Welcome to the Small Horse Miniature Horse Workshop Series.
In this video class, you will learn how to keep your miniature horse healthy, happy,
and looking good with proper grooming.
We'll show you how to establish a daily routine for your horses at home, give your horse a
bath, and learn to groom a show horse for the ring.
The first section of our grooming workshop is hosted by Nancy Rivenberg of Rivenberg
Miniature Horse Farm.
Nancy has been breeding and raising miniature horses for 12 years and has 26 minis in residence.
Demonstrating each step in the grooming procedure is Amber Owens.
Amber is 15 and has been showing miniature horses since she was 6 1 half years old.
She has several national championships to her credit.
You might ask, why should I groom my horses?
Grooming your horse makes both of you feel good.
Your mini's coat and skin will be healthier and the horse will look forward to these sessions
of ultimate attention.
You also will feel great because this daily routine will give you time with your horse,
make him look great, and give you the chance to keep track of his condition and health.
Plan to groom your horse on a daily basis.
A little time spent every day is more beneficial to both of you than a marathon session once
a week.
There are dozens of grooming tools available today in tack shops, feed stores, and by mail
order.
These are the basics you will need to get started.
The hoof pick is a small metal pick used for removing dirt and debris from the bottom of
the hoof.
The shedding blade is a metal or flexible plastic strip with small teeth along one edge.
It is used to speed up the natural shedding process by removing dead hair from a winter
coat.
The side without teeth can also be used as a sweat scraper or to remove excess water
after a bath.
The curry comb comes in several different styles and sizes.
The rubber curry is the most common.
It is used to loosen the dirt and dead skin under the horse's coat.
A curry mitt is also available that can be used on either hand and is excellent for sensitive
areas such as legs and face.
The body brush, also known as a dandy brush, usually has a wooden or plastic handle and
a leather hand strap.
The bristles are medium stiff to remove the shedded hair and dust from the coat.
The comb you use should have very large teeth that are not too long.
The comb is used for the forelock, mane, and tail.
The soft face brush, also known as a finishing brush, has a wooden or plastic handle with
very soft bristles.
This brush is used for the face and ears, and legs, and to put the final touch on a
show coat.
The bot comb, also known as a bot knife, has a blade with very tiny teeth that comb through
the fine hairs on the legs and jaw.
This tool is used to remove bot fly eggs that have been glued to the hairs.
Clippers come in many different styles, types, and sizes.
For barn grooming, a pair of hand held clippers will be adequate.
For show grooming, you'll want to research the many brands available to find the style
that suits you best.
No matter how many grooming tools you use, always keep them clean and in good repair.
Always tie your mini for grooming.
Even though the horse may not try to get away, it reminds him or her that this is not playtime.
If the horse is quiet, it allows you to pay attention to what you are doing.
This is Pepper, and she is just out of the pasture.
She has not had any grooming done this winter, and this is her winter coat.
The first step in your grooming routine will be to clean the horse's feet.
Stand beside the horse, facing to the rear.
Hold the hoof pick like a dagger, with the tip pointing toward you.
Pick up the foot and hold the hoof with the sole facing up.
Starting at the point of the frog, scrape the dirt and debris out.
Be careful not to poke the hoof pick into the crevice of the heel at the back of the
frog.
It is very important to do this every day if possible, especially if your horse spends
a lot of time in his stall.
Feet that are not kept clean will develop an infection called thrush.
This is caused by the accumulation of manure and urine in the frog portion of the hoof.
If it is not removed, the foot begins to decay.
Advanced thrush produces a black tarry substance at the frog, and the smell is terrible.
The next step will be to use a shedding blade to remove the hair from Pepper's coat.
She has a lot of dead hair there because she is shedding very, very severely.
They all do it this time of year.
They rub against fences.
They will rub against anything to get that hair off because it is itchy.
You can see there is a lot of that fine dead hair underneath that is coming off with that.
I have found that this works the very best of all, including just brushing, because you
get really down to the skin.
They love it.
As you can see, she is standing there.
Her nose is twitching because it feels so good to get that hair off.
Amber will go over her entire body doing this.
