General Horse Content - General Horse Care

A consistent grooming routine can benefit your horse greatly as the time spent grooming will keep your horse cleaner and healthier as well as help develop a horse-owner bond due to the social factor. Many horses actually find the grooming process to be rather refreshing, while others could do without were it up to them

There are four basic tools every horse owner should own for day-to-day horse grooming: a curry comb, a stiff brush (often called a dandy brush), a body brush (sometimes called a finishing brush) and a hoof pick.

Start your grooming process with the rubber curry comb, brushing it in a circular pattern to loosen/uproot dead hair and dirt. Be particularly careful when currying bony regions (such as along the spine) and the legs because although the curry is crafted from rubber it is still tough and can cause discomfort when not used in a gentle manner. Never curry a horse's face; not only is it uncomfortable for the horse, one wrong move can jab a pointed rubber tooth into the horse's eye.

The next step is to pull out your stiff brush and work it along the horse's body in a flicking movement, much like you would do if you swept the kitchen floor. Make sure you follow the "grain" of your horse's hair, because the bristles are stiff and you can cause discomfort if you flick against the grain. Your goal here is to take the dirt and hair you loosened with the curry and flick it into the air, so do not brush a horse down at this stage or you will just pack the dirt back down.

Once your horse has been curried and the loosened dirt/hair has been flicked you will want to finish your horse with a soft bristled brush. This time you are going to brush the horse down normally; the finishing brush is designed to remove any surface dirt that might remain as well as smooth down the hair.

Some people prefer to use a curry glove (a rubber glove with stubs/teeth) instead of the comb, which is fine. Others prefer to use a polishing cloth (one designed for horses, not cars!) in place of a finishing brush, and once again that is fine. There are many utensils available on the market – the above are just the basic tools owned by almost every horseman.

During the early spring months horse owners are often tempted to use a shedding blade (a circular metal blade with sharp teeth) to remove the horse's winter coat. Unless your horse has an extraordinarily thick coat, I recommend against using this instrument unless you are very gentle. The metal teeth are very sharp and easily capable of puncturing skin, so caution is essential. Never use a shedding blade along your horse's bony regions, legs or face!


Implementing a proper horse hoof care program into your daily regimen can spare your equine partner from various inconvenient (and often painful) maladies such as thrush and abscesses – and the good news is proper hoof care can take just minutes per day!

The main weapon you should possess in the battle for healthy hooves is the hoof pick, which is used to pick out sharp debris such as stones as well as manure and moist, bacteria-filled dirt and shavings. Unless you remove these contaminants daily you run the risk of a horse developing various hoof afflictions depending on your horse's normal grazing area, living conditions and hoof health.

Depending on the time of year and ground conditions, your horse's hooves may become too dry, thereby becoming brittle and vulnerable to cracks. This is usually more of a problem for shod horses since the shoe and nails can lower blood circulation and dry out the hoof. Two things you can do to combat that are:

Exercise your horse regularly! Activity improves the blood circulation within the hoof.

Use a hoof supplement such as Tuff Stuff, which is designed to toughen the hoof wall while moisturizing it.

A hoof is much like our own foot. If we were to take off our shoes and run through the woods, chances are it would be a rather painful experience. But if we stopped wearing shoes permanently, with time our feet would toughen until we could traverse rugged terrain comfortably.