Show Grooming
The most important aspect of show grooming is that you have lots of time. I use from 4:00pm to 10:00pm the night before the show getting ready (which also includes packing up, and cleaning tack, but you guys have to do that too!).
I suggest starting preparation for the show a week in advance. Have your own essentials ready and at hand at that time.
My Essentials:
Spray bottle with laser sheen solution ready to go
Mane & Tail Shampoo
Mane & Tail Conditioner
Hoof dressing
Hoof polish
Corn starch
Baby oil
Braiding elastics and yarn to match your horse’s mane
Quic Braid
Sharp blunt ended scissors
Apple cider vinegar
Hoof pick with hoof brush
Rubber curry
Natural bristled dandy and body brushes
Rubber hand mitt (with those little nobs)
Small mane comb
Hair clips
Well-fitted sheet with leg straps
Lycra hood
Tail bag
Electric clippers
Disposable razor
Clean rag(s)
Small pail of water or a spray bottle with water
Clean sponge
Pull through
Yarn ripper
You can make do without some of my suggestions, but you’ll end up with more work and perhaps a less quality turnout. Some things you can make yourself like the tail bag, and even the lycra hood if you’re good with your hands. The following are the steps I go through to produce an attractive appearance on my horse at a show.
1) Have all essentials ready and refilled/replaced as needed.
2) About a week before the show begin pulling horse’s mane to the corrrect thickness for braiding, a little bit after each ride. Pour a little linement along the section of the mane you’ll be pulling (full strength) and rub it into the roots. Wrap a few strands of the long hairs underneath around the mane comb twice and give a good pull. Repeat as needed.
3) If you need to shorten the mane (because pulling doesn’t shorten the mane no-matter what the people tell you; it thins it out) make sure it’s free from knots and tangles. Then take a good pair of scissors and hold them perpendicular to the crest ; paralell to the mane hairs if they’re hanging down straight. Let’s say you want to shorten the mane one inch, take the end of the scissors ¾” to 1” into the ends of the mane. Snip at the mane, beginning at the head, making sure your scissors and mane hairs stay paralell to each other. Work your way down the mane, be sure to check that you aren’t cutting more than one inch into the mane. Once you reach the withers, step back and take a look. Does it seem longer in some places than in others? That’s probably because your mane doesn’t follow the shape of the neck, make sure the length you want is the same at the head and middle of the neck (but allow the mane to taper toward the withers). If the mane is basically the same length and shape, Brush it out again and go back and snip the little hairs that you might have missed.
4) A day or two before the show, I trim the horse. This includes the legs, ears, muzzle, bridle path, and jowl area. If you’re conservative about clipping, you can just trim the pasterns and bridle path. But if you want a trimmer and more attractive appearance, I suggest doing around the others. For the legs, you can trim from below the knee to the hoof, trimming the hair around the cornet band finishes the appearance. Just be careful when trimming white hair, it’s coarser and if you go too deep your horse will have pink legs! The bridle path is generally the length of the horse’s ear, longer will look out of place (unless you have an arab or breed/disipline that calls for longer bridle paths) but shorter is fine, as long as it’s wide enough to comfortably place the bridle or halter crown. Next comes the chin/jowl area underneath the horse’s head. You generally just have to sweep the clippers in the grouve to trim those long hairs. When you clip the horse’s muzzle be careful he’s standing quietly and that he’s not moving around (or else you’ll find it very difficult and he may get a not-so-nice jab with the clipper baldes in the nose). After you clip the muzzle you’ll probably find the hairs aren’t comepletely shaved off, so take a disposable razor and go over the muzzle (no you don’t need shaving cream). And last but not least, trim those ears. However do not cut the hair inside the ears. Gentle trim the hairs sticking out of the ear, and trim around the edge of the ear to make the horse more appealing.
5) The day before the show is the most work. The first thing you’ll have to do is bathe the horse (some people like to do it a couple days before the show, but I find they get dirty and dusty again). If you have hot water at the barn, you’re lucky. For the rest of us, you’ll have to get three or four buckets of warm water from the house or use a bucket heater. On hot days I’ll generally ride the horse first then bathe, this way you can use the hose to get them wet. But before you wet the horse, have all of your things for bathing (shampoo, conditioner, buckets with warm water, rubber grooming mitt, spray on conditioner, sweat scraper, towels, and a cooler/sweat sheet) ready. Tie your horse safely with a safety knot, panic snaps, and/or thread some yarn through the halter and then clip the lead/tie through the yarn.
