Grooming

Your ride is complete, and both you and your horse are a little sweaty and a lot tired—it was a great ride. So, you tie him up, remove his saddle and quickly swipe a stiff-bristled brush over the sweaty marks before turning him back out. He'll just end up rolling anyway, so what's the point of a thorough brushing?

There is so much more to how you care for your horse after a ride than you think.

If the whole point of grooming is to have a cleaner horse, does it make sense to use dirty brushes? No.

Yet it's something most horse owners don't think about when it comes to grooming time. Making sure your grooming tools are clean will not only help your horse be cleaner, but you can also prevent the spread of any diseases or fungus that can derail your horse's health.

Just like how every horse is unique, every horse owner is unique as well. We all have our favorite grooming tool, our preferred way to store our grooming tools and our own grooming routine for our horses.

We thought it’d be fun to see what the team members at Tough1 keep in their grooming totes and if they have any preferred pieces.

Did you know that using the same grooming tools on multiple horses without properly cleaning them can spread fungal infections and diseases such as ringworm, rain rot and strangles? Routine cleaning of your grooming tools can also extend the life of the tools.

Bathing your horse the day prior to a horse show or event allows the natural oils to return to the coat, thus adding that lustrous sheen. After a strenuous ride or workout, you might consider taking a little extra time while rinsing off your horse to scrub around the saddle area, the legs and anywhere else that might have some built up sweat and grime. Here are 11 tips to get the most out of your horse's bath.

With a warmer than usual, but just as wet, winter, plus the rains of early spring, mud has been prevalent on so many horse farms[g1]  across the country. And when there’s mud on the farm, there’s usually thrush in the hoof.

With the increase in daylight and climbing temperatures, that furry puffball of a beast in your barn is starting to shed. For some horses and ponies, it's more like molting, but however you call it, you know one thing: It's no longer safe to wear lip balm/lipstick/lip gloss to the barn.