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 How to Bath Your Horse Jill Mari Embry,
Inventor of
The Curry Wash
The Magician Curry Wash

Bathing a horse or dog can usually be quite an ordeal. I usually ended up soaked. I also felt that the amount of shedding that occurred after bathing a dog or horse was unbelievable and made grooming afterwards a real pain.

As a disclaimer: I am the inventor of The Magician Curry Wash.  As an engineer, there were three criteria that needed to be met for a bathing aid.

•It could not be a spray system.
I have a dog and two horses that hate being sprayed.

•It had to be able to be used with any shampoo.
I use mine on all my dogs and horses. I am able to switch from a flea and tick shampoo to an anti-microbial shampoos, . . .you get the picture.

•It had to remove loose hair and dead skin.
I hated brushing my horses after a bath because I was never able to brush off all the dead skin, loose hair, etc. that had multiplied. 

With The Magician Curry Wash design, I was able to meet all three criteria, along with saving time and water, and getting all of my animals really clean.

The first step to bathing your horse is to gather all your supplies. You do not want to start your horse’s bath without everything nearby any more than you would bath yourself without supplies. To bath your horse you will need the following:

- a halter
- lead rope or cross ties
- shampoo
- conditioner for mane and tail
-  a hose connected to a facet
- An area that will not get muddy, where you can secure your horse while bathing
- The Magician Curry Wash
- Sweat scraper
- Hoof moisturizer

Once you have all your supplies collected in the bathing area, bring the horse to the area where you will be bathing. Secure him/her so that he can not walk/run away. The best place to wash a horse is in a wash rack, with rubber mats. A wash rack is not always available, therefore, a safe place, without debris, equipment, etc. that could  be stepped on, run into or otherwise injure your horse is good. Make sure you and your horse will be safe before starting. Also, mud is counter productive to bathing. Do not bath your horse in an area which will turn muddy when water is added.

Some guides tell you to put a protectant on the hoof of your horse. This is not necessary with the occasional bath. If you bath your horse multiple times a week, determine if your horse’s hoofs need cleaning. If not, put a petroleum jelly (inexpensive) on the hoof prior to bathing. If they do need bathing, be sure to dry them when you finish and put a hoof moisturizer on them.  Do not leave the horse standing in water for an extended period of time.

The next step is usually to brush the dirt, loose hair etc. off of your horse. Since you will be using The Magician Curry Wash, this step is unnecessary. The reason you must do this when using a sponge and bucket, or hose and shampoo is that there is dirt and dead skin beneath the surface of the coat. In order to remove this dirt and dead skin, it must be brought to the surface so that suds can encapsulate it and the water can rinse it off.

With The Magician Curry Wash, select your shampoo, unscrew one of the three curry heads, remove the plug to the reservoir, and fill it with shampoo. Make sure the curry wash is on RINSE when doing this. Select which curry head you would like to use. For short summer coats, the small tooth curry is best. If it is spring and your horse is shedding, the large tooth curry comb is great. The large tooth comb is also great for the mane and tail. Use the medium tooth comb for the horse with that is sensitive to being curried. Next hook the curry wash to your hose. Make sure the curry wash on/off valve is in the off position. You can now turn on the water at the facet.

If your horse is covered with mud or dirt, or if it is shedding, keep the dial on the curry wash on RINSE. There is no need to waste shampoo removing mud that will rinse off with water. The curry wash breaks it up and rinses it off with plain water easily.  Many of the guides to bathing your horse tell you to start with the feet and work your way up the legs prior to doing the body of the horse. The reason for this is to cool the blood stream of a hot horse verses shocking the body where vital organs are with cold water. Putting cold water on the chest or abdomen can cause serious damage, either killing your horse or causing it to colic. If you have a hot horse, walk it out until its respiratory and heart rate have returned to normal before bathing. It is also best to use warm water if available.  Start where it is best for you and your horse. I start on the neck, which is where I start currying them when I am just grooming. Place the curry wash against the coat; turn the on/off valve on. If you have a horse that is afraid of the jet of water, you can start slowly and increase the amount of water that is coming out using the adjustable on/off valve. Turn the dial to suds and curry away. You will not see a lot of suds.  If there are suds on the ground, it is working. The curry wash dilutes your shampoo. This makes it easy to rinse out the shampoo, saving you time and water.