6) Get your horse wet on one side (make sure the water gets right down in the hair), put a good blob of shampoo in your hand or rubber grooming mitt and spread through the coat on that side. Make sure to scrub the dirty areas including chest, between legs, saddle & girth area, belly (you’d be surprised how dirty the water is when you do their belly), and top of hindquarters (where all that dust like to live). Wet the other side of the horse and repeat scrubbing. Now get that mane good and soaked, right to the roots. Put a small amount of shampoo in your hand and spread it along the crest (a little goes a long way on the mane), then massage it into the mane and give the roots a good scrub. After you’re satisfied that the body and mane is clean, rinse thoroughly. If you think the shampoo is rinsed out check with your sweat scraper (draw it along the body and if you see bubbles and white stuff you haven’t rinsed enough) over different parts of the body including neck, chest, withers, top of rump, belly and sides. If in doubt, rinse some more! You don’t want the horse to have soap residue, it looks bad and may irritate the skin. After rinsing, use the sweat scraper to get off the excess water and help the horse dry faster.
7) Now that the body is cleaned, move toward the legs. If they’re not already wet, dunk a sponge in your bucket and slather the legs. Take a small amount of shampoo and rub up, down and around the legs, the rubber-grooming mitt is really useful here. If your horse has white socks, you can use quic silver or a similar shampoo to whiten those whites. With the white markings, I like to scrub and rinse until you can see the pink of the skin underneath (it means it’s good and clean). Make sure to rinse the legs well, until they’re “squeaky-clean”.
8) The last part of you bathing is the tail, now before you go ahead and get it all wet, make sure it’s tangle free first! Otherwise you’ll end up with a worse mess. To wet the tail, dunk your sponge in one of your buckets of warm water and squeeze it out over the dock. Do this several times, separating the hairs to make sure the waters gets down to the roots, don’t forget the underside of the tail either. Once the dock is wet, take one of the buckets and dunk the skirt of the tail into it, this is the easiest way to get all of that hair wet. ? Now you’re ready for the shampoo, you can use any shampoo, some people like quic silver, others human dandruff shampoo if the horse has some dandruff. I’ve only ever used regular mane & tail shampoo so I can’t vouch for other kinds. Despite that, put a blob of shampoo in your palm, and massage it into the dock. Be gentle but firm, scrub those roots up, down, and around the dock, and don’t forget the end and underside of the dock! After scrubbing the dock, take a sponge and dunk it into a bucket but don’t ring it out, then slather the shampoo down the rest of the tail (skirt). Now take one of the buckets of warm water and slowly pour it down through the tail, from the top of the dock. If you can, separate the hairs with one hand to get the water down to the roots. If you can’t manage that by yourself, either get a helper, or use that sponge to get clean water down the tail. Repeat, repeat, and repeat again. The tail is the worst spot to get shampoo residue! If you don’t rinse enough, you’re lovely tail will be rubbed and broken because it’s itchy! Separate the hairs to check for the shmpoo, if the hair is squeaky-clean, you should be okay. Now get out your conditioner, and massage a good amount of it through the tail (unless you’re hoping to braid it for the show, then just condition the skirt).
9) Now place a cooler or sweat sheet on your horse, depending on the temperature. Walk your horse around, standing in the warm sun sure helps, but don’t forget to switch sides either. Once your horse is generally dry take him to your grooming spot that has plenty of light to see well. If the horse’s mane is still wet rub a towel through it to pick up some of the moisture. You can use a towel to gently press the water out of the tail, no rubbing or stripping. The other area you can use the towel on is the legs, they’re generally the last to dry, so rub them especially at the fetlock and heels.
10) Get out your braiding stuff (quic braid, yarn, elastics, pull through, mane comb, water spray bottle, yarn ripper, and scissors) and place it in a convenient spot. Comb the mane onto one side (generally the right side for english horses) and get out the knots and snarls starting from the bottom of the mane and working up.
11) Once it’s tangle free, spray about a quarter of the mane with quic braid, rub it through with your fingers, then section off the mane with your elastics. Try to make the sections the same thickness rather than spaced evenly, place the elastics up near the crest and tight enough to keep from falling out. Repeat with the rest of the mane. Once this is done take a step back and look to see if they’re the same thickness throughout. If not fiddle around until they are.
12) Then you’ll have to cut the yarn to the right length. Hold one end of the yarn with your hand, between your thumb and pointer finger, and wrap the yarn down to hook around your elbow and back between your thumb and pointer finger. Do this as many times as you have mane sections, then cut the loops where they were placed between thumb and pointer finger. Now you have enough length of yarn, and as many as you need.
