Reasons for grooming

Horsemen agree that grooming is an important part of horse care, and proper grooming is essential for horses that are used in competition. Most recommend grooming a horse daily, although this is not always possible. However, regular grooming helps to ensure the horse is healthy and comfortable.

The main reasons for daily grooming include:

• Improved health of the skin and coat.
• Decreases the chance of various health problems such as thrush, scratches, and other skin problems.
• Cleans the horse, so chafing does not occur under areas of tack

Additional Grooming Tips

Look for cuts, heat, swelling, lameness, a change in temperament (such as depression) which could indicate the horse is sick.You can also look to see if the horse has loose or missing horseshoes.

When you groom your horse properly and with care it helps to form a relationship between horse and handler, which can carry over to other handling duties and riding.

Helpful TIPS

A full, flowing tail is sometimes difficult to achieve but here are some tips that might help.

When your horse's tail is full of shavings, you can hold the dock parallel to the ground and shake the tail with your other hand. This will cause most of the shavings to fall away. then take the equiloop and gently brush, removing the remaining shavings while preserving your horse's tail hairs.

• Your horses tail should be treated like you treat your own hair
• Never brush the horse's tail without first picking out the tangles by hand
• Brushing with a stiff brush breaks the hairs and pulls them out. When the tangles are removed use an equiloop brush and brush the tail gently starting with the bottom one-third and working upward