Cool Grooming tips???

[Gracie]

Does anyone have any really cool grooming tips...
Any at all? I like learning new things espically about grooming! I know the basics but I was interested in seeing what people do or little tricks they use to make their horse look the best!! ANY ARE WELCOME!! Thanks guys!! :)

[Showjumper]

I use a grooma on Jake – it’s really strange – flexible rubbery and textured. It gets rid of mud and sweat marks with no trouble. Also, when I’m grooming without a grooma, I’ll brush the hair vigorously in the wrong direction to get rid of all the grime, then brush it back down again. I’ll do this several times to get rid of all icky marks. Always use a body brush on the mane and tail before the mane comb as it gets rid of knots a lot easier and doesn’t tear out too many hairs. If I’m preparing for a show, I use chalk on the horse’s white bits (rub it in, brush it out!) and I hairspray on the plaits to keep them in place. I never use hoof oil coz it dries the hooves out, so I use Keratex instead, which gives the same shine but adds moisture and prevents cracking.

[floppy]

when hroses are caked in mud i use this curry comb type thing...it has a hand and that there are about 3 metal things with blunt serrated edges all round inside one another and as you brush it accross the horses body it removes all the mud effortlessly its semi flexible too unlike a curry comb..i cant really explain it any better but it works wonders!!!! that i havent seen in any tack shop in england or in any catalogues from england (i live in germany and this tool is an important tool in everyoens grooming kit here)
also when brushing a hroses mail and tail i find it alot easier to use a noraml hair brush/comb for humans...you know those cheap plastic jobbies they dont have bristles..its a brush but all plastic an each end of the plactis 'bristles' has a little round bal on it??? oh im terrible at explaining things!!! hehe...anwyay those work alot better to brush the horses hair instead of those plastic curry combs!!
and my final tip that someone told me about not long ago was if you horse has odd looking messy hair at the top of his/her tail then to help bring it back to noral you shoud encourage the hairs down with baby oil! she did this with a 2 yr old that had got a cut on the tail and had to have sno hair shaved away and when the hair started to gorw back it grew funny and in all directions so she used baby oil to tame it down to look noraml liek the rest of the hair and now the tail loos neat and normal!!

[floppy]

yesterday a friends horse was caked in mud...she was trying to remove the mud with a metal curry comb and it was tkaing her forever so i lent her the nifty tool i use which is also used to remove dead hair too and literally 5-10mins later my friends horse looks like a horse againa nd ot a mud puddle...and my friend said it wa smuch easier and quicker to get rid of the mud...
I still dont knwo what you call it inengland because i havent found it in anay horse catalogue other than my german ones...so if you are interested and want to knwo what this thing looks like let me know and i can scan it and sned it to you!:)

[Laya]

I find that whenever my horse is caked in mud, I usually curry him vigorously with a curry comb or Cowboy brush (only with long winter hair) and brush against the hair (like stated before) then brush the hair back down.

Instead of pulling a horse's mane by hand, use a pulling comb - or even better, a razor blade from a clipper. Select the hair you'd like to take off and pull downwards and towards you to ease the hair off. This is much faster and a relief on sore fingers. You can also buy a Grooma Master (which is a comb used for pulling manes at the touch of a button). However, I haven't ever used one of these before.

For bathing in winter, buy two bottles of Leave In Shampoo and spray an area of twelve square inches. Use a clean terry cloth to scrub vigorously against the lay of the hair, real vigorously so the friction will clean the hair and get down to the skin. Keep misting and scrubbing then go over the coat with a clean brush to smooth down the coat.

As another option, hot toweling is always available. It's the same as the Leave In Shampoo, but you have to dunk the rag in a bucket of hot water and scrub against the lay of the hair.

(For more info, a recent Horse Illustrated magazine had the entire article.)

[Showjumper]

You are not meant to use a metal curry comb on the horse itself - it is used for cleaning the other brushes. I use a Grooma Masta on Jake's mane coz he's quite sensitive and it works well.

[Laya]

Is a Grooma Master easier and handier than a pulling comb or scissors? What's it like to use, what exactly does it do?

[Showjumper]

The Grooma Masta is simply a comb with a cool handle. When you pull the handle, a razor quickly snips the name off. What I do is I backcomb ordinarily until I’m left with straggly hair I want to remove, then I squeeze the handle, and bye bye unwaned hair. It’s much faster than using a pulling comb and more accurate than scissors. I definitely recommend them! I use scissors to trim his tail though! :)

[JackiAH]

My trainer showed me how to make a coat look really shiny, and all you need is a towel.

Groom the horse normally

Then take an ordinary towel and rub it vigorously (sp?) over the coat, and I mean alll over. This supposedly spreads the horse's natural skin oils into the coat and makes it look all prettyful!

