The first thing I can say is that there are no magic tricks involved in obtaining and maintaining a well groomed horse.  The secret is proper lighting, routine, hard work, and consistency. 

To begin with, our horses are kept under lights for a minimum of 14 to a maximum of 16 hours every day.  Scientists discovered long ago, when they were experimenting on extending the egg-laying capability of chickens, that it they simulated summer lighting conditions, the chickens would lay eggs all year. 

Further experiments showed that many animals, including the horse, will maintain a "summer" hair coat and a regular breeding cycle under the same conditions.  When you retain summer hours in your barn, all year round, with the artificial lighting and a simple timer, the horse is tricked into believing that it is summer time.  They will shed off a winter coat, or maintain a summer coat, unless removed from these same conditions.

We keep our horses under bright lights for 16 hours every day….year round.  Our timer pops the lights on at 6 a. m. and turns them off again at 10 p. m. every day.  The roof in each stall is white, which reflects the light an illuminates the entire stall. 

We changed over from 200 watt bulbs to 4' florescent bulbs in each stall due to the savings in electricity, but either will work well.  An 8' florescent is fine too.  Each stall has it's own lighting system.  The lights are not in the hallway, but over each horse. 

Our barn is completely enclosed and insulated, and it is heated in the winter, but even if you can't heat your barn, as long as there are no direct drafts on the horse, the lighting system will help tremendously, and you can use a sheet, sheet hood, blanket and blanket hood, to keep the horse warm during the winter months. 

We have several stalls that are enclosed, but not heated in an outside barn, and in addition to the overhead lighting, we use heat lamps.  Works wonderfully!

The next most important facet of grooming, is feeding and maintenance.  What you put on the inside of the horse, reflects on the outside.  Step one...take a stool sample to your vet and have your horse "tube" wormed at least every other month unless you live in snow country and your horse is not going to be in contact with a pasture or a stall where another contaminated horse may have been. 

Never use a wormer with Zimectrin in it unless you want your horse to lose it's hair coat and hair up.  It's a great wormer, but we've noticed that it blows a hair coat on our show horses.  In addition to the proper amount of protein and calcium in your feed, add a low fat oil, like soybean oil.  Corn oil goes right to their neck as fat and is hard to get off.  We get a vegetable oil in 50 pound jugs as SAMS, and on the ingredients, it's labeled as soybean oil.  Great stuff.

We buy small black rubber curry brushes for our horses.  They fit neatly into the palm of your hand and have pretty pointy edges.  Rotating your hand in a clockwise motion, you rub all over the horse's body, every day.  The semi-soft rubber in combination with the rotating movement, encourages oil to come to the surface of the hair, and scrubs away loose, dead hair. 

Never use a metal curry or a metal sweat scraper.  They can scratch the skin and cut the hair, giving it a fuzzy appearance.  After a good rub down with the rubber curry (throw it out when the teeth wear down to nubs as it's no good anymore) use your vacuum cleaner and such all of the dead skin and hair off the horse.  Finish off with a soft brush. 

Pick the horse's feet out every day, and use a hoof dressing, depending upon your climate.  If you work or live in sand, a simple and effective dressing that maintains suppleness in the hoof is a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of pine tar and mineral oil.  It's cheap and works wonders.  If you have white-line in the hoof, but some pine oil.  It's about $96 a gallon here, but it will get rid of the problem and keeps the hoof supple.

Buy a good human hair brush, and starting at the bottom of the horse's tail, gently work your way up the tail, until it is tangle free.  Wash the tail once a week and apply a leave-in conditioner like "Infusium" on the mane and tail every day so the hair won't get brittle.  We braid our tails and leave them braided.  Rubber bands at the end will cut the hair.  The good rubber hair-ties are much better. 

Don't perpetually wash the horse or you'll wash all the natural oil out of the hide.  Ronny has a coconut oil shampoo specially formulated for us by a local company, to put oil back into the hair.  Use a good shampoo and conditioner.  We've really liked the Infusium in a spray bottle for the whole body.  It's light, and not waxy, so it does not clog pores.  You do need to rinse the sweaty and/or sandy parts off every day so they don't get gummy and nasty!

This is our program…..six days a week, 52 weeks a year.  It's easy if you do it every day.   

Our supplies come from Paul and Anna Taylor in Aubrey, Texas.  The Taylor's carry everything from hoof black to saddles, at the most reasonable prices available anywhere.  Tell them the Stallings recommended that you call! 

Paul Taylor Saddle Company
Aubrey, Texas
(940) 365-2902

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