How to Care for Your Horse’s Coat: 5 Priceless Tips

,
Young Foal with a Shiny Brown and Black Coat

Regardless of which pet shares your life, maintaining their coat is critical for their overall health, well-being and comfort!

Reasons include:

  1. A healthy coat will help your pet effectively regulate its optimal body temperature.
  2. A healthy coat protects internal organs from external threats including the environment, heat, trauma and ultraviolet light.
  3. The overall condition of your pet’s coat (and skin) indicates their overall health. A glossy and healthy coat reflects:
    • A nutritious diet;
    • Effective brushing and grooming; and
    • A healthy immune system.
  4. Regular and consistent brushing of the coat helps:
    • Distribute natural oils.
    • Remove dead hair, dirt and dander.
    • Prevent painful mats and tangles.
  5. Regular bathing promotes optimal coat (and skin) health.

Below, let’s take a closer look at how to care for your horse’s coat with 5 priceless tips!

How often does your family dog need to be bathed? Read our blog post!

(Stay tuned to our blog for future posts on how to effectively care for your cat, dog and rabbit’s coat too.)

How to Care for Your Horse’s Coat: 5 Tips

Brown Horse with a Leather Halter Eating Fresh Grass
Brown Horse Eating Fresh Grass

The Horse’s Coat: Diet

As mentioned above, a pet’s coat is an accurate indicator of your pet’s overall health! Without the proper foods and vitamins, your horse’s coat will suffer.

How the Quality of Hay Affects Your Horse

Horses need proper levels of:

  • Vitamin D (typically from the sun, but may need to be supplemented).
  • Vitamin A.
  • Vitamin E (from fresh forage including pasture grass and tender plants).
  • Minerals.
  • Proteins.
  • Fats including flaxseeds and fish oil (Omega-3 fatty acids).

NEVER feed these items to your horse!

Gray and White Horse Being Brushed with the EquiGroomer
Gray and White Horse Being Brushed with the EquiGroomer

Brushing Your Horse’s Coat

Maintaining a healthy coat on your horse means regular brushing, ideally daily!

Consistent brushing helps remove the dead undercoat and encourages new hair growth! Daily brushing also stimulates and distributes natural oils. Always make brushing a pleasant, relaxing experience for your horse with the proper tools, gentle and slow strokes over the entire body with plenty of praise! If you observe your horse rolling on the ground more often, add some extra brushing to address any irritation from sweat or tack.

Regular Exercise

Did you know that regular exercise is just as vital for a healthy coat? Exercise will:

  • Stimulate your horse’s blood vessels and capillaries to deliver essential nutrients and oxygen to the skin; and
  • Help your horse release toxins through sweating and the natural oils for a healthy shine.
Brown Horse Getting Bathed
Brown Horse Getting Washed

Don’t Forget a Good Wash!

While daily brushing is important, horses also need a good wash including their tail, mane and entire body.

Avoid the area around their eyes and nostrils.

After the mane and tail have dried, add conditioner.

NOTE: Do not over-bathe your horse to avoid stripping the natural and essential oils from your horse’s coat.

Horse Tack
Clean Equine Tack will Protect Your Horse’s Coat

Stay Clean and Tidy!

  • Keep all tack, rugs and saddle blankets clean to support an optimal, healthy horse coat!
  • The barn environment should also be clean and dry.
  • After riding, sponge off or squeegee all sweat under the saddle, down the neck or anywhere else on the body to avoid skin irritations, infections or sores.


Use these 5 tips to best support and maintain your horse’s coat year-round!
Remember, brushing/grooming also provides the perfect opportunity
to check your horse’s coat for issues like lumps and bumps,
bald patches, infections or inflammation as well as
unwanted parasites. Early prevention and detection
will ensure proper diagnosis and treatment!


EquiGroomer: The Perfect Grooming Tool for Your Horse!

Chestnut Horse in an Open Field featuring the EquiGroomer Tools
Chestnut Horse in an Open Field featuring the EquiGroomer Tools

Ensure your equine’s best coat with regular
brushing to remove the dead undercoat, dander
and dirt especially after your horse rolls on the ground!

We guarantee your dog, horse, other pets or livestock,
will LOVE the EquiGroomer Grooming Tools!

For individual or bulk orders, call 860-573-0604
or send us an email.

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.