Monday, October 12, 2009

What's in your bucket?


Every horse person has a grooming kit. It's a really a cross-discipline staple you'd find in any barn. That lovely box or bucket of brushes, rags, ointments, oils, lotions, curries and picks to keep everything straight with your horse and would allow personal sessions.

I remember as a kid I would hoard brushes and stow them away in my then pristine tack trunk for my future horse. They were even cleaned weekly despite never seeing an equine to begin with.

My mother though I was odd, I thought I was well prepared for the occasion.

Grooming is still one of my favorite daily activities, and nothing tells you more about a horse than his personal box of brushes.

Back in the day, kits were assembled per horse, where owners knew what kind of brush the horse would enjoy or in some cases tolerate. My big case in point, is when I evented an Appendix Quarter Horse, the only thing I could use was a soft brush and maybe a curry on his legs. The rest of the time it spent rubbing him down. Thankfully he never really rolled and mud wasn't his favorite thing.

But these days, they come pre-assembled.

For me, it defeats the purpose of selecting the tools you feel most comfortable with. It's also a demarcation of the downshift in general horse grooming knowledge. I still curry and strap my horses with Mineral Oil after a hard work and I still hand pick manes and tails.I kinda wonder what kids are missing out when they can't or won't choose their own brushes to go in their own horses' kits.

But I digress.

I currently have two buckets of brushes.

Sincere's bucket is simple. The blue bucket consists of a dual sided jelly curry, a dandy brush, a flick brush, Cowboy Magic, a few rub rags, his box of treats and a hoof pick.  Plus whatever I happen to be showing him that day. He really doesn't have an opinion about his brushes yet, mostly, they're just fun play things that I have to occasionally yank out of his mouth.

Sinari's bucket, however is a little more complicated. Her black bucket starts off with her pimple curry mitt. I got this mitt for easy use and shedding season. Sinari hates regular curries and prefers her soft mitt and will stand for a few hours to be curried on. This is quickly followed by her her dandy, her flick and her soft brush, rub rags, and hot pink hoof pick (only hoof pick I have had that hasn't wandered off).

Ointments include, hoof oil, MTG (for that current skin funk), FAZO and Mineral Oil for her daily strapping. She also has Cowboy Magic to sort through the long mane and tail of hers. She also has her own set of scrunchie, hair tie things.

If you notice, I don't have a hair brush. I usually spend a few hours sorting tails every few months.

But for all the brushes and ointments, the reason why he and she looks so good begins on the inside. I really contribute this to McCauleys Brothers, Glanzen 3, regular worming and nutritional work. Year after year my horses look great because of it.

So for the readers: what's in your bucket?

7 comments:

Golden the Pony Girl said...

I love looking into other people's grooming bucket, I think it says more about a person then their car!

SoraSoul said...

I also LOVE putting together my own bucket. I have a really cute one for Sora that includes all the normal stuff along with more brushes than I really need because they are cute and I seem to collect them. I also have a bag of rubber bands and a bottle of Cowboy Magic to deal with her LONG fine mane.

I was thinking about doing a similar entry about my grooming bucket so now I will and you'll be able to see pictures on my blog soon.

Karen said...

Picking tails is such a lost art!! I don't know anyone other than myself who does it anymore. It's so good for the tail, plus it's an oddly relaxing activity.

Andrea said...

My bucket is actually a big tupperware-type tub thing that is all decorated with black and gold markers that say Gogo's name, show name, registered name, and have some fancy drawings of Holsteiner brands and stars and other obnoxious things. She has too many things in there to even remember - several varying brushes from stiff mud brushes to soft goathair ones, and everything inbetween, a hair brush (yes, that gorgeous thick tail of hers gets brushed EVERY DAY!), a hoofpick, two soft rubrags/cloths, Showsheen, Cowboy Magic detangler, MTG, various hoof products like Rainmaker/White Lightning/Tomorrow/sealant/Durasole, COOKIES!, a few first aid type things (stuff I might need for a scrape or some other small thing), liniment, and geez a ton of other stuff.... too much to remember.

Andrea said...

Wow my grammar. I forgot curries too. Like... six of them.

Kelly said...

ANDREA! You sinner! ;-)

And I'm jealous- I don't have nifty breed registry brands for my ponies yet. So I use decorative 3M electrical tape to mark out buckets.

I think as a child I was hit with a hairbrush and told to pick out their manes and tails. Since then, like Karen, I find it more of a zen master exercise.

Sora- I had probably eight to ten brushes at one point, and then I split them into my daily and show only bucket. I too also collect rubber bands, scrunchies and anti-frizz solution for her 80s Tina Turner hair.

Golden the Pony Girl said...

I have to ask-- what IS tail picking? I am one of those people who does not know :)