Shiny Horse Secrets

By Liv Gude, Brought to you by Shapely’s Grooming Products, the Official Grooming Product Sponsor of USPC

You have been working hard to prepare for a rally, horse show, or clinic, but is your grooming enough for the occasion? Showcasing a clean, shiny, and trimmed horse at any special event shows your respect for your horse and the sport or discipline you are competing in. 

These easy steps will produce a fantastic shine to make your steed show-ring ready. Your first step might not be where you first would expect to start. Before you reach for your grooming kit, begin with your horse’s feed bucket.  

Feed for Shine

A balanced, forage-based diet is the best place to start when feeding your horse. Grass and legume hays provide fiber, calories, and ample chewing time, especially when using slow feeders. Pasture grass, if your horse has access, can be more nutritious than hay alone.  

Horses may need supplements to fill in any missing blanks of a forage-based diet. This deficit could be due to missing nutrients in hay, like vitamin E, which disappears about a week after hay is cut. In other cases, the soil where hay is grown might be vitamin and mineral deficient, and supplements can help.  

Certain medical conditions or injuries can benefit from extra nutrients. For example, horses with ulcers or a history of colic and other digestive issues benefit from probiotics and hindgut buffers. In addition, a horse with brittle hooves may need more biotin.

When considering what to feed your horse for shine and a healthy coat, you should know that omega-3 fatty acids are helpful to support skin and coat health. These fatty acids are supplied by pasture, but quality pasture may not always be available year-round. Omega-3 fatty acids are also anti-inflammatory for your horse’s whole body. 

Your vet can help you balance your horse’s diet and replace any missing nutrients for optimal skin health and shine. 

Daily Grooming for Shine

A good daily grooming routine is essential for a shiny horse. Use your curry comb to help your horse shine! Sebaceous glands in your horse’s skin secrete a natural oil called sebum onto the coat. This oil creates shine and has antimicrobial properties to keep the skin healthy and help ward off topical skin infections. When it rains, sebum keeps your horse waterproof.  

The more you curry, the more you spread these protective oils while also lifting dirt and dander from your horse’s coat. Curry-combing is also an excellent massage for your horse’s hardworking muscles.

As you curry, you may see patches of mud, stubborn dust, and sightly stains. Use a no-rinse horse shampoo to help you spot-clean these areas. After currying, apply a few squirts of the spot cleaner to the dusty or stained area. Let this sit for a few minutes as you brush the rest of your horse. Then, rub the stain away using a dry or slightly damp cloth.  

Follow currying with plenty of brushing. The bristles of your hard and soft brushes will also help distribute that sebum over your horse’s coat. Then, you can add the final touch of shine with your finishing brush. Finishing brushes have short, dense bristles to smooth out freshly groomed hair and help that hair coat sparkle.

However, keep in mind that all that currying and brushing won’t make any difference if you are using dirty grooming tools. Regular cleaning of your grooming tools is essential for a shiny horse. 

Clip Your Horse for a Tidy Trim

Tidying your horse with trimmers or clippers looks neat and adds extra show-ring sparkle. Clip or trim after a bath when your horse is dry and clean. If you choose to clip, tidy up the areas listed below.

Jawline and Cheeks: Your horses’s jawline and cheeks tend to grow longer hairs. Trim these longer hairs by running your clippers down that area. Point your clipper blades down and rake the cheeks and jaw as you tidy him up.

Bridle Path: A short bridle path looks good and helps your horse’s halter and bridle fit better. When the crownpiece of your horse’s tack can rest evenly over the poll, it will be more comfortable.  

Fetlocks: Use the same method of raking your clipper blades down to tidy up the fetlocks and lower legs.
Coronary Band: The coronary band, also called the coronet, is essential to the hooves. A new hoof wall grows out of the coronary band, and injuries there can affect the entire hoof. By trimming this area, it will allow you to catch wounds and cracks more easily. Bang the Tail: Clipping a straight line across the bottom of your horse’s tail helps a thinner tail appear fuller. However, this is not a good idea for naturally thick tails or if you show in a discipline where the standard is a natural tail. 
Lastly, use clippers on stray hairs around elbows, chestnuts, and that creep past the edges of the ears. Keep your horse’s ears furry inside to block the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays and keep insects out of his ears.

Finishing Touches

A few finishing touches will make your horse extra shiny for any special occasion. Getting your horse ready for a show usually involves a bath, trimming up hair, and adding a few products to help boost the final glow-up.

A bath is a major opportunity to boost shine. If you plan to clip your horse, start with a super-clean, freshly bathed horse. The best shampoos are mild, yet effective shampoos that can also increase shine while thoroughly cleaning your horse. You want to use a shampoo to add to your horse’s natural oils and not take any away. If your horse has sensitive skin, look for shampoos with lemongrass or tea tree oil to soothe the skin while adding shine. (Added bonus: these ingredients also repel some types of flies!) Be sure to rinse your horse thoroughly afterward.

After bathing, it’s time to add those shiny finishing touches. Choose grooming oils, sheen sprays, and gloss sprays to help your horse stand out. Here’s the rundown on how to use each of these products for maximum shine.

Grooming Oils: Grooming oils add shine, condition the mane and tail, and highlight dark legs, eyes, and noses. For overall shine, add a few capfuls of grooming oil to two gallons of water if it is during warm weather. You can then sponge this on your horse after a bath or use a rag to lightly curry the oil into your horse’s coat.  

For manes and tails, these oils will detangle, condition, and add shine. Massage a capful into your horse’s mane and tail. If you need more, add just a little at a time. To highlight dark knees and faces, use half a capful as you run it into your horse’s dark areas with your hands.

Shine Sprays: Shine sprays, also called sheen sprays, are quick to apply and can even detangle a tail. They give a subtle shine and make the coat slick, which is excellent if you are planning to put fancy quarter marks on your horse. But be careful to avoid the saddle area—a slick coat in this area can cause your saddle to slip. For horses that don’t like being sprayed, you can spray a soft brush or finishing brush for application.

Gloss Sprays: The ultimate show-ring shine comes from gloss sprays, a fine spray perfect for the show ring. After spraying the body, a soft brush can smooth everything out. You can also use a little extra along your horse’s topline to catch the sun. Gloss sprays also make a fantastic hoof polish. 

Now you know all the shiny horse secrets! If you start working ahead of an event, you can build up an amazing shine over time. Then, when it comes to the big day, all you have to do is remove any stains and add that final layer of gloss.

This article was originally published in the 2024 Summer issue of Discover USPC magazine. Read more content from that issue.

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