We will make a big mess and a lot of fine hair, but the horse will be a much happier
horse.
Also, it will not be quite so hard on your fences or anything else they can rub against.
This, I feel, should be done at this time of year almost every other day.
This usually takes to do a really good job, about three, four, five minutes to go completely
over the body.
Be sure and remember to go down over the belly, too, because they carry an awful lot of hair
down there in the winter.
Next, Amber will use the curry comb to loosen the dirt on the horse's body.
Be gentle on the legs, knees, and hocks, or use a curry mitt in these areas.
What she is doing here is similar to what she just did.
However, this does not get the hair off as fast or as efficiently as the shedding blade.
However, this is very good because it is stimulating the horse's skin.
What's going in is lifting up dirt that's been there.
When she lifts that curry comb and shows it to the camera, inside will be full of that
same small hair, and it will probably be filled with a lot of that dirt that she's collected
over the winter.
The fine hair that you're seeing that's coming out is very itchy to the horse at this time
of year.
This is a great thing to do for your horse to get rid of as much of this as you can.
Now brush the horse's neck and body using the body brush.
After every five or six strokes, knock the dirt and hair out of the brush, or use the
curry comb to remove the hair from the brush.
Notice the strokes that she's using.
She's kind of cupping her hand and twisting her hand as she does.
In other words, those are strong, straight strokes that are going way down into the coat.
She's always moving towards the back, never towards the front.
There's a reason for that.
You don't want all this short, fine, silky hair to get in the horse's eyes or mouth or
nostrils.
You want to be moving it off and away from the head.
Several kinds of brushes.
This one is excellent for what she's doing.
You would not use this on a horse that has been clipped or that does not have a coat.
You don't need to.
You would use a softer brush.
There are also brushes for the head of the horse and around the eyes and the muzzle,
and obviously this is way too stiff a brush.
If there is mud around the fetlocks and hooves, you can use the stiff brush to remove this
first.
I'll brush the legs with the soft brush.
Next Amber will demonstrate the use of the Botcombe on Pepper's legs.
In addition to your regular warming schedule, it is very important to check your horses
daily for signs of Bot eggs during the fly season.
The eggs are yellow, very tiny, and can be mistaken for pollen or weed seeds.
The Bot fly attaches her eggs with something very much like super glue.
These eggs must be removed with the Botcombe to help prevent infestation.
Bot infestation can cause ulcers, perforation, and peritonitis.
This is the cycle of the Bot fly.
The female lays her eggs on the horse's legs or belly.
When the horse scratches these areas with its teeth, the eggs are introduced into the
mouth.
The warmth of the mouth causes the eggs to hatch and the larva burrow into the tongue
or gums.
After several weeks, these larva migrate down to the stomach and attach themselves to the
lining.
They remain there for up to 10 months before being eliminated in the manure.
Once the larva have been shed, they burrow into the ground.
In five weeks, they emerge as adult flies ready to lay eggs and start the cycle again.
Take your time when combing out the tail.
Tails that have been neglected can become so tangled that you'll want to give up.
Use a conditioner on the tail and hand pick most of the larger snarls out before starting
with a comb.
The tails also at this time of year are very covered with a lot of snarls and it takes
a long time to get that out.
You go very, very gently because the last thing you want to do is break off that tail.
Do not go in there with a rake or a comb that has a rake on it because you're going to break
hairs and you don't want to do that.
Particularly a horse that's been out in the winter and has not been groomed as often because
obviously weather wise it's been hard to do so.
Your tail is going to need a lot of work.
Conditioning, you need to put conditioner on this tail.
It won't hurt and it's a good idea because the tail has taken quite a beating.
She's taking her time and picking out all those snarls.
Also by the way she's doing it, holding the tail up towards her, she is not pulling on
the horse.
When pulling at a horse's tail like this, one thing to remember, it does not hurt the
horse.
When she's through with the tail she will do exactly the same thing with the mane, only
in a different way and also the forelock.
The mane and the forelock are apt to be filled sometimes with alfalfa or hay or anything
that you might have been feeding.
Next Amber will clean Pepper's face.
Notice that she slips the halter off the head and fastens it around the neck.
