Here’s a handy list of items for you’ll need for your grooming kit. Chances are you have many of these things in your home already, so assembling your kit will be easy on the budget.
- Scrub brush for removing mud from your horse (and thereby saving your better, more expensive brushes for finish grooming).
- Plastic kitchen scouring pads (“scruffy pads”) for removing dried sweat and mud from thin-skinned equines.
- Cheap, yard-sale towels for a zillion uses, including final grooming/polishing, applying fly spray to faces, rubbing alcohol on legs, wiping slimy bits, and keeping dust and mold off tack.
- Turkey basters for rinsing mouths and cleaning sheaths.
- Turkey-basting brush for applying hoof conditioner.
- Empty dishwashing-liquid bottles for applying liniment.
- Disposable razors for removing bot eggs.
- Vaseline for polishing faces.
- Baby oil for cleaning sheaths and udders, and detangling manes and tails.
- Hair brushes, especially heavy rubber ones, for grooming manes and tails.
- Hairspray and gel for taming flyaway mane hairs.
- Unscented, alcohol-free baby wipes for cleaning the inner ear, around the eyes, in the nostrils, and under the tail.
- Large, heavy-duty plastic detergent bottle for a horse toy. (Fill with pebbles, cap tightly, and hang in your horse’s stall.)
- Lightly sweetened breakfast cereal for horse treats.
- Utility knife, hung near your hay storage area (always with the blade retracted), for quick-and-easy hay-bale opening.
This article first appeared in?Horse & Rider magazine.
