I hate table based templates.

[jaringdale]

But I love my horses.

I spent my afternoon beating some templates into shape for a client site. After deciding that I hate templates with a passion (it wasn't cooperating), I figured I might as well go for something slightly less annoying - bathing an unwilling 450kg animal.

Now, if you've ever bathed an unwilling dog, you'll be aware of just how difficult it can be. Now, take the dog and make it about ten to fifteen times bigger. My pony, Nick, has never appreciated baths, and generally makes a fuss.

For the past month or so he's been really itchy, in all kinds of places, under his chest, his face, his whither, his rump. All horses get itchy from time to time, especially coming out of winter when all the hair and dander and oil that you can't brush out that had been keeping them warm is now unneeded, and with the warmer weather, sweat and the bacteria and parasites that just loooooooove a feast of dead skin and hair, they understandably want to get rid of it. They make use of any weapon at their disposal in the fight against the itch, their teeth, other horses' teeth, grass, sand, trees, fence posts that I just put in the ground and REALLY don't want pushed over...

Of course, when the battle against the itch gets so intense that my 27 year old pony starts to go bald, there is a problem. My first thought was lice. I've never had lice on my horses but I've treated them for it once as a precautionary measure. So I emailed Debs over at horsewyse for some advice. Debs recommended checking under the chin - as it's a place lice LOVE. However, I couldn't find any lice on Nick, and the bald patches were spreading. All horses look funny when they're malting, but my boy has never had bald patches like this before.

I had a checkup with the vet planned anyway, and she said that it wasn't lice and didn't look like any of the standard skin conditions, and that the best thing to do would be to use a medicated shampoo and wait till his winter coat was all out.

Debs got me some shampoo to try on him, and then it rained for the next week or two. Joy.

So, B day came today, and Nicholas was suitably indignant. I have to admit though, he was much, much better behaved than usual. Generally he all but goes up when you try to wash his head, and while he can't stand the hose (especially round his face), I managed to clean him all over with a cloth and a bucket.

Bathing a horse is pretty simple, but depending on how thorough you want to be, it can take a fair while, especially if you've got a horse with a thick coat or a lot of surface area (Cracker, the 700kg guy, is tomorrow, that'll take a while). Everyone does it differently, this is what I was taught;

Grab;

• A bucket or two of water, warm water is a good idea (nothing above 35 degrees or so)
• A couple of rags
• A horse specific shampoo (some people say use ordinary shampoo but animal skin is more sensitive than ours, so you're better off with something meant for them)
• A rubber curry comb or similar
• A sweat scraper
• Hose
• Gumboots and old clothes
• A couple of old towels
• A body brush and a dandy brush

And then...

