Grooming: an important and often overlooked part of horse care

Everyone grooms their horse before they ride. Most grooming is done in the saddle area to keep burs, sand, and hair from causing pain or rubbing under the saddle while riding. While this is definitely an important benefit of grooming, there are many other reasons to groom your horse before riding, after riding, and even on days when you don’t ride. 

Grooming steps:

To get all the potential benefits from grooming, there are several key steps in the grooming process that need to happen. 

Curry Comb: there are several types of curry comb each work on different hair coats and serve slightly different purposes. These should be used in a circular motion all over the body to loosen hair, dirt, and other debris from the skin. This is an essential part of creating a healthy, shiny coat for you horse. Using the curry comb before riding will ensure there are no clumps or hair or dirt causing discomfort while riding. Using the curry after riding will allow you to remove much more of the dead loose hair, and help encourage the oils in your horses coat to lubricate the skin and hair which will create that shiny coat. Stimulating the hair follicles will also help healthier hair to grow. 

• Metal curry combs are great for removing mud and long hair, but can damage the hair and do not encourage the natural oils of the skin to flow and soften the hair. These should be used sparingly, only for extra dirty horses and maybe the first day of starting a grooming regimen. 
• Rubber spiky curry combs are great for long hair and horses with less sensitive skin. The spikes can dig into sore muscles and sensitive skin and cause discomfort for the horse. If the horse has longer hair, the spikes can be great for getting down to the skin to encourage the natural oils to lubricate the skin and encourage healthy hair growth. They are also great for loosening hair closer to the skin that other curry combs will not reach.
• Rubber round curry combs are a great general curry comb for any horse. They are great at loosening hair and dirt from the skin; they generally do not irritate more sensitive horses; and they are easy for anyone to use. These can also be used like a shedding blade by cupping the comb in your hand and using fast firm strokes with grain the hair this will help warm the skin a bit and pull loose hair from the body. 

Body brush: this is generally a stiff bristle brush used for removing all the hair and dirt loosened by the curry comb. These should be used all over the body with special attention paid to the saddle areas. This brush should be used with the flow of the hair to flatten out the hair and get it ready for the saddle.

Finishing brush: this brush is similar to the body brush but has longer bristles used for flicking excess dust and hair off the body and creating a shiny coat. Like the body brush this is used all over the body and with the flow of the hair. 

Hoof pick: Possibly the most important part of a grooming kit. As the saying goes: No hoof, no horse. Hooves need to be cleaned both before and after riding. A thoroughly cleaned hoof prevents fungus build up which can lead to lameness. It gives the rider a chance to check for rocks or other injuries to the hoof. It also makes the horse more comfortable for riding or going out to his stall or pasture. 

Mane comb: a metal comb for the mane allows the rider to brush out the hair and do basic maintenance on the mane such as pulling long sections to keep it even and ready for show. Using a metal comb on a regular basis makes the horse less difficult to deal with when mane pulling is done before a horse show. 

Tail brush: tails break easily, so brushing should be done gently. For daily maintenance, your body brush can be used on the tail to brush out debris. This brush is not going to tear the hair or remove tangles. A hair brush style brush can be used weekly or bimonthly to remove tangles and thoroughly brush out the tail. When brushing out the tail, start at the ends and slowly work your way up in small sections. Grooming in small sections will create more body in the tail and make it less likely for you to pull out large chunks of hair. 

Face brushes: a smaller, softer version of the rubber curry comb and body brush should be used on the face. You can curry and brush the face just like the rest of the body with these brushes, remembering to be gentle as the face is more sensitive. If your horse has sensitive legs, you can use these on their legs as well rather than the body brushes. Legs should be groomed regularly as fungus and skin issues can develop especially if you live in a wet climate or use boots or wraps on their legs. 

Regular grooming will keep your horse healthier, sounder, and looking its best. Grooming is also a great way to bond with your horse, and get to know its body. Knowing the normal skin, lumps, and issues with your horse will make it much easier to detect when problems arise and may keep your horse from expensive vet bills. 

Equestrian teams: where true horsemen are trained

Interscholastic equestrian competitions are a unique challenge that few horse people ever get the chance to participate in. This type of riding challenges a rider to get good at not just riding one horse like in regular competition, but at riding any horse in a competitive environment. The riders must be brave enough to get on the unknown horse, strong enough to survive intense equitation competition, and versatile enough to compete in several different disciplines.

Many people have heard of college equestrian teams, the IHSA and Varsity Equestrian, but few are familiar with that style of competition or know that there are several organizations that allow riders of any age to compete in those style competitions. 

