Grooming
Reasons to groom a horse: keep the horses coat clean and healthy and the horse happy. It is also a way the check the horse for any scratches or other injuries.
1. When grooming a horse it is good to start with picking the feet and checking out the horse's foot to see if anything is stuck in the frog or in the shoes. 2. Next, use the curry comb (the hard plastic comb) when using the comb go in a circular motion. The comb is used for getting big chunks of dirt and removing loose hair. The curry comb should be used on the body. NEVER on the legs. If you use a curry comb on the legs it can hurt the tendon and ligament. 3. After the curry comb you want to use a hard bristle brush. This brush will remove a lot of dirt that was brought up to the surface. When brushing you want to flick the dirt off away from the body, typically starting from the top and working your way down. With this brush you may use it on the legs. 4 The next brush is the soft bristle brush, This brush will get any remaining dirt or loose hair that is left. With this brush you want to make sure the legs are clean and free of dirty so when you wrap the legs nothing will be rubbing the wrong way. 5. Lastly, brushing out the mane and tail with a normal brush, This will help keep the tangles from getting worse.. Be careful around that tail because he horse will not be able to see you very well. Another thing that is sometimes done is Pulling the Mane. Pulling a mane normally causes little pain to the horse depending on how sensitive the crest is. To pull the mane you can get a mane comb, then a small chuck of hair rough up with the comb then when you have the longer stands left you pull down swiftly. Pulling a mane keeps the mane looking healthy short and much easier to care for in the long run. |