SmartPaker Kit's Top Five Mud Busting Tools
As I’m writing this, we’re finally seeing signs of spring here in New England. That means chilly, rainy days and the melted muck that comes after it! Mud can be a serious struggle to deal with as a horse owner, it clings to fur and hair, and your horse always seems to roll in it right before a ride!
My young mare, Truffles, absolutely loves the muck and mud after a good spring rain. Luckily, I’ve become pretty handy with getting her clean and ready to go despite even the most resistant and caked on mess! I’m going to share my top five steps to mud busting and the tools I use to help you get my horse ride ready even when she's trying to keep a consistent mud mask routine on!
1. Loosen The Grip
The first thing I always grab when tackling mud is some kind of coat spray to help loosen up the grip of all that grime. My personal favorite is Healthy HairCare Hair Moisturizer. This is a lanolin enriched formula that helps maintain the oils in the hair and skin, while also loosening up dirt and grime to make removal easier. It also is a concentrated formula, so you get a great bang for your buck buying the bottle and mixing it on your own! It’s very effective at helping to lift grime and smells great too! I apply a generous coating to the targeted grime area, and a normal amount to the rest of Truffles to make sure her whole coat is receiving the healthy hair benefits!
2. Detangle (Gently!)
Next, I break out the HandsOn® Gloves for Grooming. These are super easy to use, plus durable and effective tool! They're made to be flexible, wearable, and really let you get in the tricky areas like legs and bellies. The rubber scrubbing nodules are perfect for breaking up mud stuck in Truffles' coat and even help me finger-comb through her mane and tail! I love that these gloves are a multiuse tool for tackling mud in all places on the horse.
3. Brush It Away
After breaking up that caked on mud and dirt, it’s time to brush it away. I swap to using the Haas Mustang Stiff Brush to get those clingy mud bits off effectively. I love this brush because it’s not too big and has a strap to comfortably hold the brush with. Plus, the bristles are top notch for getting rid of that tough mud! This brush has synthetic bristles with a fine brass wire inside that makes it extremely effective at removing dirt and mud. The brush is also completely washable, so you can rely on it time and time again to be a mud busting buddy!
4. Hoof Care
One area that really can be a pain with the mud is hooves. Constant moisture can be a perfect environment for troubles such as thrush to start. Plus, that caked on mud is really hard to get off of hooves effectively! When it comes to muddy hoof care, I have two products that I’ve come to really rely on for help. The first is very simple, affordable tool: the Hoof Cleaning Brush. It’s the perfect small size to get into all the nooks and crannies of a hoof, while still being strong enough to actually help brush away that mud and gunk that your hoof pick can’t get. I use it for both the outside and the sole of the hoof!
5. Keep Thrush Away
Once Truffles has nice, clean, mud free hooves I apply a product to keep thrush at bay. Over my years of owning horses, I’ve tried a variety of thrush treatments, some that have worked great and others that were not so great. Lately, my favorite has been Therazure’s Zomp! This is a newer product for us, and I have been using it consistently since we started to carry it. Zomp is a very simple formula of copper sulfate, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and distilled vinegar.
When I apply this to Truffles’ hooves it’s a very distinctive bright blue color that lasts. You can see that it is sticking around and know when you might need to reapply it as it fades. Additionally, the formula is not runny and doesn’t really stain like other thrush formulas do! It goes on easily in a gel-like consistency and stays in place in the nooks and crannies of the hoof sole. Zomp is my absolute favorite for thrush treatments now!
These five items are my go-to for serious mud busting situations. Usually, I’ll finish up with a gentle soft brushing and the rest of my grooming routine for Truffles. These tools can be used for non-mud busting scenarios as well; I find they’re handy to have in my grooming tote in general! With these five tools in your grooming arsenal, you’ll be ready to tackle any mud challenges that come your way!