Interscholastic and Intercollegiate equestrian competitions are fairly unique in what they ask of riders and horses. These competitions are a test of equitation unlike most others in the horse show world. Though a random draw, riders are assigned an often unknown horse, on which they have to compete in their given class against riders of similar experience. These classes can involve riding complex reining patters, jumping 3ft courses, or doing complex dressage tests, without any prior experience on the horse or on the course. The riders are judged on how they handle the unknown horse and their equitation. Riders are divided into experience levels so that each rider competes on horses and do courses that are appropriate for their riding level and every rider has a chance to win in the competition. Riders earn points for their placements in classes that add up to a team score which determines which team wins the competition. 

The IHSA and Varsity Equestrian are structured slightly differently. The IHSA has riders competing in large groups and compete on different horses for the same level. Varsity equestrian, part of the NCAA, pairs riders and has each pair ride the same horse so that the test is entirely of the rider and not about whether the horse is behaving well that day. 

These type of competitions are also available for middle school and high school students to compete on school teams. The IEA and RIFNA have programs that help students get teams started and track points to earn awards and move up in levels. RIFNA offers this type of competition without teams for all ages and experience levels of riders.  RIFNA offers classes in Western, Hunt Seat, and Dressage. IEA offers classes in Western, Hunt Seat, and Saddle Seat. RIFNA is available for all ages, elementary school though adult, with team competition available for middle school and high school students. IEA offers classes for middle school and high school students. 

Because these competition are separated into ability levels, even novice riders can compete and win. Novice riders are especially valued in college programs because most people who get involved with horses do so before college and therefore don’t qualify for the lowest levels of competition. So if you are a college student interested in riding with little experience, contact your school’s equestrian coach as they may have the perfect spot for you on the team. 

This type of competition also allows riders that do not own a horse or  that cannot afford to pay the large amounts of money involved in showing a personal horse to ride and compete and improve their riding without a large investment. 

Preparing for an emergency

In light of Hurricane Sandy and winter looming for us in Colorado, its time to look at how horse owners should prepare when rough weather is predicted for their area. 

Barn Preparation

Keeping your horses in the barn has both pros and cons. It will keep the horses dry, and out of mud, away from falling trees and lightning, and other hazardous conditions that may cause injury. However it may end up trapping the horses in hazardous conditions if the barn floods or collapses. This choice is dependent on the horses, the barn, and outdoor conditions that need to be evaluated by an experienced professional. 

If you are going to keep your horses in the barn, make sure you have easy to open doors and that the barn is not prone to fires or flooding. If you are going to keep your horses outdoors, have some sort of identification on the horses so that if your horses escape, they can be returned to you. 

If possible, you should have any horse trailers on the property attached to a truck and ready to evacuate horses in case evacuations become mandatory. You may also want to pack extra hay and grain for the horses, water, buckets, supplements, and other daily supplies.

Horse Preparation

To prepare your horses for an emergency you need to attach contact information to your horses in case they get loose to end up in a large herd of horses at a rescue facility

Ways to identify your horses include:

• Halters with contact info written on halter or tied to halter
• Tying a plastic bag with contact info into the mane
• Shaving a contact phone number into the hair
• Tying an ID tag with contact info around the horse’s neck

Where ever you keep your horses, they should be easy to catch in case staying at your barn becomes a non-viable option. Your horses should be trained to load into a trailer and your trailer should be ready for the horses. 

You should also have an emergency vet kit on hand. 

Included in this kit should be: 

• Basic first aid stuff for treating wounds and small injuries
• Banamine and Bute
• Contact info for several vets in the area

Evacuation procedures

If the authorities have declared mandatory evacuations, get your horses out as quickly as possible. You don’t want to be in the way if emergency services are entering the area and mandatory evacuations mean that your area will be in danger. If evacuations are voluntary, then you need to asses the situation. Is your barn and property in an area that will be prone to issues, low ground, lots of trees, or hard to get out of? Or is it in a defensible area where your horses are likely to be safe during the emergency?  You should then evaluate what your evacuation options are. Do you have a friends place you can take your animals to? Where are the government evacuation shelters? Is there are safe place to take your horses? 

When evacuating your horses, make sure they have contact info attached to them and make sure you have identification and health papers with you. 

If you don’t have a horse trailer, there are services available to help you evacuate your horses during an emergency. 

Evacuation services:

Horse Evacuations East is for the eastern US but they may have contacts in other parts of the country as well. 

https://www.facebook.com/HorseEvacuationsEast

Fleet of Angels is a national organization that will transport horses in an emergency or to help with rescue efforts to find horses new homes:

http://www.fleetofangels.org/

People Preparation

• Charge your cell phone and make sure you have the ability to charge it with you.
• Make sure everyone in the barn has a contact info for the people at the barn. 
• If someone else is trailering your horses, make sure you have their phone number and they have yours. 
• Have an emergency kit for yourself including food, water, first aid, and change of clothes.