Natural homemade shampoo for horses?

[izzy18]

Bit of a long and slightly random question, so I hope someone can help!

I have a friend who moved to Ghana a couple of years ago. To cut a very long story short, she has ended up on the committee of a club over there that owns a couple of horses. I have no idea what type of horses they are, or what they are used for. There is a groom who looks after the horses, but my friend is responsible for getting him supplies when he asks for them, such as vet, feed, shampoo etc.

To clean the horses, the groom is currently using a very fruity and fragrant shower gel, which is not particularly helping as it seems to be attracting biting insects

My friend is looking for something to replace the shower gel, but there are no tack shops etc. around there, so she's looking for something natural that she could mix/use/prepare for bathing a horse. She says that in Ghana, there's a belief that the sweeter you smell, the cleaner you are, hence the tendency to use very fragrant products for people and animals Unscented products are very very difficult to get hold of over there, so she's struggling.

Cookies if you managed to get to the end of this post
If anyone has ideas about what could be used to bathe the horses that is fairly natural, won't harm the horse etc., my friend would very much appreciate the advice!! Thanks!

 

[old_woman]

My husband and I lived overseas in several third-world and other countries for many years and I always had horses and other animals, often in places where there was little in the way of sophisticated animal care products.

First, I would recommend, if you can, getting hold of Johnson's Baby Shampoo. Johnson's is an international brand and obtainable almost anywhere in the world. it's mild and effective.

If that doesn't float your friend's boat, she could get a plain white Castile bar soap (Castile is a type of soap - not a brand!), and use that in conjunction with a soft brush to get up a good lather on the horse.

It is also very easy to make a moisturising anti-bacterial mildly fly-repellent liquid soap/shampoo. If you want the recipe, let me know and I will post it.
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[incacleo]

I would be very interested in a shampoo receipe as I have a leopard spot Appaloosa who can be very sensative in his pink skin areas. Thanks

 

[izzy18]

It is also very easy to make a moisturising anti-bacterial mildly fly-repellent liquid soap/shampoo. If you want the recipe, let me know and I will post it.

That would be brilliant, if you wouldn't mind. Thanks very much for the other tips too, I'll pass them on to my friend. She'll be very happy indeed!

 

[robbitybob]

would love the recipe, my gingernut is very sensitive to flys and I nearly fell off yesterday when she tried to kick one while we were trotting!