If there's one thing I've learned from owning a grey horse it's that no horse is ever 100% clean. Every brush stroke adds dirt and removes it at the same time. Because of this I try to clean my brushes regularly. This not only allows my horse to stay cleaner but also gives me the chance to organize my grooming tools, or which I have far too many. While cleaning my brushes I decided it might be fun to share with you what's in my grooming box!

The following are some of my favorite grooming products that I keep in my everyday grooming box.

To start with, my grooming tote is a pink Little Giant Duratote I bought from Jeffers Equine. The plastic makes it easy to clean and it has held up very well through several drops and kicks. Both sides of the tote are the same size which allows me to stuff all my various grooming products in without having anything fall out.

The next critical products in my grooming box are my everyday sprays. The first is Endure Sweat Resistant Fly Spray. Because Florida is extremely hot and buggy I need something that will not sweat off my horses and will not wash off in the rain. So far I have been very impressed with Endure. The roller ball contains fly spray for face applications and around the occasional cut. The pink bottle contains Healthy HairCare Hair Moisturizer. This product has been a life saver for Cupid's mane and tail, and I can't wait to see how it helps Foxy's skimpy tail and thin mane.

The next image is some of my everyday hoof products. Because Cupid has a bit of a reoccurring thrush problem I always have a bottle or two of Thrush Buster handy. While most people might use Hooflex for hooves I find it works amazing to keep chestnuts moisturized and clean looking. It does cause a bit of a greasy look to the hair around the chestnuts but my mares look less feral since I started applying this every few days.

The next product pictured is Life Data Farrier's Finish. I love using this as a disinfectant and conditioner on hooves. It helps keep thrush at bay and makes hooves look amazing. While this is expensive the bottle seems to last a long time. The final product is Iodine. I keep this on hand at all times for cuts, scrapes, or other funny ailments that might pop up from time to time on legs.

The first curry, and a personal favorite of my horses, is the Oster Fine Curry Comb. Both mares love this curry on their faces and it is amazing at pulling up dandruff on thick winter coats. The second curry is also by Oster, their Coarse Curry Comb, which is great for breaking up dirt and on winter coats. I also enjoy using this curry during baths around shedding season. The third curry is by far my favorite, the Epona Shed Flower. Shedding season with Cupid never seemed to end. She was a furry, shedding beast for far too long and the shed flower was greatly appreciated. The teeth pulled all the loose hair out gently, and the flower shape is comfortable to hold. The fourth and final curry comb is a standard rubber curry comb. I do have a smaller size to fit my smaller hands.

My hoof pick collection might seem small but don't worry, I have plenty of backups in my tack trunk at home. With how often I lose these things I make sure to buy them in bulk. My favorite hoof pick is the SmartPak Hoof Pick Brush with Grip. This hoof pick feels right in my hand and sturdy enough to pick out packed dirt with ease. The brush has held up through several years of use and cleans up nicely. The second hoof pick that I always keep in my box is the Tail Tamer's Coated Steel Hoof Pick, this is a smaller hoof pick that I use when it has been dry out and there is not a lot of debris packed in the hoof. Another item that I keep with my hoof pick collection is a hoof cleaning brush, when applying thrush products I always make sure to brush out the hoof with this brush to ensure all the sand and dirt is removed. This also works great as a water brush to truly clean the hoof.

The next two items are pretty self explanatory, a pair of hair cutting scissors and a wide tooth comb from the dollar store. The scissors work well when I need to cut length off a mane or bang tails, and because they were cheap I don't need to worry about them getting wet.

As every horseman knows, good brushes are worth their weight in gold. I keep four brushes in my grooming box. The first is the Wahl Stiff Body Brush, this is a nice hard brush with medium bristles that I use for everyday grooming. The next is the Wahl Soft Body Brush, which is a soft brush that brings out a nice shine. The third brush is Foxy's favorite, the Wahl Face Brush. Fox will stand completely still and drop her head to her knees so I can brush her blaze with this brush. The fourth brush is my favorite during extremely dirty days or for a dusty winter coat, it's the Epona Fancy Dandy Flower Flick Brush. This is very comfortable in my hand and has longer bristles than the stiff body brush above.

The final items I keep in my grooming box are the Wahl Sweat Scraper, the Epona Tiger Tongue, and pet grooming gloves that I bought off Amazon for shedding season. The horses love the gloves and the tiger tongue and will lean into both of them for a deeper scratching.

So there you have it! My grooming items in my long running fight to keep that grey mare clean! What's in your grooming box?

After the ketchup experiment, I decided that I needed to try something more heavy duty to pull the yellow stains from Cupid's tail. While picking at her tail I did realize that sections of hair at the top are growing in "blonde" so it is very possible that the bottom section is naturally blonde. But because there was fading from the ketchup, I do believe that the yellow is staining.

