Winter grooming tips?

We don't get much snow and when it does it melts and turns to mud
I try not to think about how dirty they get. If I don't think about it it isn't there right?


Sara- I love the rubbing alcohol in the water method. It would help make them dry very quickly so they're not standing in the cold all wet

Ahhh... So you guys deal with all winter what I deal with in the spring and fall? Big mud pit in the paddock and horses determined to prove that their actually pigs. Or possibly they're trying to camouflage themselves so I won't/can't ride them?

Well the rubbing alcohol method sounds great, I'm going to print it out for this spring...

Great tips- I'm just kind of lazy and brush out the mud where his tack goes, get the big chunks off of his legs and pick feet. The body stays pretty clean because he's blanketed in the rainy/cold weather. He rolls the second I turn him back out after a ride so there's no point in bathing or hot toweling and like someone else said, I don't own half that many towels!

Just a word of caution on the rubbing alcohol- that is what we use in the hospital to cool animals with very high fevers so it is very cooling. If you're using this when it is cold out, make sure to dry them down and put on a blanket/cooler afterward so you don't chill them too much.

I will give a sponge bath if necessary after a hard work out...otherwise, I just brush and curry as much out as I can. We don't have too much mud here to speak of yet, so hopefully it will stay that way...although the dust they acquire from constantly rolling in sand is annoying at best!

Of course, here in the desert, there are still days in the winter that I could safely bathe; I'd just blanket till they are dry.

Vacuuming them to get dust out of the coat, any kind of spot remover (cowboy magic works well) for light colored horses or white markings, warm damp towel lightly on the coat just to get surface dust off.

I've never noticed any great "cleaning" power with rubbing alcohol. Spot removers work much better in my experience (and believe me, I've tried everything. I have a horse with a white nose who gets alfalfa, it's pain getting her nose clean so she's presentable in the show ring).

We don't bathe in the winter(we don't want any sick horses) but we use this stuff called WOW it's a spot cleaner and works great.

I would suggest a warm sponge bath or a waterless shampoo. And a lot of arm grease.