Ways to Beat Equine Beauty Bummers

My grey horse is so covered with manure stains he looks like a pinto... My horses tail rubbing habit has left him with almost no tail and a big bald patch at the base of the tail... My horses mane is getting too long but he wont let me pull it.
These are just a few examples of the most popular grooming complaints grumbled about by horse owners with increasing frequency and frustration as show season looms closer and closer. The vast majority of grooming concerns can be at least partially addressed and sometimes eliminated by following good overall health care and management practises. That being said its always beneficial to have a few tricks up your sleeve for beating the equine beauty bummers youll come across most frequently. 

Help your horse put his best hoof forward in and out of the show ring with these tips from industry experts for troubleshooting some of the most common grooming problems. 
1 Create a Coat with Bloom
Problem Your horse is in overall good health but you want his coat to really shine.
Solution A wellbalanced diet with adequate trace minerals vitamins and fatty acids is the foremost prerequisite for a healthy shiny coat followed by elbow grease. Regular grooming especially with a rubber currycomb loosens dirt and scurf from the coat and stimulates the skin to produce natural oils which improve the condition and appearance of the coat giving it a pleasing bloom.
Currycomb until your arms fall off advises Liv Gude founder of Pro Equine Grooms an online community for grooms and a former professional groom herself. Or she continues look into making a hay wisp.
To make a hay wisp take a longstemmed hay coastal grass or Bermuda type hay generally works better than more textured hays like alfalfa and timothy and lay it out down the barn aisle in a pile about 20 feet long one foot wide and six inches deep. Wet the hay down and begin rolling it up and twisting it so that it forms a rope about six feet in length. Form two loops one loop slightly larger at one end of the hay rope see illustration. Then braid the two loops and the tail of the rope together keeping the loops tight. Dampen the finished product and step on it to compress it. Your hay wisp should be firm and small enough that you can hold it in