Shampoo & conditioners

[Cara]

alrighty then, for the past few years i have been using superpoo shampoo and conditioner, it is alright for the body, but the mane and tail dont look all nice and shinny.... know what i mean, i have a dark buckskin, and i wanna find a shampoo that will bring it out, not all dull..lol also, chinas mane is ok for the colour, i got most of the sun bleach out, but i cant for reason with her tail, i dont like putng lots of stuff in her hair, and her hair is geting back to its longer fuller self now

, should i die her whole tail black?? if anyone wants i can post pics..... lol so any advice?

 

[nootka]

I use the Quic Color or Quic Silver shampoos.

I am very sparing with shampooing tails, but when I do, I am sure to rinse the suds out very well. Tails get a good, cold water wash.

I don't put any conditioner on the mane or tail. My good friend uses hot oil treatments for the whole horse, and her horses look beautifully shiny from nose to tail.

I do spray on show sheen while the horses are drying after their baths.

I also like to add some leave-in conditioner called Rose Oil. It's nice for the hair, but I would not say it makes them so much more shiny, just keeps it from getting dry and brittle.

Cowboy Magic ends up adding the shine and gloss, but I only use that for detangling or at shows right before going in the ring.

I would dye a tail that has been bleached by the sun. I would wait until a few weeks before a show (before you clip for the show), though, for to me, there's no reason to have it super black unless you're going to a show. I usually have to do it twice per show season on my show horses with black tails that are also bleached by the sun.

Hope this helps a little bit!

(most shampoos and conditioners for humans are perfectly fine for horses. Eqyss makes good stuff that is also good for their skin)

Liz

 

[mininik]

Besides changing shampoos, I would also take a look at what you are feeding. No shampoo or conditioning product can add REAL shine to a coat.

I recommend the Eqyss line. It whitens whites and brings out colors naturally, without harsh chemicals or detergents.

 

[MyLilShowGirl]

First off, feeding flax seed would really help with the shine. I feed it year round now with my guys because I have noticed how well it works.

As for shampoo, my favourite would be the Orval paste--tack connection sells it I believe. It washes out VERY well, and it is highly concentrated-I love it. A tub of it is about 30-40$ but it lasts FOREVER. I think I am going on second show season with mine! It really is great stuff.

For whitening shampoo, I just use the cheap dog shampoo, it all works well.

Good luck.

Kristin.

 

[disneyhorse]

I like the EQyss shampoos... but generally I use whatever I've got (currently have a Rio Vista shampoo I think).

I like Pantene for sleek hair for conditioner! No, really!

QuikSilver is great for white horses/socks/pintos.

An important thing is to Showsheen a little after the bath... but what I like to add WITH the ShowSheen now is EQyss Premier Rehydrant spray. It smells great and helps moisturize since the Show Sheen is so drying.

A good feeding program and keeping your horse out of the sun really helps more than any product can.

Andrea

 

[Leeana]

I had two pure white horses this past season on my show string, enough said lol.

I use Quick Silver which is a whitening shampoo, i mix it in with another regular shampoo. The quick silver shampoo takes ALLOT as it doesnt foam easily, which is why i mix it in with regular shampoo. The Wucik Color 'red', i tried this summer and it can really stain your horse quickly! I clipped out a sabino/chestnut for congress this past season and tried it on him and dropped a few drops on him of that shampoo and it took DAYS for the stains to disapear! I used it agian at congress, but mixed it with another shampoo.

I really like the cowboy magic shampoo, that is normally what i mix my color enhancing shampoo's in.

This past season, i bought a bottle of the M-T-G Conditioner and it was the worst product i have ever used. It says you must leave it in like 5 minutes before washing it out, but even 10 minutes later it was pointless. I see why it was marked down to $5

I also LOVE to mane & tail products as well. Normally i work some of the M & T conditoner through the mane and tail and leave it in without washing it out and then braid the tails. Wonderful products

.

For when im just giving the non show horses a bath, or not doing pre-show prep, i like suave human products on the horses

.

 

[C G Minis]

We use swave clear shampoo on our show horse[big horse] and infuseium leave in conditioner for people on his mane and tail.It get's him really clean and the conditioner is awesome.That's all we use and we got a world championship on him at the buckskin world in showmanship. He looked great!!

 

[Mock2Farms]

After 13+ years of showing horses the shampoo I have found that makes them shine the most is V05. It is like $.99 a bottle to top it off! It works great on the mane and tail, as well as the body.

As far as whitening I use quick silver, they also make a blackening (is that a word?) shampoo that worked well for me. I have always had pintos and I use quick silver first on the white and then V05 all over.

Oh and it also smells good!

 

[Jill]

I think the senior feed, good hay and flax seed we feed our horses has 95% to do with how their coats look.

