I have a coloured horse (Silver Dapple) so he has to be nice and dark
1)So, I wash him with a mix I make, of shampoos for white horses and bay horses - works really well to bring out his dorsal stripe, black points etc.
2) While his body is drying, I scrub his legs (4 white socks/stockings) with whitening shampoo
3)When his body is dry, and his legs are drying, I give him a really good brush (with clean brushes, otherwise it was a waste of water washing him)
4)When his legs are dry, I give them a damn good brush, rub in some bi-carb soda, and bandage.
5)Mane gets braided. (cut before he gets washed) I always do the plaits the night before, and roll them at the show, otherwise his rug just rubs them out. And it's quicker re-doing plaits, instead of buttons and plaits.
6) While all this brushing etc is going on, his tail is dampened and wrapped with a tail bandage.
7) Nice clean rug gets put on. Cotton for summer, duvet for winter, and various canvas ones for autumn. (Along with slinky)
8) Turned out with hard feed (LUcerne and oaten chaff, BOSS, MSM, Ranvet) and extra oaten hay.
I'm sure I've left something out, but I haven't shown for a while, so I wont remember for a little while
I have a show in a couple of weeks, so if I do anything else, I'll post it