Tips on cleaning your grooming kit

How to clean your horse’s grooming kit

Spring is in the air, and with those lighter evenings ahead, many people’s thoughts turn to spring cleaning and getting ready for the spring and summer, when we can all enjoy our horses a whole lot more! Spring cleaning can take the form of cleaning any (and every) area around the yard, but in this blog, we’re going to look at spring cleaning the grooming kit. With everything the brushes have accumulated over winter, it’s definitely a good job to do!

Banish the hair

First of all, clean the hair out of your brushes! Before you move through to washing, you want to remove all the hair that you can. Clean your horse’s bristled brushes using a metal curry comb, and pick out the hair as best as you can from any other combs or equipment too.

Soapy water

Now, get yourself some warm, soapy water. Some people use washing up liquid (which can be handy if your brushes are greasy as the ingredients in washing up liquid are designed to break this up!), some use a splash of horse shampoo, and others use diluted disinfectant like Hibiwash. It usually depends on what’s available, but also if you have any specific concerns about your horse’s sensitivities.

Get scrubbing!

In the warm water, scrub your brushes. You might like to use a curry comb to clean the brushes, to get rid of all the grease, scurf and dirt. To clean combs and curry combs, a sponge might be useful too. If your brushes are really dirty, you might need to do this stage more than once to make sure that the brushes really are clean before the rinse. Often the most effective way is to use your fingers. A pair of rubber gloves are sensible to protect your hands.

Rinse

Next, you need to rinse your grooming brushes. You must make sure that brushes are free from soap, disinfectant or whatever else you’ve used to clean them as they could aggravate the horse’s skin if there’s any residue.

You want to use a towel to take the worst of the water away from the bristles to help speed up drying, and you might want to think about drying the backs of the brushes too, particularly if these are made from wood. Make sure your brushes are put in a warm environment to dry (although not on a direct heat source) and ensure they’re completely dry before you return them to your grooming kit and the yard.

Not only is keeping your grooming kit clean good for your horse, it’s also an important step when thinking about hygiene around the yard.