This allows her to do a very thorough job on the face.
Never leave your horse with the halter around its neck, even for a minute.
If your horse is too energetic to use this technique, do the best you can with the halter
on the head.
Use your soft brush to brush the face around the ears, the pole and under the chin and
jaw.
Be very careful around the eyes and always brush away from the eyes.
Remember to clean your brush frequently.
Frequently minis will have a watery discharge from one or both eyes.
Usually this is caused by dust and is no cause for alarm.
Carefully clean this discharge from around the eye and always be aware of any changes
in the discharge.
If the color changes or there is any odor, consult your vet immediately.
I also want to mention that the cloth that you use, do not ever use it on anything before
that you put it on the eye because you do not want to spread an infection to the eye
of any kind.
The cloth should be as clean, it should be very clean.
She's also cleaning the nostrils now.
This little horse has very clean nostrils but sometimes they get kind of little colds
at this time of year and you want to keep that nostril as clean as possible.
She used the same cloth that she used on the eye on the nostrils.
That's no problem.
Don't take the nostril, don't wash the nostrils and go up to the eye.
The final step in your grooming session will be to clip your horse's bridle path.
If you have a good length to your bridle path, I go the length of the ear.
Now, on some of the brood mares, I might go a little bit longer because frankly it doesn't
make that much difference but I like my horses to look as good as possible and so I think
that the length of the ear is ideal.
Now I'm going to hold firmly to the mare and with the halter around her neck and Amber
will start clipping the bridle path.
I want to point out something that you just saw on the video.
This mare has very sensitive ears and when you get up very close when she's clipping,
she bops her head around.
You have to be very careful because you might take off more hair than you want to.
So if you notice Amber put her hand real gently on her ear here which she didn't pinch, she
didn't hurt, she just went like that to remind her and she got very quiet.
The reason what she's doing is that she's letting her know that there's a little pressure
on that ear which she doesn't like and that took her mind off the fact that she wanted
to be kind of ornery about having her bridle path clip so close to her ears.
This is just a feature of this mare.
Not all horses feel this way but once you know your horses then you get so that you
know the tricks and which to deal with them.
Amber is grooming this little foal who is almost a month old and as you can see he has
yet to have a bridle path.
That will certainly happen very soon but I don't do it right away.
I let my little foals be babies.
You will also notice that his head and his neck is partially clipped.
That is purely because his owner wanted to see what kind of head and neck he had and
the weather was warm enough to do so.
I would not and I do not advocate clipping a baby at this age.
I think it's too much of a shock to their system.
I think it stresses them too much and I feel in general that they should just be allowed
to be babies.
Now I'm going to make a very important point.
You notice as Amber is doing this she is holding very tight to the halter beneath the little
horse's neck and the reason for that is because these little guys are so unpredictable and
this is all new and he is a little baby and he could very easily get excited and flip
over on his head and at this point right here hit that.
It's called the pole.
It's right back here and it is possible that if they hit it on cement or something that
is hard the horse could be killed.
So you never, never, never with a baby ever let them go with a long lead and certainly
have strong control of them because they are at this stage so unpredictable.
Another reason for the short lead is you don't want to ever give them much of a lead because
they can jump up, twist in air or fall over backwards and break their necks.
I know I'm making an emphasis on this but it's very important that people realize that
this is indeed a problem with our little ones.
Now she is taking just a soft brush and going over him.
You notice how he has kind of calmed down after she initially started.
He kind of likes it.
They all like it.
She is doing it very gentle.
She has got complete control of her horse and he is probably thinking, hey this isn't,
this ain't too bad.
You notice I'm holding the mother so the baby can see the mother.
This is always of course obviously a very good idea.
Another reason it is good to groom your foal is that it gets them used to being handled.
Not only must we start halter breaking horses at this age but they should get very used
to the fact that you as the owner are going to be touching them, they are going to be
combing them, you are going to be touching their ears, you are going to be doing a lot
of things to them and that it doesn't hurt, sometimes even feels good so that they learn
that this is just the way life is as a domesticated animal.
Amber is going to try now very gently to do his face and we expect that.
