Bathtime Tips and Tricks: Zoebird Edition

Do you want your horse to have luscious locks like Zoebird?

O HAI

Then you should have gotten a horse with better genetics. JOKE'S ON YOU.

Giggle. I'm hilarious.

In all seriousness though, I live in a very challenging climate for hair--very dry, very, VERY dusty, sun that relentlessly sucks moisture out of skin and hair, and lots of fun static electricity. If you're like "wow that sounds like hair hell", well yes. It is.

Things that people with things like "humidity" and "clouds" can get away with don't fly here. Silicone-based products dry out hair, attract dust, and increase hair breakage. Goopy shampoos (I'm looking at you, Mane and Tail) and other similar options leave hair worse than you found it. (Also full disclosure: I am an unapologetic horse-hair-product snob who uses $2 shampoo on myself.)

can't argue with results tho

I think I've talked about Equifuse products before, but they are 100% the gold standard for primo equine hair care. You can order some of their line through Riding Warehouse (but not the things I like the best, which annoys me) or if you're local to me, you can contact the fabulous ladies at The Debonaire Mare for the full line up of products.

Anyways. Your next question is obviously "But SB! What products do I need??"

Here's what I do.

FULL BATH PROTOCOL

Step One: put a glob of the CFS coat shampoo in a bucket and dilute it with water. After wetting down horse, thoroughly sponge this in all over the horse's body, but ignore the mane and tail. We'll do those later.

photo by Equifuse

Noted: I treat the mane like the tail with the full conditioning treatment. If you are planning on braiding your horse's mane within a week of the bath, JUST USE CFS shampoo on it and NO CONDITIONER AT ALL.

Step Two: Rinse horse, bucket, and sponge.

Step Three: Take your Citrafoam Sulfate-Free shampoo and work up a lather in the mane and tail. I love this shampoo. It deep cleans without totally stripping the natural oils out and it rinses out so easily. None of that "spray the tail for 10 minutes straight and HOPE you got all the GODDAMN SOAP OUT to keep them from rubbing their tail". Nope. Lather in. Rinse out. Easy peasy.

photo by Equifuse

Step Four: rinse mane and tail

Step Five: Thoroughly work your CitraCreme conditioner into the mane and tail. This stuff is brilliant--it's lightweight and creamy and smells AMAZING and best part(!) moisturizes while leaving no residue. I try to use it about once a week in the heat of summer and it's freaking magical at preventing breakage from hair drying out. 

photo by Equifuse

Now the conditioner needs to soak in for a bit to get the full effect. I like to take this opportunity to do the next step.

Noted: if you're doing a bluing shampoo on white leg markings, this is also when I put it on so it can set up at the same time as the conditioner. 

Step Six: dilute Rehydrinse in 1-2 gallons of water in that bucket you already rinsed out. Apply to the horse's whole body (less the mane and tail) with the sponge you also rinsed out. 

photo by Equifuse

I'll be the first to admit that I looked sideways at "rinse" products. Like WTF rinsing is water taking the product off, not putting more products on? 

So don't think of it as a rinse if that's off-putting to you. It's like a super lightweight leave-in conditioner for the whole body that leaves the hair teddy-bear-soft without the gross slickness you get from things like Show Sheen. 

In the summer, I just put it on and let the horse drip dry while I do other things. Now that I'm contending with more hair, I scrape it off and still get that nice softening effect in the hair. 

Step Seven: rinse out the conditioner in the mane and tail (and any whitening products you left in). 

Hang in there. You're almost done. 

Step Eighth and Last: Put Gleam on your fingers pretty generously and run it through the mane (if you're conditioning the mane) and tail (no excuses). 

photo by Equifuse

Think of it this way--the CitraCreme conditioner does the deep conditioning. Gleam just kinda seals up the moisture and protects the hair. 

It's pretty fabulous. 

