Bathing & temperature

[LMS]

Ahhhh warm weather is finally here in Eastern Ontario:D Mother Nature finally got the memo & hopefully put away the nasty snow.

Tomorrow should be a balmy sunny 24C, great weather for bathing my mud puppies;)

I was wondering, what temperature do you bathe your horse in and what do you use: hose, buckets, cold/warm water, type of shampoo etc?

I wait until it's above 20C, use warm water & buckets (since I don't have a way to get it from a hose yet:rolleyes: ), and just use a regular horse shampoo. Last year I tried some of my own conditioner on Ariel's mane: that's all I had & she was going to the vet university, her mane was long so... why not?

So what do you do & use?:)

[Dreamchaser]

I like for it to be over 20C just like you, but have done it in a bit colder temperatures (10C), but it was done quickly and I put a cooler over Dolly when I was done.

I prefer to use a hose when I bathe, but unfortunately my barn does not have a hose available to use for bathing, so instead I just sick to buckets and sponges.

The people at the barn think of me as the bathing professional because I do it so much and own (and tried) so many products. Personally, my absolute favourite horse shampoo is the shampoo by Lucky Braids. I love it because it washes out so very quickly and it leaves the coat shiny and soft, not dry like many products will make the coat. Since I have a very white horse, I use Dawn dishsoap before shows to get her whites extra white, but during a normal bath I will just use White 'n Bright as it is more Ph balanced and better for her coat than the Dawn. I also put leave in conditioner onto her tail (just some human leave in conditioner).

[*Grey Gelding*]

yeah i tend to bath when its around 15+ and usually just use cold water out the hose and warm water for his tail, as hes a grey and like his tail to be extra shiny :)
Though a good tip for everyone is a savlon bath?!!!!!! :D
If its cold and your going to a show that day/next day then simply get some savlon, dilute a tiny amount of it in water! Get a damp sponge and sponge the horse down with the savlon solution, try not to get them too wet!
Leave to dry completely and brush off :) works a treat! cleaned my grey up nicely for summer shows!
Laura x

[LMS]

Oooooh nice suggestions guys:)

Anyone else?

[Keket]

I prefer the temperature to be around 20C or higher, but will do tails only at a lower temperature. We've got high winds here, so a wet horse will get chilled fast if it's not warm out. Coquette will probably be getting a bath tomorrow as they're calling for 21+ and sunny. :D

I like using a hose. I'll bath tails and manes with a bucket, but for full baths I prefer a hose with a spray attachment. Coquette loves the hose. She's actually trained herself to drink from it. It's just so much easier.

I like Mane and Tail Shampoo, but can't stand their conditioner (too goopy). I'm switching this year to Dream Coat's Fiery Chestnut shampoo (for as long as one bottle will last me, then it'll be MTG's for Reds shampoo). Probably White N Brite for her one sock. And for super shiney and smooth manes and tails, it's World Champion Pepi. It's a spray and smells great and is a great conditioner. We go through tons of the stuff. :)

[Jessey]

I try to only bath when it in the 20's, normally luke warm water in a bucket so they stay warm during the scrubbing phase, then I rinse with the hose and pop a clean rug on to warm them up again, only when it gets really hot will I use a hose from the start :p
I love the FlyAway colour enhansing shampoo, a bottle lasts ages and it makes my bay look like velvet, my chestnut firey and their white bits bright :D and keeps the bugs off too :p

[LMS]

Hmmm I wonder if we have Flyaway shampoo here (or something like it), sounds like a "multitask" shampoo;)

[Pink's lady]

I only bath when they're going to a show so temperature doesn't really come into it (although if it's really cold they just get a good groom and white legs washed).

Unless it's warm enough to go about in a T-Shirt ( I don't do this 'degrees' nosense:o) they get worked really hard before hand so they're hot and sweaty then have the hose turned on them (we don't have hot water) so the water warms up almost instantly - by the time you scrap it off it's hot. Then they're rugged up and walked about to cool down before being bundled into a fullneck lightweight rug and warned not to go near, or even think about, any patch of mud!

[KateWooten]

I'm with Pink ( once again :rolleyes: ) ... I can't do temperatures .... but if it's shorts and T-shirts, I'm prepared to wash the grey thing, otherwise he can stay happily muddy and stinky.

I wash him with whatever's to hand - but there's usually a bunch of expensive potions I've spent the winter accumulating via catalogues that come through the mail on cold dreary days dreaming of summer hose fights. Joseph loves to play in the water, so getting all wet and sloppy with him is fun. The girls are all fine with it too .... and washing a brown horse is nice .... but there's nothing that can quite match up to running that hose down a dirty grey butt and ending up with a gleaming white, shiny dappled thing with a lovely swishy tail.

I do admit to chlorox bleach on the swishy tail .... which extends bath time by about an hour as I have to rinse it so many times afterwards - but it really makes a difference, and for days after he parades his gleaming banner about and the girls all hide theirs between their legs in shame (all the girls have black so-so, whatever, tails, only joseph has the streaming white silky banner :) )

[holiday]

I only bath for shows, but dont worry what the temperature is like, i always bath for hunting as well, so it is usually cold then, i wash them in warm water and use fairy liquid then hose them down from the tap. If its really cold i do them quickly and put on an extra rug to keep them warm and help dry them quickly. My view is if they were out in the field and it was raining they would get "cold water" on them!!!!!!!!

When its lovely warm sunny weather i will take my time and give them a good bath, but all my horses get the hose over them after exercise so they are quite used to it whatever the weather, if they are hot/sweaty, especially in the winter as they have rugs on and i dont like them to be dirty underneath.

[angelfben]

We have a purpose built wash room complete with warm shower etc.... but I'm so lazy I have to admit mine more often than not just gets hosed off :o But I save bathtime for those really toasty hot weekends anyway, then he just gets flung in the field to dry off in the sun (and roll usually :rolleyes: ).

[Daffy Dilly]

I also only bath when necessary, as he ends up with two jersey coolers and a hw stable rug on afterwards to stop him shivering, even in the height of summer. :rolleyes:

[Konch]

like the idea of detol.

will a vinegar rinse help with flys too?