Some articles will say it is the suds that removes the dirt. As you know, putting soap suds on your body without mechanical scrubbing does not clean you, dishes, clothes or anything else. What suds does is encapsulate dirt in order to remove it. Also, soap has a anti-microbial component, but you are not concerned with that when you are trying to remove the dirt, hair and dead skin from your horse.

Keep the curry wash against the coat the entire time you are bathing. This is to allow for you to loosen dead skin,  hair and deep down dirt. Since the curry wash is directly against the coat and the water flow is against the skin where you are scrubbing, everything is pushed up and off the coat . By removing the dead skin and deep down dirt you allow for the natural oils to be able to reach the hair follicles of the coat.  When you curry the legs, use a gentler touch than you would on the body. On the legs, there is no fat to protect the muscles and nerve endings. You can also use the curry wash on the hoofs to remove mud. On the face, only use the curry wash on rinse. Turn the water pressure down to a trickle and very gently curry the face. Like the legs, there is no fat to protect the muscles and nerve endings, so be gentle.

Once you have curried your horse on suds, turn the dial to rinse and go over the coat again. The residual shampoo will rinse out easily. It is important to get all shampoo out of the coat so as not to irritate the skin or dull the coat.

If it is spring time and your horse is shedding out its winter coat, it may shed out in one bath. Don’t be alarmed by this, if the hair was loose enough to come off, it was ready. The Magician Curry Wash does not pull hair out. It works like any other curry comb except that with the aid of water the loose hair is brought to the surface and rinsed off.

When you have finished bathing the horse, you can now do the tail and mane. It is important to keep your horses tail picked out and untangled. It is your horse’s weapon against bugs. If you tail is nice and detangled, put the large tooth curry comb on the curry wash. Turn the dial to suds and comb through the tail slowly, being sure not to pull. You can scrub the tail bone well, to remove the dead skin there. Turn the dial to rinse and remove all of the shampoo. Do the same with the mane. Once you are done, you should condition the mane and tail. This will help prevent them from tangling or matting up. Rinse the conditioner out with the curry wash.

When you are done, use your sweat scraper to remove excess water from your horse’s coat. Be sure to dry the feet and put a moisturizer on them. You can now either hold your horse while it eats grass until it’s dry, or leave it tied until it dries off. You do this so that it doesn’t roll and get dirty immediately.

The next time you go to curry your dry, clean horse you may find that when you curry it, there will be nothing brought to the surface to brush away. You may think that you don’t need to continue to curry him. Please do. It helps bring the natural oils to the skin follicles.

Selecting shampoos.
The Magician Curry Wash is designed to be used with almost any shampoo. I will emphasize that a shampoo is not a body wash. If you are using a thinner shampoo, do not open the dial all the way to suds. With a full reservoir, you should be able to wash a large horse with one filling. If this is not the case, adjust the dial so that the shampoo comes out slower.

I prefer the natural shampoos. They do not contain surfactants (detergents) that dry the coat and strip it of its oils. The oils protect the coat just like it protects our hair. They also work to help waterproof your horse. If you have a need for a medicated shampoo due to rain rot or other skin infection, that is fine These work well in the curry wash. With rain rot, the currying will remove the infected skin which is extremely important in getting rid of the infection. Whitening shampoos or coloring shampoos may be thinner than most other shampoos. As long as you remember to only open the dial for suds a little bit, they are great to use. Because The Magician Curry Wash gets the deep down dirt out of your horse’s coat, if you have white on your horse or a light coat you will find that it will be whiter or brighter. 

Contact: Our Friendly Staff
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Phone: 901-871-5168
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Website: currywash.com

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