We expect exactly what happened.
That's all new.
This is something coming down where he can really see it.
If you will notice she is showing it to him and he is certainly looking at it.
It is this thing and now she will reach up and just very gently and she will not over
do this because each time she does it he will get better.
You never want to stress your foal to make a point.
They are just too young to understand.
I believe in taking the learning techniques to the new foal and I do it in a very brief
short time each time.
These little foals are wonderfully adaptable.
You do this for a couple of weeks and all of a sudden you will just have a pussy cat
that really comes running up to you and wants it done but remember to do it right.
Don't try to scare them or just do it so that they come to terms with what is happening
to them.
Let's join Linda Wallace of Smaland Miniatures as she shares her tips and techniques for
bathing your horses.
Linda has been a breeder of performance miniature horses for four and a half years and currently
owns nine minis.
On a miniature that has its winter coat yet, we wouldn't recommend that you would bathe
at this point in time.
This hair would be very dense to get down through to get the dirt out at the deep up
against the skin and it would also take a long time to get the hair dry.
What we do before we bathe in the springtime is clip some of the hair off of the neck so
they can cool down if you are exercising them and we clip on the face and clip down here
on the chest.
But when we would need to bathe this horse, we would take a big blade clipper and clip
all the body hair off halfway down the leg and then we would bathe him after that hair
was removed.
I do not shampoo a horse unless it is going to go to a show.
I do a lot of currying, a lot of brushing.
If I body clip a horse, I almost always will clip that horse but I try to let them shed
out as much as possible.
But on my brood mares and my horses that I just have around the farm, I don't automatically
just shampoo them.
I just do the show horses and then they get one bath a few days before they go to the
show.
When we go to bathe, the first thing we do is wet the body down with warm water.
Never wash the horse in cold water if you can possibly keep from it.
I get the body soaking wet, get the mane very wet and the tail and I will get the face wet
also but I am very slow about getting the face wet.
I do it very gently and take the pressure off of the hose and try not to spook the horse
as much as possible so it is a pleasant experience.
And knock off as much of the dirt as one can and I find that if I use a spray nozzle on
the legs, you really blow out a lot of the dirt before you ever even have to start with
the shampoo.
And once the horse is wet all over, I concentrate on the body first with just a good shampoo
and getting lathered up real good and then I will rinse that off.
I will shampoo a horse twice and then after that first initial shampooing where most of
the mud comes off, then I shampoo a second time and while that shampoo is still on the
body before I rinse at the second shampooing, I will put shampoo in the mane and in the
tail.
And then I go back and I rinse the body off leaving the shampoo in the mane and the tail,
let it sit and soak in real good.
Then I do a rinse of the tail and the mane.
Try not to have a battle with your horse and making it a pleasant experience and if the
horse does move around to move with the horse and not try on a young horse, you know, the
only way they are going to get used to doing this is having it done to them and just being
you know gentle with it.
I put conditioner on the mane and the tail twice, usually the very first time the shampooing
is in the season and the second rinsing of the mane and tail, I try not to get absolutely
every ounce of that conditioner out.
I try to leave a little bit in there but a moderate amount.
If the horse's body has a lot of dry skin or dry places, I will treat it at that point
in time with maybe some special conditioner.
First shampooing in the spring, sometimes we see a lot of rain rot on these little horses
and might have to get a special shampoo out for the rain rot or fungus, we're not sure
what some of this is called.
But there's a number of different products on the market and we just treat the areas
and most of that is a type of thing that has to be rinsed back off and then there are some
sprays that you can treat those areas but it's very important to catch those in the
spring time and start treating them right away.
And that's one good reason why it is important to get this heavy hair off as soon as one
can without doing it too early in the season because once you clip them you have to put
a blanket on them.
And if you don't have adequate blankets, don't clip.
And usually this time of year if it's in the March, April time you might have to have at
least two blankets, a sheet and then a good heavy weight winter blanket that gives them
a lot of protection and those stay on day and night unless it particularly warms up
on an afternoon that you can leave the blankets off for a couple of hours maybe but they have
to go back on because you've taken all their natural protection away, they've been used
to that warmth all winter long.
