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No
longer can any of us pick up a hose without really
thinking about the water shortage that is affecting so
many within Australia...
It seem
ironic that as competitors we can stroll into a town and
have special clearance to hose off horses, while people
living in those towns are standing in buckets taking
brief showers, horse owners down the road of some of
these venues are buying in stock drinking water... so
what can we do? for starters lets take control and some
responsibility in saving water at venues. |
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Okay lets get into
this, we have assembled some products we use here, the first is the
shampoo and we have gone with the ECO2000 Concentrated Shampoo...
now if you like suds and bubbles you are going to be very
disappointed! and that's part of the beauty of this shampoo low
suds, but low suds mean a shinier coat as it doesn't strip out
the important oils that give your horse is gleam in the ring, also
its just so easy to wash out. The next thing that is going to help
you get a clean horse with minimum water waste is grooming, we are
talking serious elbow grease here, gone are the days you could waste
the water shifting out the grit, dust, hair ...from now on a good
aerobic workout is going to get that done before water goes anywhere
near you horse, benefits here your horse will get a lovely old
fashion massage as well. |
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what you need
- Bucket clean
water
- Shampoo
- Finishing spray
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- Large sponge
- Sweat scraper
- Towel
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Grooming for results |
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<<<Okay
favourite tool here is the Oster curry comb has been shaped
to fit the hand and it does give fantastic control while
reducing repetitive motion problems and fatigue during the
grooming process. The fine fingers massage the coat and
loosen dirt use it in a spiral motion working along your
horses body, its not the pressure you put behind it so
please don't go grinding it in, just apply enough pressure
to lift the coat and have the scruff, and dirt raise to the
top.
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Be careful
around delicate areas like the face, just use softer
pressure on these sensitive areas. Another caution anything
rubber applied in a over vigouras manner with heaps of
pressure can actually burn - we have used soft rubber
brushes here for years and never had a problem, so use with
common sense and only use the soft bristle type ones!
not those cheap hard as steel rubber curry combs.
Once you
have gone over your horse, you can grab a brush and now
groom off all the scruff and dirt>>> |
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Now in
your shampoo bucket put in a good dollop of the
concentrated ECO-Shampoo, swish it around now for
the bubble lovers you will get to see some here! grab a
soft bristle brush or one of those bristle backed mitts
submerge it in to the mix to absorb as much as it can.
Here is
the thing, you can pre-wet the horse down just a quick
sponge over will do, but if you are at a competition and
want to do a spot wash for removing sweat just use the
mixture straight on to the horses coat - there is no
need to pre-wet. |
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Keep your
shampoo mix bucket close to were you are
working and scoop the brush out and place it
on a section of the horses coat you want to
wash, again in a circle spiral from the
center outwards. You will see minimum if not
any suds, don't panic this stuff cleans>>>
that is the section we have washed, you can
see the run off of dirt and we have not
rinsed it yet were even more dirt will come
away. Just keep working the coat in
sections.
Then use your
sponge to rinse your horse off, again
because we have used such a low suds highly
effective at taking out the dirt and grime,
all natural shampoo it will not take that
much water at all. |
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You can then
finish off with a coat conditioner type
spray, again we go the natural way with
ShowOff, it helps to repel dust and stop
major stains from happening the night before
events, if your little pride and joy does
happen to get some dirty patches just use
the shampoo & water mix to spot clean at the
event.
Tails... easy,
after you have washed down your horses body
dip his whole tail into the shampoo & water
bucket giving it a good swirl around, then
gently massage it through the tail, now
don't rinse just yet, grab some conditioner
and work that thru as well, now you can
rinse but use the 'dip in bucket method
first' then you go use a minimum amount of
water to run thru the whole tail. |
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For
those that want the spray but don't want the guilty
feeling, fill up this little beauty before you lave
home... the
Conservit bucket pump plugs neatly into your car's
cigarette lighter and allows you to wash your horse
anywhere, anytime, the water pressure is very good, &
the bucket has an 11L capacity which is more than
adequate to give your sweaty horse a good bath. Combine
it with the Sponge brush , the ECO Shampoo and clean
horse and the flick of the switch. |
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| where
to get products used: |
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Conservit bucket pump l
Sponge brush l Oster curry comb l Bristle
backed mitts |
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ECO2000 Concentrated
Shampoo & Conditioner l Show Off |
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