| Here's what's
I do for a spit & polish (but skinny) horse |
| General Brushing: I
use the rubber curry in one hand and body brush in the other. I rub the curry in circular
motion starting at his neck and then brush away extra hair and dander that come up with
every scrub. For the next pass, I use a softer, finer finishing brush and go over body and
face a second time. If it's summer, I spray him with fly spray. |
 Hooves: I pick out Traverse’s hooves very carefully, you have
to be sure to get into the "cleft of the frog" (that’s the groove in
T’s foot) and get all gravel, dirt, and wet manure out of hoofs. This is THE MOST
important grooming thing I do. If his feet get dirty and yukky, he could get a FUNGUS in
there (I’m not making this up!). Then I use hoof dressing and spread it all over the
hoof. Like the old saying goes, "No hoof, no horse." |
Mane and Tail: I brush T’s mane with a
brush I bought at the drug store. To make it easier to brush, I spray "Show
Sheen" on his mane. It's kind of like a leave-in conditioner.
To shorten his mane the old fashioned way, you're supposed to "pull" it. That
means you yank out the long hairs until the mane is shorter. Mane pulling is really hard
and a lot of horses don't like it (duh, would you?) But it gives a really natural look. If
you just cut across the mane with scissors it looks really dorky.Luckily, there's this
new gadget on the market. It looks like a comb but it has these blades that come out
between the teeth of the comb. You squeeze the handle and it cuts the mane. So just like
with pulling, you grab the longer hairs and back-comb the other hair out of the way. Then
you hold the comb at the base of the long hairs, squeeze the handle and viola! (You have
to do this all up and down the mane).
For T's tail, I spray on the conditioner to make it easier to brush, then brush through
it. |
| Trimming: I trim T’s whiskers around
nose and mouth with regular scissors. If I really want to get into it, I get out my
plug-in clippers. I also trim hair which sticks out of his ears, but I don’t go into
his ears (isn’t there something about not putting anything in there smaller than an
elbow?). Dave said horses need the hair inside their ears for protection against gnats and
other small insects. I also trim off his extra hair around his fetlocks with the scissors
too. |
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