Tips and Steps to Bathing Your Horse

Are you a horse owner and need to bathe your horse? If so here are some helpful tips and information on how to give your horse a bath!

As always make sure that it is warm outside or that you are using warm water to wet, wash and rinse your horse, so that he does not get cold. Before you wash your horse you should always groom him, not only will this relax your horse but it will knock some of the dirt off of his coat to make bath time a little bit less dirty. Follow these steps when grooming your horse:

1. Curry comb your horse

2. Brush the head, body, legs, chest and also your horse's back

3. Pick your horses hooves

4. Comb mane and tail out

Now once you are done with those steps, you are then ready to bathe your horse. This is what you will be doing to give your horse a bath:

1. If using concrete wash rack, make sure it is non-skid for your horse; if it is not non-skid make sure that you put down strong textured rubber matting of lining in the wash rack to keep your horse from slipping on wet concrete.

2. If you have cross-ties, make sure that they have panic snaps in case your horse panics. If your horse does happen to panic you will then be able to quickly release him to prevent injury to him or yourself. If you don't not have cross-ties you can ask a friend who is comfortable around horses to hold his head for you, they will also be able to quickly let go of the lead rope if the horse were to panic.

3. NEVER let the hose get underneath your horses feet. This could cause your horse to spook, or if he was to step on the metal nozzle and break it, it could start spraying unexpected water up onto him and startle him.

4. Wet the ground around your horse, making sure he sees or hears the hose and water before you actually use it on him; this will help prevent your horse from being surprised when you start to use the hose on your horse.

5. After wetting the ground, slowly start to spray your horse's legs to get him use to the spray of water, next move up the body of your horse by starting at the shoulder and then moving to his neck and down his body.

6. Now that your horse is wet, you can use horse-friendly shampoo to scrub away all dirt from your horse. If your horse has thick, wire-like hair, make sure to spend some extra time washing it!

7. Use a sweat-scraper or the side of your own hand to remove any excess water that may be left on your horse's body.

8. To prevent bacterial infections, make sure to towel-dry your horses legs.

9. After you are done put and anti-sweat sheet or cooler onto your horse!

You are now done with your horse's bath time, and he will be sparkling clean!

Listed below are some extra tips to use for your horses bath time.

• Outfit your hose with an adjustable sprayer, one that has a misting setting.

• DO NOT spray water directly onto your horses face, doing so will cause your horse to spook. Set the sprayer onto the mist setting and starting at your horse's cheek; slowly move down the horse's cheek along face. Use a damp sponge to wash your horse's ears.

• If your horse gets scared, STOP and calm him down before continuing with his bath.

• If he gets easily bored while bathing, you can give him hay net or something else to keep him occupied while you are giving him his bath!

Your horse is now clean and ready to be shown off! Hope these tips helped, also listed below are websites for additional information for your horse's bath time!

http://www.wikihow.com/Bathe-a-Horse

http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-health/horse-bath-tips-8299.aspx