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I go from grabbing my wash bucket in the tack room to putting it back in under 30 minutes and the difference in Zoe's mane, tail, and coat is AMAZING. In the dry, hot summer I try to make time for a quick bath every weekend. September-May, it's just kinda on an as-needed, as-weather-allows basis.  

fall baths are a lot wetter

However. We're working ammies here so here are some short cuts for the days you can't just go full-on spa treatment. 

1) I can stretch time between baths if I spray the mane and tail with conditioner as part of my grooming routine. I use Tarra's recipe: put a glob of Gleam and a glob of CitraCreme conditioner in a spray bottle and mix with water. Shake well. Spritz daily. 

If you're a person who likes spraying shit on things, you can also buy the Shine Spray. I'm told it's more of a body-spray like Show Sheen or what have you. I call it $20 I don't need to spend. 

2) If you're on a REALLY TIGHT time frame and need to just get in and get out, you can totally get away with just spraying your horse down and throwing a little gleam in her tail. 

unrelated riding pic

NOTED: I am neurotic about not leaving sweat on a horse. It bleaches the coat, dries out the hair, and creates that nasty "brown panda" summer look that makes me gag. Wear helmet and rinse sweat: every time, every ride. 

Who else has a bathtime routine? (And if you now think I'm crazy, blame T who apparently thought I hadn't written enough bathing posts.) 

Teach Me Tuesday: Currying is Back!!

I love grooming horses. So much. Courage always hated it, so we compromised--he kept himself clean and I only touched him with the softest brushes. 

YAS

ENTER ZOEBIRD. 

She thinks brushes are GREAT. 

She likes to lay IN HER OWN POO. 

She needs a curry. 

the current options

My curry brush selection is indifferent at best because SOMEONE hated them with a fiery burning passion, but I can totally justify getting a new one(s) now. Tell me horse people of bloglandia, what is your favorite curry? 

Hoarders: Tack Trunk Edition

Most of you saw and/or participated in the "what's in your tack trunk" blog hop that was going around. Y'all had tidy little inventories of useful things and it was cute.

I was over here like "I have no goddamn clue what's in that giant abyss and I don't really want to find out". As Lindsey can tell you, I've been promising to go through it for like... a month. And hadn't. Oh and yes, it was/is my daily driver. I'd just sort of sit on the lid to squish it down and latch it each day.

But due to some unforeseen circumstances the other day,  I finally had time to go through it. Here's what I found:

bridle rack above

jumbled mess below

 I tried to make a bet with friends that there were 8+ sets of polos in there, but no one would take those odds.

stuff

This photo shows 7 full sets of polos in various states of cleanliness. There are also 3 pairs of polos and there was another full set ready for put on C-rage. That doesn't include two full sets of bandage liners or two full sets of boots.

I also had:

two sad pairs of bell boots

Two whips and a lunge line

eight bonnets

Plus there was this pile:

STUFF

So yeah, that's a quarter sheet, saddle cover, ogilvy pad, mattes shims, and you can just see the tboots. All good things, but possibly not things that actually fit in said trunk. This list actually isn't comprehensive. I had my CO sparkle helmet in a bag with a spare hat and gloves, plus my beater Ovation helmet and winter gloves, plus a couple of mismatched gloves and of course my brush box.

In my defense, I cleaned out the brush box a few weeks back to make room for fancy new brushes, so that part actually wasn't terrible.

I took everything out of the trunk, sorted it by whether it needed to be thrown away, given away, washed and put away, or washed and brought back. Then I threw away the trash, anonymously shoved shit to give away in barnmates' stuff, and tossed the other piles in the back of my car.

WE MUST REBUILD.

Obviously, an empty trunk helps no one, so it was time to start over. 

all I need is one cooler HAHAHA no

Here you see the bottom section of the carefully restocked tack trunk.

That's better

We started with a cooler, then added in the fancy CO for clinics and spur-of-the-moment photoshoots, included the tack cleaning kit (oh yeah, that was in there too), stowed the "bad boy" halter, the lunge line, and a dressage whip. My full set of DSBs (the only acceptable princess boot), one set of liners, and one clean-ish set of polos (much preferred to DSBs), and my mattes half pad. 

