When do you give your horse a wash?

Mackinlay

Mackinlay

New Member
Oct 26, 2006
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Australia
Hey people, this may be a stupid question, but I am wondering how often you should wash your horse. I am a complete beginner by the way!! The horse I am leasing is a tad unfit, so he seems to get quite sweaty after I ride. My instructor said to wash him after our lesson the other day, but am not sure if I should do this every time. I will ask her of course, but thought I would also get some advice from the many knowledgeable people here :)

I am guessing it is probably a judgement call ie. if only a little sweaty just sponge girth areas etc, and knowing these things will come in time. Oh, also I am in Australia and we are still having over 30 degree days, so not too cold for a bath!!!
 
if not too cold for a bath i would wash the horse if they are at all sweaty. most enjoy it. if only a little then just do those bits. what you've said sounds right. my horse got a bit sweaty lunging today but it was to cold to wash him so i just have to brush it out, i use luke warm water sometimes so its not such a sudden change for them. however, with 30+ degrees a nice cold baths for a horse sounds like heaven :)
 
It Depends is the best answer :)

In summer type weather I will hose down after all sweaty rides - no soap etc. just a good hosing.

I am not "horse proud" and tho I like a decently turned out horse I will usually only bathe out the first good hot day of spring to get rid of all the scurff and last of the shed. ANd then I MIGHT bath before a show. OTherwise I stick to a good brush out. Too much bathing can strip the coat of it's natural oils and remove some of it's waterproofing qualities. Having said that, I know of show horses who are bathed weekly.. if not more often!
 
I hose them in plain water when we get back from exercise in the summer and they are sweaty.

And they get a bath with detergent only before shows.
 
end of april beginning of May if its warm enough I give them a full bath to get rid of scurf and last of the their winter coats.

tempted to bath this weekend as its going to be very hot BUT not convinced that the weather won't change and we could have frost again by next week because lets face it, its still April!

If very hot after exercise I give them a rinse off and a walk around to cool down but wouldn't give more than one or two baths per year as they don't get rugged in winter so want all their own natural oils as in tact as possible.
 
Loopslou said:
tempted to bath this weekend as its going to be very hot BUT not convinced that the weather won't change and we could have frost again by next week because lets face it, its still April!
Click to expand...

it's forecast to get much colder next week and the week after - even some snow forecast in some areas.

www.metcheck.com and put your postcode in, and do the 8-14 day forecast. i've got 2 degrees forecast some nights, and that's in london.
 
If they are sweating alot i will splash a bit of water on them from the trough and scrap them off. But thats as far as that go's. They are just going to bury themselves in dirt anyway!

Otherwise i don't worry - rain does a good job (when it does rain that is...).

But also with current water restrictions we are not aloud to use water outside at all...car/boat/garden/horses etc.
 
Thanks for link Mehitabel:D just checked and yes this weekend is to be hot and hot and most of next week but from the following weekend its to get colder again so I'm going to hold off, no point leaving my lot like baldies if they then need a bit of warmth seeing as they are out already 24/7!
 
Thanks heaps everybody! And outback, I know what you mean about the water restrictions. Although in SA we are not on level 5 like the poor Queenslanders. In fact, there was a news story the other day about someone stealing water from a footy club's tank (in Qld I think) :eek: Absolutely crazy. Whereabouts are you?
 
Hey,
I'm in S/E Vic.
We are on restrictions because our water company sold a massive amount of our water. Hope they enjoy the money because it can't buy water again when there is none to buy and now we are on level 4 restrictions from none. Soon to b e moving up if no rain happens.
So far 1mill for the month of April and that look about all we get.

Yes everyone is keeping all water tanks etc under lock and key now. Put nothing past no one.

Someone even stole water in storage from my dads CFA group to use in the trucks!!! They obviously don't want their burning house put out......?
 
As he lives out, I only give him a hose down if he's hot and sweatty in the Summer after being ridden. Dont shampoo as I dont want to remove the protective grease fromhis coat.​
 
Afellpony said:
As he lives out, I only give him a hose down if he's hot and sweatty in the Summer after being ridden. Dont shampoo as I dont want to remove the protective grease fromhis coat.​
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Ditto :)

Milly, my dark fuzzy shetland isn't worked, but gets very hot in summer. I like to give her a gentle wipe over with a wet sponge on the hottest days just to cool her down a bit.
 
We complain here that we get more than our fair share of rain. I'd rather live somwhere where we have a bit too much rain than not enough.
 
I just gave amba a bath last night about 4ish took a while to dry but there's improvement on her coat. I dont do it that often, i dont go to shows, but if she very sweaty, on a warm day, i'm sure she'd enjoy it.
 
I dont bath to much as I dont compete anymore, however I gave Kai a bath the other day as more of a spring clean! Washed tail, brushed out feathers gave his coat a really good scrub as hes casting someting rotten... once the hose was out of site he really enjoyed his all over massage! found some really itchy spots to which made his lip curl haha!:eek:

Coat looks alot better and he has lovely flowing feathers now.

Sadly he rolled afterwards!! but at leasr all the winter gunk has been removed sure he felt alot better for it.
 
curly had a proper shampoo bath a few days ago and i have had to hose her every day this week as she's sweaty and it really irritates her otherwise. she always rolls straight after but dirt bothers her less than hard dry sweat.
she's always dry in half an hour anyway.
 
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