1. Catch the horse, and tye them up somewhere you've got plenty of room and nothing they can trip over and bang into (some horses HATE water, and don't assume because they like the sea or river that they'll like the hose)
2. Brush out as much dirt and dander as you can, use the curry comb to work up the dirt in the coat.
3. Wet the horse all over with the hose - don't spray them with it unless you know the horse isn't worried by it. Keep the water on a gentle flow and run it over the back and and neck, be aware that the horse probably won't like having their head hosed, so you might be better to use a wet cloth instead. You'll find that because of the natural oils in the coat the water won't immediately soak right through, so just rub your fingers or the curry comb over the hair as you're getting it wet.
4. When the horse is thoroughly soaked, get your shampoo. You can either pour it on straight, running a line of it from the neck down over the spine, (make sure it isn't one that needs to be diluted), or you can dump some of it in the warm water and slosh it round. Again, don't pour it on the horse's head.
5. Use your rags and curry comb to scrub the horse all over, use circular motions and make sure you scrub gently on areas where the bone is close to the skin (spine, whither, ribs etc), spots like the mane and underarms often have a lot of dander so work the shampoo right in and use your fingers or a cloth rather than a curry comb in these spots.
6. Some people say don't wash the legs, over say go for it, my personal opinion is to avoid it if it isn't necessary, but to do it if your horse tends to get sweat rash or is just particularly dirty. You'll find sweat rash in places like the stifle, gaskin, thigh, sometimes on the inside of the hocks, and the lower leg and sometimes you'll find on the back of the fetlock. You'll need to use a cloth and scrub up and down for the legs if you decide to do them, don't use the curry comb.
7. Important places to get are the upper inside thighs,  the whither, under the chest (make sure you do in the folds of skin in the elbows), and under the belly.
8. When the horse is completely lathered up, grab a small cloth, make sure it's just damp (you don't want a lot of lather for this bit) and add just a little bit of shampoo, wash the face carefully, and make sure you get all round under the chin and cheeks, around the ears and forelock, the outside of the ears themselves (leave the inside alone and avoid getting water or lather in there). Be extra careful around the eyes, you don't want any lather getting in them.
9. If you DO get lather in the eyes, immediately get a clean cloth, soak it in clean water, ring it out and wipe off all the excess lather around the area, and then rinse the cloth completely clean (or get another one) and use it while wet to flush out the eye as best you can
10. Rinse the face off with a clean wet cloth and then rinse the rest of the horse off with the hose, use your fingers or a curry comb in circular motions as you move the hose along the horse, as water doesn't flush all the shampoo out without help sometimes.
11. When the horse is rinsed off, grab a sweat scraper and scrape off the water following the grain of the hair, remembering to scrape off the underside of the neck, chest and belly last, as that's where most of the water runs.
12. Grab a couple of towels and rub the horse till they're as dry as you can get them.
13. From here an anti sweat rug is a good idea as it soaks up additional moisture, sunshine is the best way to dry off a horse, but if you've got a bit of a breeze or it's getting colder, throw a cover on them, it's more important that they're warm than dry.
14. When the horse is dry, use a body brush or dandy brush and brush them all over.

There's also conditioners and secondary shampoos and rinses available, for example, a vetadine rinse is a great way to head off any bacteria or parasites that might have just arrived on the horse. Each of these products have their own instructions, so read them carefully.

With Nick, I've had to make a few changes to the standard routine as he's a big wuss.  Most people with horses will find that they need to do things differently to suit the horse. With Nick I usually just put the diluted water and shampoo on directly since he makes such a fuss about the hose. I'm also used to getting just as wet as him, bathing horses is never a tidy business.

Nick was pretty good about being bathed, normally he moves around as much as the rope will allow him, just to be difficult or because he doesn't like the water on him. I completely underestimated how much the shampoo would lather when I did his face and got a lot of lather in one of his eyes, he was really good about the whole thing and let me clean it out without too much complaint. The stuff must have been good for sensitivity since it didn't seem to bother his too much, he just stood there blinking a bit. Since he was so itchy in so many places he seemed to enjoy the scrubbing, especially around his ears. He wasn't so happy about his whither and mane being done, but he put up with it. I did a second shampoo with putting the shampoo directly on him and I was impressed to see that it got rid of all the dander on his whither - something bathing him has never done before.

I scrubbed his legs pretty thoroughly because he's been getting sweat rash on them a lot lately and brushing just isn't taking it out. For once his socks were white.

He made most of a fuss about being rinsed off than anything else, I can't say I'd appreciate cold water on my back either, but I can't get warm water in the volumes I need out in the paddock.

When I'd dried him off as much as I could I ran the curry comb over him again to dislodge as much loose hair as I could, and then threw his polar fleece back on him - normally I'd leave him to dry in the sun but the breeze was getting up and with his age I don't want him to get cold.

He spent the next five minutes trotting from one sand patch to the next and rolling. Most horses roll after a bath, but Nick seems to be hyper sensitive compared to what he was a few years back. Shampooing strips away a lot of the natural oils in their coats in the process of getting the dirt out, this seems to make horses pretty itchy, so they spend a while rolling, after that they're usually fine.

His socks remained white for a couple of minutes. That's a new record. I'm not looking forward to brushing his legs tomorrow >.<. He's busy grazing right now, the moment I take his cover off tomorrow he'll be rolling again just to spite me.

I love my pony.

And I hate templates.

And go see horsewyse, they're cool.