Bathing a Horse

Many years ago when I was new to horses, I wanted to learn how to properly give a horse a bath. Little did I know that bathing a horse rarely goes as planned, they have to learn to like it or at least tolerate it. It’s not as easy as turning on a hose and expecting the horse to stand there and take it. I had a friend who offered to teach me how to give a horse a bath as a sort of horse gifts. She rattled off directions to her barn to me, telling me to take the first right after the sign saying cheap freisian horses for sale, then just pull up and park by the barn. Off I went all excited to see how it was done. I arrived to see a variety of shampoos, conditioners, scrub brushes, and other as I was told needed equipment. So much for one horse bath was all I could think. I had no idea what I was in for.

We started out with an old been there done that show horse. He stood patiently and let us spray him down with the hose, pour soap on him, scrub him, rinse him, condition him, rinse him again, and then scrape the water off him. It was easy. After letting him dry for a while, I got the lecture on how it took quite some time to get him to that point. To prove her point, she brought out the yearling for his bath. That little guy did not want to stand still at all. He didn’t like any of it. By the time we were done bathing him, we’d all had a bath. We were wet from head to toe from attempting to follow him with the hose or to get the soap on him. We couldn’t even begin to get his face wet with a wrestling match. A year later that same yearling stood nicely, though reluctantly, for a bath. It only took about 100 baths to get him there. Bathing a horse takes time and patience, if you’re lucky, you’ll get a horse that actually likes it.