Getting stains out of a white tail

[OhioChrome]

I’m just about at my wits end with my grey. The top half of his tail is nice and dark grey with just a touch of bleaching on the ends. The bottom half is a digusting brassy yellow with streaks of red thrown in for good measure. I’ve washed it several times over the past couple of weeks to get it white and nothing seems to have any affect on it. It’s not gotten worse, but I can’t tell any difference whatsoever. Have I just not given it enough time?

I’ve been using Shimmer Lights by Clairol mixed with baking soda, letting it sit for 15 minutes, and then rinsing with white vinegar, letting it sit another 15 minutes, then rinsing with water and conditioning it with Mane n Tail before putting it in a tail bag. It comes out super shiny, but still horribly yellow and brassy.

In the past, I tried Oxyclean to no avail. I’ve tried a number of purple shampoos, but they don’t work. The issue is his tail is stained and I can’t get the stains out. I suppose it’s worth mentioning I live in Georgia with red clay exposed in some areas of the pasture. I’ve found some suggestions for Roux Fanci-Full Ultra White Minx Color Rinse, but I have yet to try it. I’ve also considered getting a box bleaching kit from the drugstore, but I don’t want to obliterate his tail.

Any suggestions are helpful and very much appreciated! Our first show of the season won’t be until March, so I’ve got time if any methods take multiple applications or a good while to see results. This is my first grey; I’ve only really dealt with bays and chestnuts in the past, so I’m flying blind here lol

[cnd8]

I have a BLEACH WHITE horse. I have a hard time calling him a gray. lol I use Dawn dish soap to get the stains out. It works really well. Then I do another wash with Cowboy Magic whitener one. It ends up being white like a piece of copy paper when I’m done. I swear by the Dawn though. It is the only thing that seems to even touch the brown/orange at the bottom half.

[Wanderosa]

My daughter shows a grey pony that loves to roll and has had loose manure her whole life. I wash her with Orvis first and then apply Quik Silver and let it sit about 10 minutes before rinsing. I always soak the tail in a bucket of warm, shampooy water. That is key. Just applying shampoo to the tail isn’t enough to be effective on the tough stains. I joke that the Spanish Riding School needs to hire me to groom!

[Montanas_Girl]

Are you sure the tail is stained (i.e. do you know for sure that the ends were white before)? I ask because you mentioned the top of the tail being dark still. It’s possible that the yellow (and especially red) color is left over from whatever color the horse was prior to turning gray. If that’s the case, no shampoo or treatment in the world (short of actual dye) is going to change it…

If the tail really is stained, then regular/repeated bathing with a dish soap or Orvis paste, followed by a leave-in conditioner, is my recommendation. Best of luck! As a relatively new owner of a very light palomino who lives in east-central Alabama, I feel your pain!

[WhiteOakFarm]

Soak the tail in a bucket with 1:1 vinegar and water. Then wash and condition well. I have a mare with the same problem, pees all over her heavy tail. I’m also keeping hers in a Kensington tail cover now.

[cayuse]

Feibings Green Clean spot and stain remover works very well.

[OhioChrome]

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I hadn’t thought of soaking it in a bucket, so will definitely do that from now on. I’ll try the Dawn tomorrow as that’s what I currently have on hand, but I’ll look into getting some Orvus ordered and try that, as well. The bottom half of his tail is naturally white, as the hair towards the inside and closest to the root is white. When I first got him it was white and stayed that way pretty easily with a few washings, but he’s had a considerable amount of down time due to my busy schedule recently. He’s only 5, will be 6 in April, and he’s still quite dark through his body, although this winter he’s gotten more dappled than last winter and much lighter. I don’t usually go for greys because of how tough they are to keep clean, but his personality was/is just so sweet and kind that I couldn’t pass him up.

[bugsynskeeter]

This is a great video showing how I get tails white.

https://www.facebook.com/GarrettGentryInc/videos/2196832430530420/

[teamfire]

I use Ovrus first, to get rid of all the stains. Sometimes twice depending on bad the stains are. Next I use some sort of purple shampoo (I like Cowboy magic) and let it sit for a bit. Wash out. Usually good at this point, but sometimes will do a second go. Finish off with conditioner since stripping off stains also strips off oils!

Mind you, my horses stains are just manure based. We dont have the red clay here so YMMV.

[Wanderosa]

I’ll just warn you that if you’ve never used Orvis before - a tiny bit is all you need. It doesn’t look sudsy st first. Then, bam! It’s like something out of a cartoon! :0 With the Quik Silver, I use enough that the horse looks purple until rinsing. I squirt it direct from the bottle onto the horse and then use one of this rubber finger tools to massage it in before letting it sit. The problem with grey horses is that they yellow in addition to getting stained. That’s why I like the Quik Silver. It contains optical brighteners like the bluing that old ladies use for white hair.

[Laurierace]

I am afraid to give my method out as once they figure out horse people are using it the price will skyrocket but what the heck. Go to walmart or the like and head for the auto section. Buy as many containers of goop in the white tub as you can carry in case the price does go way up. It is about $1.60 a tub right now.

Apply goop liberally to whatever you are attempting to whiten while it is dry and let sit for several minutes. Add some whitening shampoo and scrub together to make a purple paste, still no water added. Let sit for a minute or two, not too long or it will turn purple. Add enough water now to make the shampoo suds up and scrub or wash. Rinse well. If you need to you can repeat the goop/shampoo mix on the wet hair now. When you are finished you may want to condition the tail.

[teamfire]

Forgot about Goop. Great stuff. Not available in Canada unfortunately so moved on to something else I didnt have to sneak over the border

[blob99]

The hunter trainer at my barn swears by whisk laundry detergent. I haven’t tried it myself (I have a bay). But her grays and horses with high whites are always spotless at show time.

[shortenmyreins]

If you want to keep the tail white, you might want to consider putting the tail up - braiding and wrapping it below the dock. I can’t easily wash tails over the winter, so I put my mare’s tail up as soon as she starts wearing a blanket in the fall. Blankets = tail full of poop and pee. Gross.
The added advantage to wrapping it is that I generally get to cut 4" or so of the stained ends by the spring. And it’s gotten much fuller.

[ExpialidociousOTTB]

This is a helpful tutorial! https://www.grayhorseproblems.com/white-tails/

[3rottenponies]

The color rinses do work well.

Unfortunately, the best solution for a super brassy tail is getting it to grow out, and protecting the new tail from the elements and excess oils, etc. Tail bags do make for a nicely kept tail.

[PonyPenny]

What I did on a severely yellowed tail was get hair bleach from a beauty supply store. I only used the solution on the yellow ends. I followed the directions to a T and the tail turned out great. I used a heavy duty conditioner after and the tail was soft and shiny. After that I kept the tail in a tail bag for protection. Horse was a mare, so she would sometimes pee in her tail. The tail bag prevented this.