How to Groom a Horse's Body

"Hi! I'm Sharon Booth with Goldenrod Performance Horses on behalf of Expert Village. Today, we are going to learn how to groom the mane and body of the horse. Now that we have our horse standing here. First you are going to reach up to the mane and use your mane comb and get all the tangles out of it. Working through the mane and along the nap of the neck making sure that all the dirt and grime is out of the mane and along her neck. Then you are going to go down the neck on both sides. First this side starting at the ears and working down the neck and into the shoulder. From the jaw line in front of the neck and the other side as well making sure the neck is clean of all dirt and making sure that everything is in order there. Then you go into the chest area. Now in the chest area, you want to make sure that you get between what you call the brisket area of the horse and the forearm. Then work your way over the back, over the withers and the belly. Make sure that you get all the dirt from in between the legs and where the girth would normally go on the horse so that you want the under belly completely free of all of the debris and dirt. Then you go over the top of her back onto the haunches with good clean hard strokes with this brush. This means that you are getting everything off of the horse as you are going with the hair. As you see that the hair grows one direction, that is the direction that you are going to be using your brush. Then you go over the haunches down hind quarters, down the back side of the leg which is called the hocks and down the legs. Now as you go down those legs, you are going to put one hand on top of the horse so that the horse knows where you are at all times. There by you are talking to your horse and letting him know as you go down the legs, you are not spooking him in any way. So as you go down the hind quarters, go ahead and groom your hind legs. Go down the front and back of each leg, around the fetlock and hoof making sure that all of the debris is removed from that area and then move back up front of the horse to cover the front legs. So as you are grooming the front leg, your horse is still standing there nice and calm and you are getting all the dirt down the legs and off of the horse from around the hoof and as you are brushing over what we call the coronary band so the horse is receptive to grooming and again, you want to use good hard strokes and not lightly so that you are really removing because it is like a massage to the horse. It really feels good to them and they appreciate it. So have a good time grooming your horse and enjoy them as much as they enjoy you."