Grooming for pets and horses

Regular grooming is an important part of the overall looking after of all hairy animals and as well as helping with the removal of dead hair, it also promotes coat condition and general overall health and wellbeing.  Investing in a few key grooming products will help the long term comfort of any animal.

An animals’ coat is their natural protective layer against the elements and needs careful care.  During the Spring and Autumn when the coat changes more rapidly at the growing and shedding stages, it is really helpful to give the animal extra help with this process to speed up the removal which will in turn help with stimulating the hair follicle and encourage more blood flow to the skin promoting general good health to the underlying skin and hair.

There are different grooming tools on the market which can be more useful to some hair and skin types than other products.  For the more sensitive skins it is worth looking at the finer slicker brushes or the pin head type brushes.  Although a wired hair brush, they tend to groom more softly through the hair than some of the coarse types of hair brushed or thinning combs.

The double sided pin brushes with a brush on one side and pins on the other are useful for using for thinning and de-matting and then brushing through after.

Combs are also useful for combing through longer thicker coats and are also great on horses once the start shedding too. These can be also bought as a double sided option with two different grades which is also handy when combing through particularly thick coats when wider spaced teeth are a better option to use.

There are several other types of shedding tools that are really useful on both dogs and horses which include the Super Groomer, a very simple groomer that works over the coat in a very gentle way and can also be used when bathing too.  Just adding shampoo directly on and then massaging it in, this not only cleans but massages and removes the hair too.

The Ezee Groom and EquiGroomer are very similar products and also designed for removing larger quantities of shedding hair, being particular beneficial in the Spring time, but also good for removing grease and dander all year round and in the clipping season.  This is a simple but very effective product and although has a serated blade, is in fact, very gentle and can even be used on cats and rabbits with softer finer coats and skin.

 

The other option for shedding and hair and skin care is a coarse or fine rubber curry comb which can give a massage at the same time and can also be used whilst washing or for a dry groom.

It goes without saying that a flea comb is also useful to have in the kit, just to give a quick comb through on the smaller domestic animals as well as having a dual purpose and being able to be used for marking up on ponies and horses, to make the attractive square patterns that you see on their quarters when in the show ring.