Grooming Essentials for Summer

Grooming a horse in the summer can be a lovely experience if you have as good selection of grooming equipment, and a beautiful warm day. The only downside is the dust, and the malting coat at the beginning of the season, but it's worth it to see your horse's glorious shining summer coat coming through, gleaming with health and vigour.

Essential components for a summer grooming kit include sponges, shampoo, and fly spray to name just a few. Whether for washing your horse down after a good gallop on a sunny afternoon, or his full-on bath to get him sparkling for his weekly outing, sponges and shampoo are invaluable in the summer. They can be used in winter to remove stable stains, but it's often far too cold for full baths! Keep a good supply of mane and tail conditioner and coat shine in with your grooming equipment, as these are the perfect cheat to get him looking clean. Alternatively, when grooming a horse after his bath, spray some on then to enhance his new look and you can relax knowing that he is in fact clean under all the shine! Applying fly spray over the top of everything will ensure your horse is comfortable as well, so you are both happy. When using lotions and potions from your new grooming kit for the first time, always patch test before you smother them all over your horse, because you never know what ingredients he may be allergic to.

When grooming a horse in summer, you can't be without a little pair of scissors and a neat mane comb amongst your grooming equipment. For trimming, a pulling comb can actually be quite handy as it is small enough to manoeuvre in all the nooks and crannies. Hopefully the worst of your horse's hair will have come off with the clippers at the beginning of the season, and unless you have a particularly hairy horse, scissors and a comb are great to tidy up straggly fetlocks, "moustaches" and any other place where he looks a little bit untidy!

Little extras that your summer grooming kit can't be without include plaiting bands, quarter markers, a stable rubber and wipes. Grooming a horse before a show requires most of these things to complete the look, depending on what type of horse you own. Wipes are a vital piece of grooming equipment if you are travelling via trailer to a show, as your horse will never fail to amaze you with how mucky he can get, especially around the rear end if he is a nervous traveller! Wet wipes can do a quick and easy tidy-up job, whilst also being good for cleaning and brightening the nose and eye areas. (Obviously use a separate wet wipe for each area; otherwise you could end up with them infecting each other).

Finally, when assessing your grooming equipment needs, consider all situations. You might like to have separate competition and yard grooming kits for grooming a horse, so that you don't run out of something essential and end up forgetting to replenish supplies. There is nothing more frustrating than getting to a competition and realising you have forgotten something! Once you have all of your grooming equipment together, there is nothing left to do than enjoy some quality time in the sunshine with your horse to get him looking stunning for the season ahead!

The Equine Store stocks many quality items for horse and rider, including grooming products and items. Visit the shop at www.equine-store.com