I tried it on Pal and it didn't seem to work though, but then again, anyone who can make Pal look different from a wild mustang deserves a special award!!

Hope this helped!

[Allie]

there is no harm done by brushing with metal curry (talking about the round kind with the handle - sorry, bad description) as long as you only use it on the muscular parts of the body. Don't use it on the legs or head and you will be all right. They are reversible, with longer teeth for winter and shorter ones for winter. They work great for getting out dried on mud. For shedding any sort of rubber curry works wonderfully for getting hair and scurf out.

Allie

[Gracie]

Originally posted by floppy
yesterday a friends horse was caked in mud...she was trying to remove the mud with a metal curry comb and it was tkaing her forever so i lent her the nifty tool i use which is also used to remove dead hair too and literally 5-10mins later my friends horse looks like a horse againa nd ot a mud puddle...and my friend said it wa smuch easier and quicker to get rid of the mud...
I still dont knwo what you call it inengland because i havent found it in anay horse catalogue other than my german ones...so if you are interested and want to knwo what this thing looks like let me know and i can scan it and sned it to you!:)
Floopy I live in Canada!!! So can you tell me the name of the product? Thanks sooo MUCH !!! :)

[floppy]

gracie...I dont know many of the names of groomng tools in english but reading what allie posted i gues syou call it a round curry comb...its exactly how she described it. :)
ITs not harsh to use either because you dont need to use alot of pressure to get it to work!

[TWHfieldlvr]

You can use a rubber scrub pad and it attaches to a normal fitting on your garden hose. This works magnificant if your near a water supply and need to wash anyway! I found this at a Garden Ridge formally Southern States on the eastern seaboard!

[Edited by TWHfieldlvr on 11th Mar 2001 at 05:44 AM]

[fionahogg]

when we're getting Monty ready to compete somewhere we use a cloth soaked in really hot (but not so hot it will burn or cause discomfort) water, wringed out and then wiped over the coat. The heat helps to lift the grease; we then give him a good brush when he is dry (takes about 5mins) and the result is a clean and shiny horse! So much easier especially in winter when its too cold to bath. But it probably wouldn't work on an unclipped horse - too much hair to allow the heat to reach the skin and act on the 'buried' grease i'd imagine

[horselover]

A couple peoplementioned a metal curry- I got mynew country supply catalog last week and saw one in it. Went online and got a pictue at their website. here it is.

Ok- I tried this to check it and for some reason the link doesn't work. So I took it out. here's what you can do to see it.

Go to countrysupply.com and search for round metal curry comb. They have a picture and sell it for $2.95.

[Edited by horselover on 15th Mar 2001 at 12:42 AM]

[Allie]

here is a photo of a metal curry like I was talking about - it is called a "reversible spring curry comb" on this particular site...

http://www.riderswarehouse.com/8012.html

Allie

[JackiAH]

I read in this book (Pony Club Manual and several others) that one is not supposed to use the metal curry on a horse, ever. Is this true?

Quite confused,

Jacki

[Sue Carnell]

I know it as a 'mud buster'. A normal metal curry is probably best not used on the horse, unless he's very hairy and very muddy and then only on large muscle areas. It can be very sharp and is really meant for cleaning brushes. In Europe, the metal curries aren't always so sharp as British ones though.

Sue Carnell
sue@eclipse.co.uk

[floppy]

yup...a springy reveresible metal curry comb! quickests way to move the cake of your horse :)
jackiah...the springy one is ok to use on the horse directly because it isnt as harsh as a normal one...and you can use it ever so lightly and it still brings the mud off..its in the spring actoina d the person controling the tool!:)

[Allie]

The metal combs like I am talkig about are reversible - you pull out on the metal part and you can twist it around. One side has longer teeth for use in the winter on furry horse or just on really muddy ones. The shorter teeth work great for in the summer after a bath when you don't want them to roll - if you brush them pretty good with this it takes out the "itchy spots" and makes them less likely to roll. If your horse has really sensitive skin you might not want to use them, but it won't hurt most horses. I use them on my two part QH mares, and my friend uses them on her Arab. I don't use them a whole lot in the summer, mainly because they don't get muddy, just dusty. They work best for shedding and getting off dried mud. Some of the horse books that I have that are written in the UK show a different type of metal curry, kind of flat and rectangular (I have never seen these anywhere but in these books though) and they really are meant just for cleaning brushes and not for using on horses.

Allie

[Maci]

To reply to your question, no, riders are adviced not to curry with a metal curry comb, but I see no harm in it AS LONG as you don't use it on their face, legs, and use it gently on their body. Metal ones, I find, are much easier to remove the hair and caked on mud, and remove the excess hair left on the comb, but they hurt if you slam them around!

Hope This Clears It Up!
Maci :)