The tail is one of those things that most horse owners really want to preserve. One way to do that is to make sure it’s clean, tangle-free, and well maintained. Every tail, no matter the horse, will need a good shampoo at some point.

Shapley’s Shampoos

With Shapley’s, you have plenty of options in the shampoo department. Go for a Hi Shine Shampoo to thoroughly clean and add shine, or play up your horse’s natural hair color with EquiTone Shampoo. The frequency of horse bath days depends on your horse, their living environment (inside or outside), and the climate! Sometimes, you might find the need to wash only the tail and not do a full bath. This is great for wintertime spa days – you can brighten without doing a full bath.

Start With Suds

When it’s tail washing time, it’s easy to gather a few tools and get going. Use a dollop of shampoo dissolved in warm water in a bucket. This is a great way to just dunk everything up to the bone in bubbly water and then massage everything in. Then you can use a sponge to add some of your Hi Shine foamy mixture to the upper portion.

Another choice would be to wet the tail, top to bottom, and then use shampoo in your hands to massage in. This is best for the EquiTone Shampoos. Working top to bottom lets the shampoo really do its job well and easily.

Either way, it’s very important to spend a lot of time working your shampoo of choice gently through the hair. At the tail bone, you also need to spend your time working it into the base of the hairs and the skin. While you are there, do another inspection looking for bumps, lumps, scrapes, tumors, bugs, and anything new that has popped up.

The tail bone is also the area that you devote your time to rinsing, and rinsing really well. Suds left here can irritate the sensitive skin and cause rubbing and tail damage. Start at the top and rinse down.

Don’t Panic – Detangle

A lot of us are concerned with losing tail hairs – and just like our own hair, it does come out naturally, and no amount of product or tail bag or pampering will prevent it. So don’t panic if your brush has some hairs in it! When the tail is damp, you can apply a light spray of Magic Sheen to make combing or brushing tangle-free.

Shop Now

If you’re interested in checking out more Shapley’s products FarmVet offers, click here! Or you can shop ALL of our products at FarmVet.com 24/7 or call one of our friendly Sales Associates at 1-888-837-3626. You can also email your order to info@farmvet.com.

Looking for other grooming tips? Check out our post HERE on tips for grooming like the pros.

This blog was contributed by the team at Shapley’s in an effort to share information about their products and tail care secrets.