2
After you have removed the excess water, immediately cover your horse with a bath sheet or cooler.
Rub him all over to help dry the hair and stimulate the circulation to warm him up.
It is very important to keep him warm until he is dry.
Then you can blanket him.
Now that your mini is bathed and dry, you will need to blanket him.
Before putting blankets on, be sure that the horse is completely dry.
If there is any moisture left in his coat, covering him with a blanket will retain the
moisture and cause him to chill.
For a fully clipped horse in cooler climates, two layers should be used.
Amber is using a lighter weight canvas blanket followed by a heavier outdoor blanket.
Make sure that the leg straps are secure so that the horse cannot become entangled in
them.
Careful hygiene for your brood mares and stallions is very important to avoid the spread of bacteria
and possible infection.
Before breeding, always clean the mare's genital area with a damp cloth and plain water.
Do not use soap.
Your stallion's sheath should be washed before breeding and between breedings to different
mares.
When the stallion drops, carefully wash the penis with a clean damp towel and plain water.
Do not use soap.
There are a number of sheath cleaning products available, but read the label carefully to
be sure that they do not contain ingredients that will kill the sperm.
In the final section of our workshop, we'll join well-known professional trainer Portia
Sue Owens to find out how to put those winning finishes on our show minis.
Portia and her husband Robert train and show miniature horses at Moondance Ranch.
No, this is not the blue Energizer mini.
This is Bananas, freshly bathed and body clipped and ready for his final preparations to enter
the ring.
Now we're ready to do our final preparation before we take this horse into the halter
class.
Remove the cooler.
The stretch suit is what we use to keep them clean after they've had their baths.
It also maintains, keeps the tail clean.
Good boy.
I'll leave the tail knotted up for now.
Oh, good boy.
Good boy.
Good boy.
The entire suit up over the ears keeps the top of his head clean.
Doesn't allow any dirt to get down inside.
Good boy.
It all just comes forward.
Good boy.
Okay, I'll start and I'll just dust off the dust.
Use hairs with the soft brush.
This is just a coat shine.
It's not a final shine.
It's one that's made to be left on.
It doesn't attract dirt.
I'll just give him a light spray with it and then towel him just to get any of the more
persistent dust off.
Good boy.
This is a good time to clean the face.
Good boy.
Easy.
Easy.
Easy.
Good boy.
We'll go back.
If I saw any stains on his legs, anything in particular that I wanted to work on, this
would be a real good time to attack those.
I don't want to do anything that takes a real long time though on a cold day because I want
to get his coolers back on.
So I'll try and just get him dusted off.
Easy.
Good boy.
Just using clean areas of my rag as I come in around his eyes.
Good boy.
This would be a good time now to also clean out his ears.
Like I said, I started with a clean rag, done his body, but I just turned to a nice clean
section on it each time I change areas.
This is a real good place on the face is to use a disposable baby wipe.
You can just use one and throw it away and it's real good for not transferring things
from one to the next.
Good boy.
I'm just going to wipe the muzzle up a little cleaner.
Good boy.
Good boy.
We're not allowed to show with braids of any sort in our halter horses, so although this
horse's forelock has been braided, it now has to be cleaned out.
Taking the braid out so it'll lay down just a little through the mane.
And especially in the tail that's been braided up, we'll run a little more of the spray in
here to get some of the kinks out as it dries.
So dampen it up here prior to wrapping it.
Good boy.
Just comb the tail down.
The tail wrap will help lay down how this hair is kind of bushed out here.
Some important to remember with tail wraps though, they must only go on temporarily because
they need to be snug in order to get the hair to lay down, but you also run the risk of
cutting off circulation.
So I would say a maximum of 30 minutes to an hour at the very most.
And this is also a very giving fabric that I'm using.
Some polar fleece type fabric.
Good boy.
There we go.
Don't ever use an elastic type bandage wrap because it is just too easy to cut off the
circulation.
We apply the mane tamer.
This is to help lay the mane down additionally.
It'll also keep the cooler from pulling the hair back up after we put the cooler back
on.
It's not too tight, but snug.
