I pulled Chrome out of the pasture for his weekly hoof trim and decided to clean him up a bit. With it getting dark so early I don't spend much time brushing him. He loves being curried. I brushed him from head to toe, but I decided to forego the haircut I was planning. His mane helps protect him in the winter, so I'll just leave it be even though it's yellow and a lot shorter by the withers.
Pre-grooming. I just realized all of his pictures are of this side.... no clue why I didn't get any from his other side. It was probably the lighting.
I brushed his mane out. Ugh, I hate how he's torn it out. It's so ugly. I want to give him a Mohawk so bad! I miss his Mohawk.
I love the angle of this shot. I was sitting in a chair in front of him, giving my back a break from rasping his hooves. He was watching hubby feed the goats.
I love my hoof stand.
After being brushed. He is so handsome!! Even with his nasty brown mane and tail.
His hooves after we rasped them (hubby helped when my back gave out). They are a little rough, but he is due for a trim. I'm going to have to soak them again because I think he's getting thrush, but no sign of white line disease, so yay!
Then I decided to wash his nasty tail.
I let him eat clover while his tail dried, but unfortunately the sun was setting so I knew I wasn't going to be able to get new photos of him all cleaned up... sigh.
The sunset was gorgeous though!
I had to hold his tail and swish it back and forth to help dry it before it got dark. I always forget how much the sun and flies help with drying a tail out quickly. He was a little annoyed with me swinging his tail back and forth, but all he did was try to move his haunches away from me. When he realized I wasn't going to give up he just went back to grazing.
This was about as good as I could get with the light disappearing. You can see he still has a lot of stains in his tail. I washed it with dishwashing liquid (I know it's extremely drying....), then I remembered that a friend gave me some Cowboy Magic shampoo and conditioner so I washed it again and then conditioned it. It felt so much nicer afterward. Before I washed it he had a lot of static electricity and it felt like straw. I really need to get some blue shampoo for those stains...
Anyway that's it for now. I really enjoyed spending time with him instead of just rasping his hooves really quick and then hurrying off to the next chore that needed done. I miss spending quality time with him. It's a good thing he's such a sweet, laid back horse. :)
I don't have any white/grey horses these days (so I haven't tried this myself, maybe you can have Chrome be a guinea pig & report back?)...
ReplyDeleteThe secret to bright tails is ketchup. Yeah. Rub a bunch of ketchup (no name) into his tail and let it sit 5 minutes or so. Then wash it out, rinse well.
What do you have to lose? Worst case scenario, he smells like a french fry for a few days. ;-)
I have never heard of using ketchup! I might have to try that. Someone on Facebook mentioned tomato sauce. It just be something in tomatoes. I wonder if it's the same thing that gets rid of the skunk smell when a dog gets sprayed??
DeleteMy two favorites for when I don't have any whitening shampoo (or I'm trying to use it sparingly cuz I cannot buy it here) - Spray & Wash and Dr Bronner's Castile soap. (Either or, or both.) Only the lower half of the tail. Do you know about Castile soap? It's supposed to be diluted, I think that is why it works so well. You definitely need to moisturize your hands afterwards, it kills your skin. But the tail looks good until the horse rolls in mud/poops in the wind again. I know you're too busy, I am jobless so I wash the tail every week or two, and it's still not as white as I'd like. Oh, recently another blogger talked about how she gets her horse's tail white (and it is PURE white). She says the secret is to use hot water. As hot as you can stand, both to wet the tail, and to rinse. Several successive buckets so you're rinsing in clean, hot water at the end. She said it is the secret to getting your white laundry clean, so why wouldn't that apply to the tail? Good point. And it's so much nicer in Winter to have a hot tail in your hands.
ReplyDeleteI thought of you today, Chrome's mane, because I had to cut another chunk of mud out of Mag's mane. And I understand the urge to just cut the whole thing off, when it's brownish yellow: (
Is Chrome flea-bitten?
Yep he is definitely getting flea-bitten! His face is covered in them. His shoulders look like that because when he rubs them from the sweet itch the hair grows back in dark.
DeleteWow thanks for all the tips about his tail. I have lots of suggestions now!! No one has ever mentioned hot water before. That is such a good idea! Thank you!