The Big Clean! The Cheats Guide To Preparing Your Horse for Shows

Well last night the great clean began for the weekend's competition and I have to say I was grateful of the warmer weather (as was Skippy!).  I think I will be even more grateful tonight when I am plaiting up without frozen fingers. And while I am certainly not here to advocate cheating at all, anything I can do to make the preparation process a little quicker and easier is fine by me. After all there are only so many hours in the day!! So here's how we got on...

Now at this point I realise I should have taken a "before" shot but sadly I quite simply forgot. But you can trust me when I say that these legs of my piebald hadn't seen true white for quite some months. I was dubious about how many rounds of shampooing I would need to endure but actually I was pleasantly surprised!  So armed with my bottle of Supreme Products Blue Horse Shampoo, the hose and a large sponge I took on the challenge of turning the grey/ brown/ stable stained legs into pure striking white.  The bottle read leave on for 3 - 5 minutes for tough stains.  I definitely had some seriously tough stains so maxed out with the 5 minutes wait after a good lather.  There followed a thorough drenching (that was just me) and scrub to get all the shampoo out and I was thrilled with the results.  Only one shampoo needed! Although extremely good to bath Skippy isn't keen on the water dripping off his legs and likes to show his annoying by swishing his tale in my face so I have to say I came out of this experience feeling like i'd been slapped around the face several times- charming!       

I swiftly followed with the Supreme Products Leg and Body Whitener which I applied damp and then the legs were sparkling! Of course Skip took that precise moment to decide he needed to rub his (black) face all over the damp whitened leg.  So out came the damp cloths to scrub the strange white marks off his face, which is a bit like trying to give a toddler a face wash when they are really not up for it!!  

By now I was getting a bit tired having had a 5am start, a very long day in the office, a lesson and minimal food so I cheekily ditched the shampooing of the tail and got out the Miracle Groom Bath in a Bottle (bit like dry shampoo for horses).  Finally finishing with the amazing Pig Oil Spray (which I cannot live without) I brushed this through his tail with the MagicBrush. I'll be topping him up with this at the weekend to add some further shine but avoiding the mane (as I am plaiting and need a bit of grease!) and saddle area so he's not too slippery.  

So here are the final results...

Okay so there's still the whole plaiting up, cleaning tack, learning dressage tests and getting myself looking semi-presentable to go but hey I think we're off to a good start.  Just wait till I get in the rubber warm up arena and his legs go black again from the dust...lol!

I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished turn out when its done.  Fingers crossed for a successful and most importantly happy weekend for all of us and our horses xx