It doesn't need to be tight.
Always remember when you're putting anything on the mane, if you're going to move it or
shift it a little, you have to shift it with the mane because you're trying to get it to
lay down.
Don't ever say, oh whoops, this is over a little bit, so just give it a pull back.
Always keep it in the direction you want to go.
Now he's been pretty patient, so we'll let him get his cooler back on here so he doesn't
freeze.
And basically his body is ready to go to the show ring.
That's our preparation until right before he enters the ring.
We brought up a couple different examples to look at on the halters.
The basic style, there's not a lot of variation, but I think in selecting a halter you want
to stay with the trend probably, and this is the real common, this is what you're going
to see on most everybody.
It complements the horse, there's not a lot there.
You have a lot of choices as far as what you want to put under your horse's chin for control.
This is a chain, this is a bumper bar, and this is a soft bumper.
This is probably the best choice for a real timid baby, a young horse, it's real gentle.
This probably is the middle of the road, and then this can be fairly severe.
You can use it lightly, but you need to be careful with it.
We're just going to take a couple of these both for size and for style and see what we
like on banana or horse here.
We're going to start with this one because it's one we had from last year, and we're
going to see what happens.
If you wonder what these are, these are how we identify who they belong to.
Works pretty good, we just take them off.
When the horse goes to show, clip them up on the rack.
As soon as their halter goes back up there, they're back on.
Trying to keep us a little bit organized.
So we're just going to drop.
When you put these halters on, you should unbuckle them at the top.
Good boy.
Slide their nose in.
Good boy.
Easy ho.
Good boy.
This is actually a really good choice for him.
I was going to start with it because I thought it was going to be too small, but it's not
going to be.
Good boy.
When you want to fit a halter, the first thing you want to look is you want to know where
the halter sits on the horse's face.
This nose band is exactly perfect for him.
It comes across.
This is straight.
The only thing that I'm thinking is I'd like to be just a little closer.
You want the halter to sit right at the bottom of this bone.
So he could be just a hair shorter up here on his nose.
We're a little limited.
I would say the bumper bar is too small on this horse.
The halter fits, the bumper doesn't.
This is my choice for color on a horse that's this color.
You basically have a choice of a black halter, a brown halter, or a burgundy halter.
This just happens to be my choice on him is the brown.
We can take a look at a couple of others.
Good boy.
Easy.
Good boy.
This would be the next size up.
This horse is a two-year-old, but he has a fairly small head.
I actually thought the yearling halter wasn't going to fit him, and it did.
So now we'll look at an adult halter and try and decide.
He will probably go from the end of a yearling halter to an adult halter this year, but we'll
take a look and see.
Good boy.
Good boy.
Here you can see when I talked about fit of the nose, how this looks loose and sloppy.
It's too far down.
It's not sitting up here.
This takes a horse that's really pretty headed and ruins the picture to put a halter on that
doesn't fit.
I would say it's another good choice for color and pattern.
Isn't anything that detracts from the horse?
Good boy.
Good boy.
Easy.
Good boy.
This is another style halter.
Actually I would say not a bad choice on this horse.
Once again, it's an adult size halter, so you're looking it's a little bit too big and sloppy
on him yet.
He's getting close to wearing an adult, but it should sit here, not hang down below.
This is the correct way to fasten a bumper on.
Sometimes it's hanging on the rack.
Looks like it's backwards, but that's actually the way it is supposed to hang on the halter.
Good boy.
And these, a bumper isn't mean, just because you see one on doesn't mean a horse is unruly.
It's just a different way of controlling them and you have to be light with your hands on
it.
Good boy.
Somebody had to tell me to hold still.
That would be good.
It's hard for me to hold still.
This one's going to be my favorite halter at the tax store because it was the prettiest,
but probably the least appropriate choice for a horse of this color.
Once again, it's an adult halter, so we're seeing just a little bit too much sag, but
we prefer on the lighter, the brown toned horses to go with the brown halter.
In my mind, you see halter here and you take away the fact that you're showing a pretty
beheaded horse and when you look at this, you see a pretty purple halter as opposed
to a pretty palomino head.
