Winter Sparkle

Keeping horses clean in cold winter conditions can be challenging, but it can be done, our expert says.
By Margaret Buranen

Chris Knox, a well-known breeder of Connemara and Connemara-Thoroughbred crosses, knows a lot about keeping a show-ready shine on horses all year around.
A member of US Equestrian’s Breeders, Carriage Pleasure Driving, and Connemara Committees, she has competed in dressage, show jumping, and other equine sports. She has groomed horses of many breeds — and colors. Over the years the Bancroft, Idaho, resident has developed some tricks to make her horses look their best and save herself time and effort, even when winter sets in.

Cold Water Won’t Wash in Winter

“You can’t use cold water on a horse in winter,” so having a source of warm water is “almost imperative,” Knox said.

Many barns have a frost-free hydrant in the wash stall. When the faucet is turned off, water drops below the frost level, so the hydrant never freezes. But without a water heater or separate hot water line, this water is too cold to use on a horse. When Knox and her husband built a new barn, they had their plumber install a shower mixing valve at the frost-free hydrant. He then connected a pipe to the water heater in the heated tack room. The mixing valve combines hot and cold water to deliver water at a preset temperature.

“The water always feels warm to your hand and to the horses,” Knox said.

Installing the mixing valve and pipe to a water heater can be expensive if the existing barn floor has to be removed, though a retrofit can be feasible if you need or are already planning new barn flooring. A less expensive option is a portable hot water heater attached to the frost-free hydrant. These heaters can be moved around on wheeled carts.

“Most people have heated water in their tack rooms,” Knox said. “You can fill a bucket and sponge off the horse’s legs and lower tail. Some horses will put their feet into buckets of warm water [to soak off dirt].”

Knox also recommends hanging infrared lamps above wash stalls. Heat radiates down, warming groom and horse.

In winter, Knox sprays warm water only on a horse’s lower legs and lower tail, never on their body. She thoroughly dries any wet area. The fake chamois towels divers often use and microfiber cleaning towels are better than terrycloth towels, Knox believes, because they can be wrung out quickly to absorb more water.

For horses who are damp from exercise, Knox also suggests draping 100% wool blankets or thick fleece throws over them, then moving on to groom other horses; in a while, the blankets will be wet, but the horses underneath them will be dry.

Natural Protection

“Unless a horse is old or debilitated in some way, I never blanket an unclipped horse,” Knox said. “A horse’s coarse guard hair on top of his undercoat fluffs up [trapping air, thus providing] insulation for him. But if he’s wearing a blanket he can’t fluff up his coat, and you’re not there every hour to remove the blanket if he overheats, sweats, and then gets chilled. People feel cold, so they put blankets on horses who don’t need them.”

Wind and cold rain are a horse’s enemies, so access to shelter, such as a three-sided run-in shed or open stall attached to a paddock, is key. In addition to their hair coats, another natural protection horses have against winter weather is scurf, the combination of dead skin cells and skin oil. “It’s the horse’s natural water repellant, a good thing [that outside horses need],” Knox explained.

Knox makes a point of not clipping her horses’ legs, even though the extra hair may cause dirt to cling to them and make extra work for her. “They need hair on their fetlocks, because it acts like a rain gutter on a house,” she explained. “It keeps rain from accumulating on the backs of their heels. In winter, leave hair on to protect the horse and to let water drain away.”

Dry Cleaning

Thorough grooming every day is essential when it’s too cold to rinse the horse’s body. Knox uses brushes and a vacuum cleaner. She starts with a curry — she prefers a rubber curry comb because it melds to her hand — then follows up with a dandy brush, and a softer brush for horses with thinner coats, such as Thoroughbreds. Knox replaced her small canister vacuum’s original hose with a much longer one, which allows her to operate it with only the hose and its attachment, and not the whole machine, in the wash stall.

Spot-cleaning a few dirty spots keeps them from attracting more dirt and saves work, said Knox, who relies on Grime Boss towelettes because they’re made to clean mechanics’ greasy hands, and with one smooth and one rougher side they’ll quickly remove manure stains and other dirt from horses.

Clean, Fluffy Tails

To remove tangles from manes and tails, Knox uses Luster’s Pink, which she says won’t freeze in a cold barn. Even if her horse’s tail is dirty, Knox sprays it with Luster’s Pink before giving it a good brushing. Often the tail gets clean enough that she can skip dunking the lower part in a bucket of water.

“A fluffy, detangled tail looks clean,” she said.

But if the lower part of the tail is extra dirty, Knox dunks it in warm water, shampoos it, and dunks it again in clean water. She applies cream rinse (Knox recommends Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship) and leaves it on for five minutes before dunking the tail again. Then she sprays on Luster’s Pink.

Warm Spell? Wash Those Whites

Keeping a white horse dazzling is always a challenge, especially in colder temperatures. If it’s warm enough to wash a horse, Knox first rinses off the horse with warm water, then mixes bluing (she suggests Mrs. Stewart’s Liquid Laundry Bluing) in warm water. Be sure to dilute the bluing with enough water; if you don’t, you will end up with a blue horse!

Knox dips a sponge in the bluing water, adds Orvus paste livestock shampoo to give the mane and coat a good scrub, then rinses the shampoo out with clean water.
She rinses the tail off and puts it into a new bucket of bluing water, sponging this water on top of the tail, then adds the shampoo and scrubs the tail well. She rinses the tail first with the bluing water, then with clean water.

Next, Knox adds OUT’s White Brite laundry whitener to a new bucket of water, sponging it onto the top of the tail and letting it sit for several minutes before rinsing it well. (Knox notes that she finds White Brite too drying for the horse’s coat but good for the coarse tail hair.) Knox then applies cream rinse, letting it sit for a few minutes before rinsing. The result is a sparkling white to rival any snowfall.

Check out more grooming, blanketing, and horse-care tips in US Equestrian’s online Learning Center at usef.org/learn. There are 90+ videos and a library of additional resources covering horse care, training, breeds and disciplines, US Equestrian programs, and more!

Photos: Shelley Paulson Photography