There are not many horse-related activities as nice as grooming horses on an excellent sunny day, especially if you have an extensive collection of apparatus for grooming. If there’s any downside, it is the dust and the summer season’s beginning malting coat, but all that is of no significance after you get to see your horse’s summer coat come through in shining triumph, shimmering with vigour and health.

A grooming kit for summer must include these essentials: shampoo, sponges and fly sprays. For whatever purpose: washing the pony down after a good afternoon run or giving him a full-on bath so he will sparkle for an outing, shampoo and sponges are indispensable summer accessories. In winter, when it is too cold for a full bath, they may also be used to get shot of stable stains. Make sure your grooming accessories include tail and mane conditioners and coat shines, which make the ideal material for getting your horse to look spanking clean. Use them as a post-bath spray to give him an additional sheen. To top it all off, apply fly spray all over so your pony is clean, good looking and cosy too. That should leave you both content. To protect against allergies, always test out new lotions, creams, sprays and potions on a little patch of skin and keep a look out for allergic reactions.

Other must equipment that your grooming set should include are a mane comb and a small pair of scissors. A pulling brush is useful for trimming, as it is handy enough to reach nooks that are normally hard to get to. At the beginning of the season, almost all of your horse’s hair should have been taken off with clippers. Unless your horse is very hairy, a brush and scissors are ideal for constant trimming of straggly hair growth on areas like the fetlocks and moustaches.

We haven’t finished with your grooming kit yet. Other can’t-do-without stuff your kit should have are quarter markers, plaiting bands, wipes and stable rubbers. While a lot relies upon the kind of pony you own, getting a horse groomed before a show needs these things for that incredible look. Horses are scared travellers, and never cease to surprise their owners with how much muck they can generate even after short journeys in trailers. That’s why wipes are absolutely essential. It is easy to get a neat job done with wet wipes, which are also handy for cleaning out and shining up areas round the nose and eyes. For hygiene’s sake, you ought to use separate wet wipes on each area.

Think about every viewpoint when you start a list of the grooming accessories you want to procure. It may be sensible to have separate kits for competition grooming and for yard grooming. The competition kit should be renewed with any products that are getting ready to finish or wear out before it can become unusable. It is better to have extras and be rather safe than regretful, because there is nothing so deflating as finding out you are short of something at a competition. When your grooming kits are complete, and your grooming efforts have borne fruit, take a while off to enjoy feasting your eyes on your stunning equines!

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about western show clothes