And look at that. You can still see open space in case I need to add something else. I do plan to keep two sets of polos and liners in there eventually, but laundry needs to happen first. 

 Add in the brush box and life is looking good.

o0o0o0o0o

 A couple caveats here--Courage's blankets live in an oversized rubbermaid tub outside his stall. You can barely see my wash bucket in the bottom right corner of the picture above--it also doesn't live in the trunk. I have an extensive horse-shit-organization system at home in my garage (which it looks like I'll be going through and cleaning asap).

Oh and I cleaned ALL the leather tack at the barn and reorganized. Now it looks like this:

three bridles, one martingale, one drop

I will admit that it's rather refreshing to actually know what I have around. Plus maybe now I look less like a hoarder? Just try not to think about how all that shit is now somewhere else. (such as in my car. hush you.)

Teach Me Tuesday: Products for Perfect Tails

Full disclosure: my shampoo at home cost $4/bottle and I don't use conditioner. And I think my hair care routine is excessive. 

BUT. I am a big proponent of perfect tails, especially since I have a horse with kick ass tail genetics. I mean, let's be real, that's 90% of the tail battle anyways. 

#hairgoals #lifegoals #tarraisbadass

I've been picking Tarra's brain about hair products lately because let's face it: she deals with more hair than possibly anyone else in the blogosphere. I never thought this would happen, but she's actually changed me from my all-vetrolin all the time stance. Now I religiously follow her recommendations--wash tail, use Equifuse CitraCreme deep conditioner, let sit, rinse out, then finish with Equifuse Gleam. THEN put a squeeze of each into a spray bottle, mix with water, and use it as a daily conditioner for tails. 

You guys. 

This is magic. Courage's tail has never felt so amazing. I washed it ONE TIME in March and it's still just perfect. 

So tell me. What are your hair care secrets? 

Teddy's Tack Trunk/Leistner Brushes Review

Here's a thing about Courage: he hates brushing.

Always has.

So when Amanda was like "omg new brushes so amazing" I was like "lulz bitchez" and moved on. But then I was getting all weird and sappy about Courage and Amanda was like "I swear it's real" and I got poking around Teddy's Tack Trunk website.

I wanted one brush to try out.

But a brush is like $20 and shipping is like $6 and there's a coupon code available on the site that offers 10% off orders $50 and over. And free shipping if your order is over $60.

So I carefully perused the softest and most picky-horse-approved brushes, piled 3 of them into my cart, added a tail brush, then got my 10% off (which made the tail brush free) and free shipping (which made my tack ho heart happy). It was Friday at like 1pm. I hemmed and hawed and screwed around and finally hit order around 3pm Mountain Time. On Friday.

The brushes were on my doorstep when I came home from work Monday afternoon.

Prinze is the dual colored one facing up.

Really people. You have got to try that.

But of course, outstanding customer service was only part one of this order. Part two: would Courage let the brushes anywhere near his precious princess self?

He's old enough to know better than to try to kick me, usually. He still lifts his hind legs (I won't smack him if the leg is on the other side of his body from me), grinds his teeth, savagely attacks the wall, twitches, and generally attacks abused. Before you call me a monster, keep in mind that he gets "groomed" with one semi-approved plastic curry to get the worst of the mud off (and is blanketed to prvent major mud) plus one specially-purchased soft brush that skims off the dust. The whole "routine" took under 60 seconds, and his reactions are actually less extreme than they used to be.

After knocking off the mud, I busted out our new brushes. First we used the Prinze natural body brush. The very-unassuming website description says this "Horse grooming brush, medium bristle texture, made of 100% pure horse hair and a lifted double edge of natural bristles. Lacquered beech wood body and durable leather strap."

That doesn't seem like much. It's pretty much the nicer version of the brush I already had, right?

old brush. $8.99 at the feed store.

WRONG.