So while this halter I like very much on the black gelding that it belongs to, I don't
like it on the light colored horse.
Okay, now we've selected our halter.
We've got the correct length chain.
Now Robert's going to do what we do as our first step when we go to final make them up.
And this is baby oil, it attracts dirt, so it's one of the last things that you want
to do.
This would be the time to apply sunscreen if you're at an outdoor show.
Easy, good boy, easy, good boy.
Once we put the baby oil, we'll now put the halter on.
There's an example of a halter that I've actually got a little too short up on his face.
It's sitting upright against this bone.
It's just not pleasing to look at that way.
We'll drop it I think a whole more.
And that is a good turnout for the halter fit.
The chain isn't too long, nor is it too short.
Good trick to remember with these snaps, take a rubber band and sit right underneath them
and wrap them.
Do it at every show because these things will get caught up in your snaps and then we'll
have liberty instead of halter.
So our next step now is to put the gel on the forelock.
It brings out the highlights.
It also kind of lays down any flaky skin or any dust.
Put a lot on there, it's pretty wild.
Once again we're not allowed to braid.
Some people will put a single rubber band over here to clip the forelock too.
That is legal in AMHA, but don't put anything else in that forelock.
Easy.
Good boy.
What we like to do is take a little twist to them and then bring them down underneath
their halter.
Easy.
Good boy.
Ho.
Ho.
Good boy.
Ho.
He's having a bit of a wild hair day there.
Good boy.
Ho.
We're just going to do a little bit of final makeup over the eye and the nose.
This has got a little bit of black coloring in it to highlight his eye.
On a horse with the dark skin we'll put a little bit of the dark color on, but we're
really going to blend it because he's got such light hair around it.
Your hat.
Don't, don't, that's enough black.
Just blend it.
It's going to be too heavy.
Good boy.
Ho.
Good boy.
Good.
Good.
Preferably, you would do this, we usually take a bucket of this up to the ring side
and we actually do this standing out there while they're maybe lining up the glass in
front of us.
We're talking a real last minute type situation.
If you put this on and then tie your horse up, he's just going to wipe it all off and
have it everywhere and especially a horse of this color.
Bring the black back onto the white horse is interesting.
Good boy.
Good boy.
Get up too much up there, just keep it off on the end of his nose.
The idea of darkening around the eye and around the nose is just to make it highlight and
make it look more extreme.
Good boy.
Easy.
Wipe the lines on the eyes too.
In between the hair and the eye it looks a little bit too dark.
There you go.
Good boy.
Good boy.
Good boy.
That's good.
Good boy.
To prepare the hooves for polish, they will need to be smoothed down to remove any ridges
or uneven spots.
Ordinary medium grade sandpaper will work just fine.
Good boy.
Next, using fine steel wool, buff the hoof wall until it is smooth and has a soft sheen.
The hoof is now ready for polish.
Always wear rubber gloves when applying black hoof polish.
Once it is on your fingers, it is very hard to remove.
Have the horse standing on a flat smooth surface that is clean and free of dust and hay.
Grab the polish at the heel, then paint around the coronet working downwards in horizontal
strokes.
Good boy.
Hoof polish has an extreme drying effect on the hoof wall.
Once the show is over, be sure to remove the polish with commercial hoof polish remover.
Apply a hoof dressing to restore the moisture.
Once you've done all this, don't look the other way and let him drop his head down and
go through the door or you'll not be real happy.
Now he's basically ready until I would say when they're calling the numbers, the ribbons
for the class ahead of us, we'll go ahead and we'll pull down, drop the main tamer
in the cooler, pull the tail wrap, and then this is just a final type spray and once again
this one has got a little bit of oil in it so it's the last thing that goes on before
he goes in the ring.
And let's run a main comb through the main and tail.
And there's our finished horse ready to go in the ring.
Hoof, good boy, hoof, hoof, hoof.
You have now completed this workshop.
To get the most out of this video class, it is suggested that you watch it again, taking
notes and thinking about how the information relates to you and your horses.
A healthy, well-groomed horse is a happy horse, and a happy horse means a happy owner.
Thank you for joining us, and happy grooming!