. Just make sure you dont leave it on to long or it will die the coat the color. Also dont use it much as it can dry out the coat.
 
#3 ·
Well, I'm pretty green but I've always done the hosing off thing on a daily-ish basis and fill baths less often. I have Mane & Tail as well and was told I shouldn't use shampoo more than 2-4 times per year. Not sure why but anyway... :) I have a Paint and he has a lot of white. He's a very dirty horse...if there's any way to get gross and dirty, he'll do it. LOL I hose him thoroughly daily. I use my fingers and/or a curry comb to "scrub" the dirtier spots. I also brush him daily which seems to help. :)
 
#5 ·
Here is my horse's normal bath:

Water 'em down.
Soap them up with our Cowboy Magic goodness.
Rinse and rinse and rinse.
Soap up their Manes and tails - and if you wish to get them entirely shiny, their body's too. With Cowboy Magic detangler and shine.
Walk 'em around in the sun to dry off warmly.

And then they are my pretty clean boys who will roll as soon as they get back home!!
 
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#8 ·
All we've ever done was hose the horse down, squirt soap on one side of them, scrub and rinse. Repeat for the other side. We've only put conditioner on their tails and mane but the same process, wet, conditioner and rinse.
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#10 · (Edited)
There are shampoos out there that are specific for coat colors; a good one I really like to get the white clean is called Quic Silver but as indicated, do not leave this on long. It is purple in color and can color the hair. If you use it, dilute it in a feed bucket full of water, use a sponge to get it on the coat, use a soft bristle curry or washing mitt to scrub and then rinse. Do one side of the horse at a time.

I have always had dark bays so use this on socks and such and have left it as long as a few minutes without any issues but have never used it on a mainly gray/white horse. When using it in a mane and/or tail, wash and rinse immediately..repeat if necessary. In that case I would use a regular shampoo first to get the mane/tail clean and then do another wash with the whitener to get it white. If you don't want to use an actual equine shampoo for the whitening, you can dilute a few drops of plain washing bluing in the shampoo water (as in put shampoo in a bucket, fill with water, add a few drops of the bluing and swish it around to dilute) of whatever you are using..do not use this directly (as in undiluted) on the white or you will get "ink" spots :) I always use a conditioner/detangler on the tail afterwards to help with, well, detangling and make it silky.

Unless the horse is very calm, do not use soap on the face. Use a wet sponge and go over several times to get the dirt out. If you use soap and can't get a good rinse you will leave a residue which can make some horses itchy.

Microtek has a nice line of shampoos as well from basic to medicated for things like fungus control.

As for Show Sheen, haven't used that stuff in years as it really does slick things up. I used to use it only below the hocks and knees to keep socks cleaner but otherwise left the rest of the body alone.
 
#11 ·
When I bath I typically just put the horse in cross-ties and use warm water to completely wet down the horse, then just use shampoo. For bathing the white horse (I leased a white horse when I was younger) the best shampoo that worked for me was "Miracle Coat Radiant White Brightening Horse Shampoo". It was hard to find sometimes but you can order it off the internet, which is what i did. And then I just used mane and tail conditioner! Then after you're all done scrubbing just use warm water and completely hose down the horse again (making sure to get ALL the soap. They get itchy :)"
 
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