How to Make a White Horse Look White

What to do when your horse is THIS muddy?

When you want your horse to look THIS clean?

The How-To of the day is explaining how we get a horse with extreme mud and stains to sparkly white for the show ring.  I use these products because they work well, and I have severe allergies to most shampoos and these don't give me allergic reactions.  There are other products that work just as well, but I end up with swollen eyes and blisters on my hands with most other brands.

If your horse is really starting out as muddy as Samson's photo, you'll need to at least start by using a shedding blade to take off the top layer of mud.

Once the worst is scraped off, I wash a flea-bitten grey horse with Quic-Silver shampoo because it gives kind of a silvery sheen to the horse.  On someone like Garmin I use Quic-Color because it brightens his brown patches and makes his white cottony and bright. 

I wash the horse by wetting down one side, and soaping it.  Then I let the shampoo sit while I wet down and suds the other side.  I let the soap sit for about 10 min while I soap and condition the tail.  Then I rinse the whole horse. 

Once the horse is clean I scrape off the excess water, but before he dries I spray him down with Laser Sheen hair polish.  I'm careful not to do the saddle area if he will be riding, nor his mane or tail if he will be braided.  This hair polish makes the hair slick and smooth, and your tack will slide off and braids will fall out!  

After spraying with hair polish I let the horse dry completely, then I braid the tail and put it in a bag to keep shavings and dirt out of it.  I put a sheet on the horse with a hood if needed (Cole always tries to grind as much dirt and manure into exposed body parts as possible the night before a show). 

In the morning if the horse has any stains a brush will usually remove them because of the post-bath hair polish application, and if they are stubborn a little water on a rag usually takes the stain right out.

That is how I take my horses from mud to gleaming show show ponies!