The bristles are super soft and giving, with just enough resistance to really lift the dirt out of the coat. (Courage is body clipped--obviously these brushes cannot actually reach through intense winter yak hair). What's more magical, this brush did all that with far less actual pressure on the brush than my cheaper brush with longer bristles took.

Which meant that Courage stood there and kind of flicked his ears like "I should hate this but I don't quite".

omg who knew goats were soft?

Then I pulled out the goat hair brush. The website description is this:
Extremely soft and luxurious horse grooming brush made of long and thick, 100% pure goat hair with beech wood handle and a durable leather strap.

Let me tell you, they are DEAD SERIOUS about the luxurious thing. This brush is possibly softer than my sheepskin grooming mitt. It's amazing. I started using it to lift the traces of dust left behind on Courage's coat and OMG YOU GUYS.

He couldn't believe it either.

Seriously. For the first time in the years I have been with this horse, he just stood there and let me brush him. He dropped his poll below his withers. His body relaxed. Of course, when I stopped to take a picture, he twisted around like WTF WAS THAT and I got the above picture instead.

size comparison

I also got the goat hair face brush because I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. It's the same as the big brush, but easier to use on faces. It seemed rather extravagant, but it got me free shipping.

It gave me the same bizarre experience as the goat hair body brush. Courage got tense when I got near his face, but then... nothing... he didn't quite relax into it yet, but instead giraffing it up and trying to get away, he just stood there. THAT'S HUGE. Seriously.

The goat brush was so soft and magical that I'm pretty sure angels were singing and I just kept using it and his coat started glowing.

I mean. The reason we get by with so little grooming in general is that this horse has fantastic nutrition and good coat genetics, but like. Omg. There is a whole 'nother level of shine that we're unlocking right now.

I got Courage out and worked him, then let him much hay in his stall and (get this!!) (omg!!) groomed him again while he was eating. HE WAS EATING LOOSE AND I WAS BRUSHING HIM.

That has never happened before. Usually if I even try, he leaves the stall.

Color. Me. Impressed. These brushes are phenomenal, the customer service is amazing, and wow. You have to try this stuff. And Teddy's Tack Trunk didn't even give me a kick back for saying that. (I am the worst at free shit. Otoh, all my opinions are completely my own.)

PS Those discounts were valid as of when I ordered. Looks like the current threshold is $75.

Putting on the Polish

As Courage and I start finding our stride together, I keep having these odd moments of like "aawwww he's so cute and I loff him" and then I just want to send cute pictures of him to everyone I know (like, more than I do usually) and gush about him. That's new for me with him.

Courage is a hard horse to love and I'm a person who doesn't connect easily. I suspect y'all can kind of tell--I keep posting things about how we're building a relationship, but then we never seem quite "there", in that smitten, forsaking-all-others type of way. And I get that not everyone has to have that connection with every horse, but I really, really miss it.

To me, a relationship with a horse needs two things: adventures and down time. Last year, we kick-started adventure time with horse shows and satin and fun pony weekends. We never really addressed the quiet down time part though. Every day was focused on achieving specific goals in the saddle, which was fine. It just meant that I spent my time DOING WORK with him and none at all appreciating who he is.

I love grooming. I always have. It's a time and a place for me to connect with my horse and really learn to appreciate them inside and out. It's a way of staying on top of bumps and bruises and really being in touch with my horse on an intimate day-by-day basis.

Courage has actually gotten a lot more amenable to grooming than he ever was before; he used to just stand in the cross ties and alternately lift his hind legs and threaten if anyone BREATHED on him. Now while he'll still kick you into next week if you dare to use anything so barbaric as (gasp) a RUBBER CURRY, he's sort of okay if I whisk off the dust briefly with his special soft brush. He has great nutrition and great coat genetics, so it works for us.

