Quest For Shineyness!

Okay so the downside of having my horse off for a month (due to abscess, I'll show you pics if you want cause its KNARLEY!) is I can't ride. Poo. HOWEVER! Just because I can't get her riding trained for showing doesn't mean I can't practice grooming type stuffs! So I have decided that I am going to practice getting Gypsy prettyfied for shows! My main goals are to: 1.) Learn how to french braid her tail 2.) How to band her mane for Western pleasure 3.) Learn how to braid her main for English 3.) How to do a running braid (Ironically I can do it on my own hair when I can't even see it but hers is way harder!!) 4.) Learn how to do Quarter Marks 5.) Get her as freakin' shiney as possible (Like I want people to be like, "OH MAH GAWD I'VE JUST BEEN BLINDED BY THE SHINEYNESS OF THAT MARE!!! ") 6.) Learn how to body clip (not sure if I want to do this because she's a bay roan so I don't know how it would look.) If anyone could give me any advice on any of these I would be ever so grateful! I'm going to try some braiding tonight (I'll post pics!) but I'm most worried about 5.). She's a bay roan and through proper nutrition and supplements I've gotten her to moderate shiney but I would like IN YOUR FACE SHINEY for shows. Thanks everyone in advance!

If you can get a bucket of nu-image, it made my horse super super shiny. And it's a pretty cheap feed through supplement. I think like 10 dollars for 80 days.

True shineyness comes from the inside, a healthy, fit horse should have a nice natural shine to their coat. You can enhance the natural shine with a good everyday grooming routine and elbow grease!

The rubber curry comb is one of the most important grooming tools to help bring out the natural oils in the skin. Spending lots of time grooming with a rubber curry will stimulate the oils glands in the horses skin and loosen the dead skin cells and dust from the skin and bring them up to the surface of the coat to be brushed away. It is also a nice massage for the muscles.

After using the rubber curry comb, take a stiff or medium natural fibre dandy brush and flick all the dead skin cells and hair, dust and dirt up and out of your horse's coat. Use a short flicking motion with each brush stroke. Remember to clean the dandy brush every couple of stokes with a metal curry, swipe it across the metal curry and knock the dirt out of the curry. This helps to keep the brush from spreading the dirt back into the coat. This step is mainly to rid the coat of the debris the rubber curry brought up. Use either a stiff or a medium dandy, depending on your horse's preference, some are more sensitive and dislike a very stiff brush. I like grey english fibre brushes for thicker winter coats or horses that aren't too sensitive and tampico fibres for finer coats and more sensitive horses.

Next step is to use a soft body brush, I like the oval shape with hand strap styles with natural bristles. Horsehair bristles are a good choice. Use long firm strokes and remember to swipe the brush across the metal curry every couple of stokes. This brush will help to distribute the horse's natural skin oils throughout the coat and remove the smaller dirt particles and dust that the dandy brush didn't get.

The final step, would be to use a very soft goat hair body brush or my favourite, a real sheepskin mitt and use long firm strokes to really polish the coat, spreading the horse's skin oils over the hairs and removing the final last traces of fine dust.

If you use this grooming routine everyday and spend the majority of the grooming time massaging with the rubber curry and polishing with the sheepskin mitt, you should start to notice your horse becoming shinier and shinier. Just remember not to bath your horse often, it strips the natural oils from the coat. If it is hot and your horse gets sweaty it is best to just rinse the coat with plain water to remove the sweat, this also helps prevent sun bleaching, because if you leave the sweat it can bleach the coat in the sunshine, also makes the horse itchy and rub which isn't good for the coat.

A regular good grooming routine using lots of elbow grease will really help to enhance the shine of a healthy, fit horse.

I second the rubbing and buffing. Use a soft cloth/mitt and it works really well along with flaxseed/flaxseed supplement for a shine that comes from the inside.

I was teaching a 10 yr old gal how better to ride her welsh. She decided she wanted to go to the local fair horseshow. We had only 10 days. Both she and her sisiter set to grooming the pony very thorougly each day. Come the morning of the fair her red coat was incredible. It was a real credit to those two little girls as the pony lived outside, not a well bedded stall. Many bystanders commented on how beautiful the pony's coat was. I had told the girls that they had to groom with one arm until it felt like it could do no more, then switch to the other. They took that to heart and it paid off.

I am certain I am going to get some feedback on this, but I do have a strong constitution so here goes. Back along time ago my family had a friend who had Appaloosa show horses. His one well-known Appaloosa Stallion, Colida was the 16th National Champion Appaloosa at Halter and is in the Appaloosa Hall of Fame. Colida got in his daily feed rations a beaten raw egg in his morning feeding. Colida was a copper colored horse with a hip blanket that even glowed. I have on occasion found out that a few other show bred horses have a raw egg added to their feeding program. Colida lived to the ripe old age of 26.

omg! We have one at the barn related to him...grandhorsey(I presume) at our barn! Colida Silverdollar... She is a 14.1 hh leopard. Registered with Appaloosa Horse Club, foal date 3/28/02, Sire:Near Gold Colida, Dam: Fancy K Bar...
She is like the cutest appy I know. She is for sale, and I wish I could buy her, but it wouldn't be fair to my horse.


This is not my shiny horse though... here he is (the bay quarter horse thing). This is 2 weeks after starting Nu-Image. He is even more shiny now if that is possible.

Lots of rubbing with a good rag works wonders. Also a little trick that I learned that works great is going to your local drug store in the ethnic hair section and pick up some of the grease that they use. Rub that on your horse. The stuff is amazing. My trainer did that for a grey horse who she had showing in Scottsdale and that horse SHINED!

For the shine make sure you are feeding him well. A horse will shine from the inside out. Oils are particularly good to feed them. Mitavite performer 3 oil is good so is ravets grand prix oil

Also to boost up her shine go to your saddlery store and get a shine spray. Rug her overnight and then spray again in the morning. Just don't spray it in her mane or tail UNLESS you are leaving them out. If you do- all I can say is have fun braiding. You may be there till christmas

My horse without being washed or prepared
http://www.horseforum.com/members/21...-010-21915.jpg

He was actually dirty in this pic ,amazing what a good brush can do http://www.horseforum.com/members/21...lour-26732.jpg