13) Now you can start braiding! ? Take out the first elastic closest to the horse’s head, spray a touch more quic braid onto the section to smooth out stray hairs. Take one length of yarn and place the middle underneath the section, as close to the crest as possible, letting the ends hang down to either side. Now separate the section of mane into three equal parts, incorporating the yarn to either side section. Now braid normally until you reach the bottom of the mane, wrap (a couple times)one side of the yarn around the end of the braid, then go the other way with the other side of yarn. Then tie the yarn together both in front and in the back of the braid. I like some added security so I wrap the elastic you took off the section around the bottom. Repeat all the way down the neck.
14) What about the forelock you say? Well, I like to braid that the morning of the show, it’s quick and easy, and we’ll get to that later ?
15) Now it’s time to pull the braids up. Get out your pull through, poke it down through the top of the braid, place the ends of the yarn through the little clasp, and pull it up through the top of the braid, but not so much the end comes right through the top of it.? Now take the two ends of the yarn, take one to either side and cross under the looped up braid, pull fairly snug. Now plump up the braid to your preferred shape, pressing your finger in the middle for the “dimple” of the braid. Tie a simple knot in the “dimple” and pull snug, cross behind the braid and tie again. Now snip the ends of the yarn, and voila! You have a finished braid. Repeat down the rest of the neck.
16) Your horse should be clean and dry now. Spray some conditioner on his coat, except the saddle/girth area, this will help keep him clean and if anything does happen to get on him it’ll come out more easily. To keep them that way you need to protect that careful grooming. Put your lycra hood, and a sheet on. Loosely braid the tail from below the tailbone, put an elastic on and place it in a tail bag (make sure it’s secure). If you find your horse’s sheet moves around (from previous experience) use elastic leg straps. Your horse may look a bit odd, but he’ll be sparkling in the morning! Some people like to place standing bandages on the horse’s legs to keep them clean from any manure or urine during the night, but I haven’t found this to be a problem. It probably depends on whether you’re horse is messy in the stall and the kind of bedding you have (again, use your past experiences).
17) Show day! Check on your horse and see if anything slipped during the night. Take of the sheet and either put on a clean one or shake and brush off the one the horse wore during the night Keep the lycra hood on, peek at the braids to see if they’re okay. Put your shipping boots on, and a tail wrap, and load the horse. To make a cleaner trailer place a bit of shavings on the floor.
18) At the show “undress” your horse and see how he looks. If a braid or two is out of place it shouldn’t take too long to fix it. Now you can braid that forelock (if you remembered your braiding stuff!). This time you need to do a french braid. Start at the top and incorporate the yarn the same way you did with the mane. Now instead of braiding normally, take pieces of the forelock from the sides and underneath as you continue braiding. When you reach the end, tie off the braid as usual, place the pull through down the forelock from the top, hook the yarn and pull through. Pull the braid through until the end of the braid reaches the top (but you can’t see it). Use the pull through to pull each end of yarn across the forelock braid, several times. The tie off the braid at the top a couple of times. Cut the yarn close, but make sure it won’t fall out, and you’re done!
19) To add the final touches to your turnout use the hoof conditioner on the hooves. You can go into the ring like this or, once the conditioner is dry, place a coat of hoof polish over it. This way the hoof will be more protected from the hoof polish. To make you’re horse’s markings stand out, use a bit cornstarch (after the hooves are dry please), rub into the leg whites, then get your horse to trot around a bit, to get the excess off. Then take a damp rag and trace the edges of the markings and wipe the hooves off. For face markings do the same thing, but don’t use as much. Again, trace the edges with a damp cloth.
20) For added sparkle, use some baby oil on the face, place a small amount in your hand and rub a bit on the horse’s muzzle, nose and chin. Then take a bit more and gently go around the eyes, and finally, take a bit and trace the edges of the ears and bridle path. After tacking up, spray some laser sheen on the coat and tail. And don’t forget that fly spray, a pretty horse still isn’t attractive if he’s swishing, stomping and shaking his head.
Good luck everyone! Hope this is some help to you!
The picture below is of Sarah at our first show. I must mention to you that it was my very first time braiding a horse, that's why the braids look a little weird! :) The other thing I don't like is the black hoof polish, I had to borrow some from a friend, I will never again put black hoof polish on a chestnut horse! Yuck. Other than that I think she looks pretty good (though her conformation has it's faults :) and I followed the above steps pretty well.
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Email: stephaniepower@hotmail.com