He doesn't like it. I'm a busy working ammy. We're chasing bigger goals together. Grooming is something we've been skimping on the whole time Courage and I have been together.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was selling both of us a little short. Courage doesn't hate grooming--he's just very sensitive. He objects to odd things, sure, but he's not unwilling to be touched anymore, the way he was when he first came home. I've carried over my reaction to his prejudices even when the prejudices are mostly gone.

racehorse Courage

But now, I need to do better. We're working our way through the skulduggery that is the foundations of dressage and that shit is HARD and pretty much EVERYONE on the ENTIRE PLANET is better at it than we are. That's sad and depressing and makes me seriously question why I'm even trying, especially when I know that my sensitive, complicated horse sometimes usually pretty much always  makes things harder than they need to be.

I keep reminding myself that it's about my journey with this horse, and that I do like him, and since dressage will always be a fickle mistress and we might never be good at it, we need to find other ways to connect and enjoy each other until such a day as we (maybe) suck (somewhat) less.

so. hard.

And that's where grooming comes in. Quiet time spent together. Curving muscles and soft brown eyes, velvety noses and long, thick tails. We find the time to spend together so I can appreciate the horse he is, with all his sensitivities and quirks and oddness. His deep-seated hatred of jelly scrubbers doesn't mean he can't have nice things. It just means I need to personalize what I use with him.

I finally got around to ordering some highly recommended extra-soft brushes. I reorganized my grooming kit and took out all the things I know Courage hates. I'm creating a real grooming routine for us. It's slow and methodical. I listen for what Courage likes and pay attention to what makes him uncomfortable. I think I've even finally found a place for that goofy sheepskin mitt Cuna won at a show years ago--a certain bay princess thinks it's the perfect finishing piece.

There's no question in my mind anymore that Courage is my horse and he's staying with me. It's time to invest in the quieter side of our relationship.

(Besides, he needs to be super shiny for when I take dorky pictures of him to send to all my friends.)

Teach Me Tuesday: Rubbing

embiggen for details

Tis the season of the OTTB getting rubs from existing. I'm trying to just close my eyes until we're past the worst of it, but until then, any tips for the sensitive horse? Products to put on and make things better? Help a sister (/gelding princess) out!

Teach Me Tuesday: Blanketing

wild horses!

It was 19f here this morning (nicely below zero for you Celsius peeps), which means it is officially blanketing season. I used to be a a fancy, full-training type barn with 2-3x daily blanket changes and full body-clipped horses, so it wasn't much of a thing.

But our current barn is less hands-on (and hella cheaper. not complaining).

prisoner says 19f is poo

If I were less serious about riding, I could probably let Courage run around blanket free. But. He hates being groomed, LOVES getting dirty, and is in pretty hard work, which means clipping is critical to keep him comfortable. I'm trying to work a compromise with a partial clip for the present, so his blanketing is flexible, then will hopefully full clip in January.

But there are so many ways to handle this situation. How are you blanketing this year (or at all)?

Teach Me Tuesday: Grooming

it obviously works for him

I really, really love grooming. I used to pick feet every time, go over the horse with a rubber curry, use a stiff brush, and then finish with spendy body brush. I'd hand pick tails and keep manes perfectly pulled.

And that was pretty cool. It was beauty time and bonding time and everyone is happy.

Enter Courage.

Little man HATES grooming. I had to go out and buy him his very own special long-bristled-super-soft dandy brush and even that used GENTLY makes him pick up his feet and dance. Heaven forbid I get out the TORTURE CURRY MITT.

i like this mane. there is so much to grab.

World-ending, folks.

My grooming routine has radically altered--quick dust off, check feet, run a brush through his mane if I have lots of time. If I hose him off after a ride, I try to rinse his tail and throw some conditioner in it to limit breakage. Anymore, his mane is on the long side. It's a dressage horse look, I like it, and why not. Those are my reasons.

So. What else are y'all doing out there? Does anyone have a horse that likes being curried I can borrow?

Hair Update

thick(er) sexy neck

Noted: I wish I had something insightful to say about Lauren's situation. She is really one of the nicest people I've met through the blogging community and my heart is with her at this time.

