I've seen some articles in the horse magazines, like practical horseman, and horse illustrated. You can cover with a cooler or blanket, Get some towels and warm water w/light soap, dip towels in bucket, squeeze out, rub the towel in small circles till towel collects dirt, rinse out, rinse with wet warm towel with no soap, repeat :working front to back, folding blanket back as you go and recovering cleaned places. (You could use 2 blankets or coolers to do this.) I believe there are some soapless cleaners (dry cleaner for horses:} you can buy too). We had no hot water till last year, we added a pipe with a shut off handle to our garage faucet. If we turn the valve inside it mixes the hot water to our outside faucet. You just have to remember to shut it off or the bathroom upstairs gets only hot water and not cold, and the horse trough gets hot water:{ We can bathe in winter on days over 55, we just use coolers, sometimes 2 till they are dry, sometimes we let them graze with them up near the house or put them in their stalls.And putting some straw/hay under the cooler ,on their backs helps air flow and drying. Course we clip, it's faster to clean and cool them-, just have to be able to put the right blanket combination on them. Laurie and Rascal---- Original Message ----- From: Charles Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2002 5:51 AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] grooming and the coming cold weather - what's the best way to wash I went for a ride last night and found I'd better wait for the new saddle.
After the ride, I realized my horse needed a bath. I washed him like normal
(spray with cold water to remove sweat and dirt, and vinegar rinse with
hot/warm water). It dawned on me as the temperature dropped that this would
probably be the last bath till spring. Then I wondered "what tricks am I
missing?"
So, what advice does anyone or everyone have? How do you bathe a horse when
you don't have a hot running water or a wash stall, just hoses, electricity,
buckets, and water heaters? Is there a way to "dry wash" a horse? What
about if you want to conserve water or avoid a mess? How do you dry the
horse afterwards so that the horse can go back out? How dry do they have to
be?
Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated. I've looked through the
books I have, and they don't really cover this. I can read about problem
horses, bad saddles, but I didn't see much, if anything, for "grooming your
horse in bad weather."
Charles
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