If you are lucky enough to own a horse or to interact with these magnificent creatures regularly, you surely know that grooming them is an essential part of their care routine. This seemingly ordinary task is vital, and successfully incorporating it into your care routine is crucial. If you want to know why grooming is so important and how to perfect your horse’s care routine, the article below was written just for you.
Why is grooming your horse so important?
There are many advantages to properly grooming your horse that benefit both you and your horse. By making these grooming sessions part of your routine you will be able to:
Keep your horse’s mane and tail clean and healthy
Grooming is first an act of maintaining your horse in a state of good hygiene and cleanliness. The aesthetic benefits of this practice are intertwined with health benefits as a thick shiny coat will not only look good but will protect your horse as well.
By brushing your horse, you will remove dirt, dust, and any particles from its coat and mane. The circular motions of the brush will stimulate blood flow, encourage hair growth, and evenly spread any natural oils, leaving its coat beautifully clean, and shiny.
Maintain your horse’s safety and well being
In addition to the importance of maintaining your horse’s coat in a hygienic condition to prevent infections and rashes, grooming is important to prevent injuries.
Placing a saddle on an unkempt coat, filled with particles, tangles, and debris, may cause irritations, chafing, and even cuts.
If your horse spends a lot of time in the stable, or just came back from a long ride, such grooming sessions are essential to treat or prevent muscle strains as the repetitive circular strokes are basically a massage treatment.
Strengthen the connection between you and your horse
Touch is the first language we learn, and for many creatures, the warm embrace, or gentle strokes of a mother are the first meaningful encounter in the world. Therefore, it is easy to see why grooming a horse helps build a special bond with it.
Regular grooming sessions help build a sense of connection and trust between you and the horse in your care. By grooming it, you get to know your horse better, its preferences, sensitivities, and all the small traits that can be discovered solely by attentive regular caring.
Examine your horse’s physical condition
Many of us carry a strong and special connection with our horses. Some of us even feel that we can communicate with it and completely understand it. While this is surely true to some extent, sadly sometimes it is not enough.
To make sure that your horse is in fact in a good state, and nothing is troubling it, additional steps must be taken. Grooming your horse routinely will help you detect any change in its condition that might need to be addressed.
In such grooming sessions, you will notice any changes in weight, injuries, lumps, or sensitive spots that might indicate that something is wrong, and a vet checkup is due.
Beautiful and healthy horse mane
When and how should you groom your horse?
The frequency of your horse’s grooming sessions and the techniques applied in them depend on several things. The most common grooming session, or “regular grooming”, is carried out before and after each ride and includes the following steps:
Hoof picking and hoof dressing
Clean your horse’s hooves to remove dirt, pebbles, or any small particles that might be accumulated in them. Finish off by applying hoof dressing to protect and nourish your horse’s hooves.
Curry comb
One of the most useful grooming tools is the curry comb. Using this tool, brush in circular motions and remove shedding, dust, dirt, massage muscles, and stimulate blood flow.
Body brush
A hard bristle brush, also known as a dandy brush, removes all the particles the curry comb brought to the surface of the coat but didn’t pick up. Use short motions aligned with the growth direction.
Soft brush
This gentle brush can be used on delicate sensitive areas such as the face and legs. It is also used on the body as it makes the coat nice and shiny.
Gentle sponge
Use a gentle sponge or cloth to wipe off the face focusing on the eye area. Use a separate sponge to gently wipe under the tail.
Detangle mane and tail
Use a wide-tooth comb or brush. A quality product can be used in this step for detangling. Our PetEx’s detangling spray with rosemary and ginger, for example, is alcohol-free and based on high-quality Dead Sea minerals and plant extracts.
Pest repellent spray
As you might know, sand flies, fleas, & ticks are not just an annoying inconvenience, they can create actual damage as they can often spread infections and disease. For this reason, we developed a formulation (used in our Flies and Ticks Repellent Shampoo and our Horse Spray For Repelling Sand Flies, Fleas & Ticks) designed to repel these pests all while nursing your horse’s skin, coat, and mane.
Such grooming sessions are especially vital for horses kept in stables most of the day. As for horses who roam freely, you can groom them less often as their mutual grooming sessions keep their coat in mane in a good condition.
So, if you want to spend quality time with your horse and maintain its health and natural beauty, incorporate grooming sessions based on high-quality products designed to groom its mane, coat, and tail, keep it vital and healthy, and strengthen your special bond.
FAQ
Why is grooming your horse so important?
to keep your horse’s mane and tail clean and healthy, to examine your horse’s physical condition, to maintain your horse’s safety and well being and to strengthen the connection between you and your horse
When and how should you groom your horse?
The frequency of your horse’s grooming sessions and the techniques applied in them depend on several things. The most common grooming session, or “regular grooming”, is carried out before and after each ride