I know I blogged earlier last fall about how I'm trying something new with Courage's mane--letting it be a little longer and thicker just to experiment with a new aesthetic. Honestly, I've been on the fence about it. I couldn't take the thickness, so I pulled it, but I couldn't get a really pretty pull job without going too short. I was about to just say screw it and go back to a thin, short little eventer mane, but it's hot and I'm lazy.

And then we had dressage braids practice day.

 And I realized that the biggest hinderance to my pretty braids was a pulled mane.

scissored. he's really excited.

So before our last show-prep lesson, I steeled my nerves, got my scissors, and turned Courage into a dressage horse.

Not gonna lie. It physically hurt me (and not because I caught myself with the scissors) (which I didn't, for the record). I've never been a scissors girl and I've definitely made fun of dressage divas with cut manes for being too lazy/useless to pull a mane properly.

like this

Buuuuuut.

That is how we make nice braids. And if we have to braid, dammit, they're going to be nice.

Teach Me Tuesday: Tail Taming

TAIL FLIP

Here we go again. Tails are a strangely controversial subject. People do all manner of strange things with them, from docking them off completely to braiding in extensions and literally everything in between.

I have a very strict tail care routine. I leave it loose, spray in show sheen about once a week, and brush it 2-3 times weekly.

pretty hair

I know lots of people put tails up to protect them, but for me, seeing the beautiful tail every day is a part of loving my horse and tail bags/wraps/etc detract from my equine enjoyment.

So that's me. What do y'all do to take care of your horse's tail?

Teach Me Tuesday: Thin Skinned Horses

he's definitely shiny

I have to admit, I kind of look forward to this post each week. There never seems to be a shortage of topics I don't understand and I've been surprised by the breadth of information available from other bloggers.

Here's a fun one. I love grooming horses, always have. Until Courage, I never had a horse that was what I'd call thin skinned.

But he is. He's twitchy and uncomfortable and HATES being brushed, even with the speshul majikal uber soft body brush I bought just for him. He thinks a soft rubber curry mitt (used only in the direction of the hair) is HORSE TORTURE.

he's shiny if you squint

He wiggles. He lifts his feet. He makes faces. He makes it crystal clear that he hates every moment I'm wielding a brush in his vicinity.

After taking a winter off and living the low key life style and having 1.5 years to recover physically from racing, I've finally come to accept that he is thin skinned and will never like brushing.

Unless y'all have another idea? How do you keep thin skinned horses happy and clean? Is there something I'm missing?

Clip Me Baby One More Time: Winter Pattern Baldness

so much hair everywhere

Here's a thing about me: I really, really, really hate hair. It makes me batty. I hate being shed on. I hate fuzzy winter horses. I hate goat beards and yak coats and all that shiznit. HATE.

I clipped Courage back in October. I haven't re-clipped since then.

I touch up his face from time to time, but like there is hair. Everywhere. It is not ok with me.

my sexy ass horse

BUT.

I know that I know that I know clipped horses are harder to care for and require more blanket changes. I know that shedding isn't harmful and many thousands of years of horseman were shed upon every spring and very few horses were murdered as an outcome.

I know that a fuzzy horse is a warm horse and a warm horse is less likely to buck me off, especially as the weather changes.

I KNOW ALL THAT.

so bald. so pretty. need mane pull. 2014 pic

But you know what else I know?

My horse is beautiful and I like looking at him. I absolutely refuse to tie up Courage's tail or even braid it because I like looking at it. I like the aesthetics of tack and how it compliments my horse. I really love the look of a freshly clipped horse. I love quarter sheets.

And hell, I own so many blankets I hardly know what to do with all of them.

Soooooooo.

Just a little bib clip.

I pulled my little clippers out and just did a nice bib clip for Courage on Monday. It didn't take long, it wasn't hard to do, and Courage didn't even need his cooler for very long after the ride. WOO WOO.

forgot how to take pics in the sun

And then Tuesday was warm and sunny and I had a little extra time.Plus Courage gives no shits about clippers, so he just dozes while I clip away.

It's a slow week at work, so I keep taking off a little early to play clippers. Who knows where this will end up...