For shampoos, I like to use baby shampoo on their heads / faces, a shampoo for people with conditioner already in it (like Pert Plus) to wash bodies, manes and tails and for conditioning their manes and tails, what I've liked more than the conditioners made for horses' manes and tails has been Thermasilk of all things! I used it once when I'd ran out and didn't have enough horse product to finish my horses and it made their manes and tails so silky but not a bit weighed down the way the horse product does no matter how much I rinse. So, now I buy us a couple big (inexpensive) bottles of it each season from BJ's Club (warehouse store).

After their pre-show baths, I douse them in Show Sheen or Lazer Sheen. I don't think this adds so much to the shine? I do it to repell dirt as I always wash the day before a show. I douse them in this and they stay clean on parts their PJ's (body slinkies, slinky hoods, slinky tail bags, and a nylon sheet over top) do not cover and protect.

If you are wanting to take sunburn out of manes and tails, I'd dye them prior to clipping (so you can clip off "smudges") and I really like Just For Me shampoo in (not brush on) and go with a color called "Almost Black" or "Darkest Brown". It looks so natural and does not drip the way the products made for women do. I also think the men product penetrates through the coarse horse hair better. Going with an almost black color also looks natural in a way a true black dye will not.

 

[MiniHunterHorseFan]

I have used Pantene Conditioner (the human kind) on my horses' manes and tails, and they seem to be nice and shiny afterwards. I wouldn't use human shampoo on the body though. Would probably dry out the skin. Anyway I used the conditioner for blondes. Only stuff I had around the house. LOL. I'm thinking about getting the Pantene Conditioner for grey haired people for my horses manes and tails because they are white not blonde. But the blonde stuff didn't really dye it though. I like the Quick Silver shampoo.

Oh by the way if you put some World Champion Pepi Spray, I think thats the name, in the mane and tail before a show it makes it REALLY shiny. Just don't do it if you are going to turn them loose in a paddock. It attracts dirt.

 

[TinyMiteVillage]

I use EQ Solution and all my horses come out shiny and looking sleek. It is awesome. That is all I wash my minis in and it helps with the grass stains as well they do not stay as long and gets rid of them along with any body fungus (pasture fungus) that may appear. It does not get lice which one of my minis always ends up with before spring begins. But thats ok just powder them down and they are gone and then wash them with EQ Solution and BAM we are ready to go for the show season.................

 

[MinisOutWest]

Just my 2 cents- EQ Solutions, I can wash 8 horses in 20 minutes with the foamer. Keep one foamer with EQ in it and one foamer with a whitening shampoo for the ones with chrome. Leaves their hair shiny and very slick, no conditioner needed in the tails or mane. I will never change, had a guy do a demo on one of my QH halter horses, think it was EZ wash, burnt his hair coat and split his ends, took me 6-8 weeks for him to shed to get rid of the burnt hair. Believe me, when you are by yourself at a show and need to wash 8 horses, you do not want to spend 4 hours doing it, been there did that, the old fashion way. EQ is not cheap, but it does the trick very well, and the horses look great.

 

[_minihorses4ever_]

I use plain old Cowboy Magic shampoo. It has made me very happy in the years I have used it.. It has never given me a reason not to like it.

 

[mininik]

I also use EQ Solutions Body Wash... on dogs in my grooming parlour!

 

[Sarah's Little Blessings]

Plain ol' Jeffers for me! I really like their line!

 

[Margaret]

Well I use a diluted type of human shampoo, but that EQ soulutions body wash sounds like something I'd like to try, as I wash dogs quite a bit too.

Any suggestions on where I can find some?

The other day I did not want to brush out my horses mane or tail because it felt so brittle.

So I rinsed out both the mane and tail with water first, and then worked in a good conditioner like Panteen to both areas...

After working it in and rinsing it out, the hair felt and brushed out like silk!

I hardly lost a hair in brushing after that.

 

[mininik]

Brushing hair dry is really not good for it, so you did the right thing by cleaning and conditioning it, first. The funny thing is reading about all of these "great" products being named on this thread that are just full of harsh soaps, detergents, chemicals, silicones, etc. It's funny how advertising works...

Mary, check out http://www.EQSolutions.net for retail info. You may need to contact them for a complete list of retailers in your area. Keep in mind that you'll either need to purchase their applicator or what I use in the parlour, a garden hose end sprayer.

 

[Margaret]

Thanks Nicole! Come to find out,- the closest feed store to me carries the product,- which I accessed from the site .

I can buy a trial sized container for 14.99.

This container has its own foamer that I can hook up to the garden hose, and is said to do 15 full sized horses. Its a good way to try out the product before commiting to the bigger container, and the foamer.

 

[MiniHunterHorseFan]

Just to add one thing I read in Horse and Rider about manes and tails. These people have a QH palomino with a gorgeous mane and tail, loooong and thick and wavy. They use EZAll, condition with Mane 'N Tail, and Cowboy Magic Detangler when its wet. They said you should use a wide tooth comb only when it is dry or almost dry, not wet. Also sometimes they do a second shampooing with Ivory dish soap to cut stains after the EZAll.