by Sara Wotherspoon

Created on: April 03, 2009   Last Updated: June 25, 2009

With the weather being so nice lately, everyone has been bathing their horses. Bathing horses is not a "tough" task, but it is very easy to make your horse uncomfortable.

The first thing I like to start with is having all of my supplies ready. I usually have a bucket of shampoo, condition, blueing shampoo (if you have a grey horse), scrubbers, sweat scrapers, and show sheen. In my opinion, it is not fair to make your horse stand dripping wet while you try to find your supplies.

If you have a wash stall, make sure it is a welcoming place for your horse to go into. Many barns have nonslip floors so that when it gets wet the horses don't feel unstable. If you don't have a wash stall, make sure you are bathing your horse in a grassy, clean area. A muddy paddock will only encourage your horse to roll, and you don't want all of your hard work destroyed!

Start by spraying the ground by your horse's hooves. You can gauge how the bath will go from there. If they jump away and get nervous, you will have to do more work with them. If they are fine with the water, start spraying the horse's legs. You don't want to shock them with the water all at once- it is similar to you jumping into a freezing cold swimming pool!

Once you have the horse fully soaked with the water, start with the shampoo. Use the scrubbers you have in your bucket to help get the mud and manure off of them. You might want to ask someone to hold the horse while you do this, otherwise it can get quite difficult!

After you scrub all the dirt off your horse, start to rinse them off. Be kind and start at the legs again so that they can get used to the water again. Once the shampoo is rinsed, start conditioning the mane and tail. Put a liberal amount of conditioner in both- but make sure you rinse well or the horse will rub their mane or tail out!

After letting the conditioner sit for about 10 minutes, start rinsing it out. Make sure you are extra thorough! Again, they will rub their mane or tail out and make double the work for you! Once the conditioner is completely rinsed out, use the sweat scraper and scrape the extra water off of them. This helps lower the chances of the horse catching a chill, and makes it more comfortable for the horse. You can spray them with Show Sheen right now if you would like.

After the excess water is scraped off, I would recommend that you take the horse out and graze them until they dry. Otherwise, there is a possibility they can go to their field and roll in the mud- and then you have to bathe them all over again!

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