Good horse grooming helps keep horses’ bodies healthy and promotes bonding between horse and handler. In this section we collect articles on grooming, and mane and tail care.
A smartly trimmed mane can highlight a strong neckline or even help coverup confirmation flaws. While in the past, horse owners were limited to painstakingly pulling individual hairs to tidy up a mane, today, a selection of horse mane grooming tools are available that make it easy and quick to trim a horse mane. In …
Exposure to the sun has a tendency to cause dark-colored horse coats to naturally bleach during the spring and summer. Sun damage can happen to any color of horse; however, it tends to be more pronounced on black, bay, and dark grey horses, turning patches of their coats from cobalt black to a rusty faded …
Horse grooming can be one of the most enjoyable or the most frustrating parts of horse ownership, depending on your approach to the practice. While many view horse grooming as a chore, I and many of my students appreciate how grooming horses can facilitate a deeper bond between horse and handler. Grooming not only makes …
Roached manes for horses (called “hogged manes” in some parts of the world) are cyclically popular. They fall out of fashion for a few years and then eventually return for a bit. A trend of roached horse manes never seems to fully catch on- probably because so many horse owners are emotionally attached to …
Grooming has many benefits for horses – and even for humans since grooming horses can help promote a bond between horses and humans. Good grooming can only be done if your grooming tools are effective. When we go too long between cleaning horse brushes, their effectiveness is reduced. Why? Well, when we brush horses’ …
Many people are surprised to learn that horses, like people, can sunburn. Despite the fact that many horse breeds evolved in hot, sunny regions it is still possible for horses to sunburn as they graze in sunny pastures during the spring and summer. Sunburn is also possible- potentially even more likely, for horses when they …
A four-strand braid is a simple braiding style- useful for horse manes, human hair, and even the occasional friendship bracelet! It adds a bit of an extra challenge in the braiding process that pays off with lots of extra “wows” on the finished result! Here’s a guide to navigating this post. Here, you’ll find: A …
With a few exceptions, it’s ok to use human shampoo for horses. For the decade that I owned a tack store in Missouri, I received countless odd questions on a regular basis. One of the most common, that my interest in selling horse products meant couldn’t answer with complete honesty while I was a seller …
Fake Tails- are they Really “a thing”? Horse shows have always been something of a beauty pageant for both horses and riders, but in the late 20th century it became increasingly common to improve the length and fullness of a horse’s tail by using what’s referred to as a “false tail” or “tail extension.” …
Sometimes you just need to get your horse clean – and fast! Whether it’s a pony that rolled in the mud just before loading up for a horse show or a last-minute potential buyer dropping by to see a horse that you have for sale, sometimes you need to get a horse or pony clean when …