Tail after the ketchup experiment

Today's experiment consisted of V05 strawberry shampoo and conditioner, and Dawn Dish Soap (the blue bottle). I know several people who use Dawn as their primary shampoo for their horses but have never tried it myself. I do keep a large bottle in my tack locker for bucket and bit cleaning purposes.

To start I soaked Cupid's tail with water and spread the strawberry shampoo through it. This was then combed through to remove as much surface dirt as possible. The shampoo smelled great and really got all of the surface dirt out, but did not do anything to remove the staining.

After the initial shampoo

After the shampoo was fully rinsed off I coated Cupid's tail with Dawn, avoiding her tailbone. This created a ton of lather that I used on her feet. Lately, we have been having issues with scratches and I wanted to remove the excess grease from the ointment. I allowed the Dawn to soak into her tail for approximately 10 minutes while I soaked her hay cubes and conditioned her mane with Cholesterol Cream.

Clearly super thrilled about standing around while she got bathed

Rinsing the Dawn from her tail did take forever. The suds kept bubbling off the tail which did make me a bit nervous about possibly leaving too much residue that would attract dirt. Once the Dawn seemed to be rinsed out completely I coated her tail in the strawberry conditioner to restore moisture. While massaging the conditioner into the tail I discovered that there was still Dawn in the tail. Yay for soap suds mixed with conditioner.

I left the conditioner sit while I put away our tack and then rinsed it out. Thankfully the conditioner and the remaining bits of Dawn completely rinsed out within a few minutes. I left Cupid to dry on the cross ties. Once fully dry, I sprayed the usual hair moisturizer onto her mane, tail, and coat.

Overall the Dawn did seem to remove some of the staining from Cupid's tail. It was not a miracle product but it was good enough that I would use it again. I do believe that it dried out her tail a bit more than desirable, but it was not as brittle as it had been when I first got her. As you can see we're slowly getting the tail back to a clean and acceptable color, but it's a long process due to the amount of staining I allowed to build up.

Not bad but still a long way to go

My dream horse was always a pure black with a small star and an angled snip. Owning a grey was the complete opposite end of what I wanted. Grey horses are a pain to get clean and seem determined to be as stained as humanly possible. Cupid, thankfully, is a bit picky about where she rolls and lays down. Plus she has a HUGE mud/water/pee spot phobia so I don't need to worry about those stains! But no matter how prissy my girl is I still have to deal with the typical grey stains, including a lovely yellow stained tail. Thus, I introduce the new post series "Grooming the Grey". 

Sweet and innocent, but awful to keep clean

*Note* Please use all suggestions with caution. I can only speak to my own experiences with all products recommended.

Before - A lovely black/grey fade to yellow tail

Hours of digging through Chronicle of the Horse led me to discover several alternative methods for cleaning stains out of a grey horse. One of the stranger methods involves soaking their tail in ketchup. Supposedly the acidity of ketchup pulls the yellow stains from tail hairs without causing as much damage as bleach. Because I had an expired bottle of ketchup in my fridge I figured this would be my first try at turning Cue's lovely grey/white, black and yellow tail into grey, white and black.

Step one was to shampoo the tail with Shiny Silver Ultra from Sally's Beauty Supply. This was on sale last year so I grabbed a few bottles. It does brighten Cupid's coat and mane, but only takes a little bit of the yellow staining out of her tail. I figured a clean tail would allow the ketchup to penetrate better. 

After the first shampoo

After the shampoo was completely rinsed out I coated it with ketchup. Naturally, Cupid kept swishing her tail getting ketchup water all over the barn and me. Because the bottle was almost empty I stuffed her tail into the ketchup bottle as far as it would go. I did not go past her tailbone because the staining was not too bad at that point and I did not want to irritate her skin. 

Ketchup coated tail

The ketchup sat on her tail for approximately 10 minutes while I stuffed her full of carrots. Because I wanted to ensure that it was all removed I reshampooed her with the Shiny Silver after I rinsed the ketchup out. I was also afraid of her tail smelling like ketchup and getting eaten off by one of her pasture mates. After both shampoo and ketchup were completely rinsed out I covered her tail with a deep conditioner. I used Suave 2 Minute Super Conditioner Intense Moisture because it has been hanging out in my shower forever and I wanted to see it gone. 

Shampoo and Conditioner

Once the conditioner was rinsed out and her tail was dried I was pleased to see that the yellow was faded more than shampoo alone would have done. and that her tail was not dried out. It was easy to comb through and felt healthy. 

Post-ketchup in the sun

Overall, I don't believe the ketchup would have been a good last minute treatment before a show but it was a good "get the tail back to normal" option. I would do this again, but next time I would attempt to leave the ketchup in longer. 

Post-ketchup tail in the shade