How to Bathe a Horse

If you're going to a show, or your horse is covered in mud, you'll need to bathe your horse. As long as the weather is warm and sunny, you can easily bathe your horse.

Supplies:
-Bucket
-Sweat scraper
Some type of scrubby thing or a sponge (something like this will also do, you can buy these at CVS or something):

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-Also have a different sponge for their face
-Shampoo (I suggest using mane n' tail, you can also buy this at your local store in the shampoo isle)
-Conditioner (mane n' tail)
(other pe
ople say you need a curry, but I personally never use one. If my horse is muddy before a bath, I just groom him before to get the mud off, than bathe him).

So first, make sure you don't let anyone else use your sponges that you use on your horse. this is how fungus and other things can be spread, ewww

Directions (my way):
1) Wet the horse's tail down completely and wash well, sometimes multiple washes may be needed if your horse has a white/creme/light colored tail. Than rinse it out very VERY well. It's important to rinse all the soap out or it can dry out the tail
2) Put conditioner in tail, working it in by massaging it on the tail bone and also apply on lower tail. Leave in conditioner.
3) Wet the mane and wash it, rinse out as well.
4) If you're not planning on braiding your horse's mane anytime soon, apply conditioner to the mane as well and leave it in. Otherwise if you are wanting to braid it, dont put conditoner in because it makes it slippery and hard to bathe).
5) Wet horse's entire body
6) Wash the horse's body using your sponge scrubby thing. And try to do half of the horse at a time because otherwise the soap dries out.
-Important note: Fill the bucket up with the soap and water and dip the sponge/scrubby thing in it, than wash horse. Don't directly put the shampoo on the sponge or your horse or else it's too hard to rinse it out of the horse's coat.

7) (optional) if you want an ultra shiny coat, fill up the bucket with conditioner and water just like you would shampoo, and apply to the horse's coat just like you did the shampoo, however this time do the whole body at once). Let sit for about 5 mins
8) Rinse horse's entire body well! (mane, tail).

It's important to let the conditioner sit because than it allows the horse's hair to soak up more of the nutrients and gives a shinier, softer look and feel! :)