[QUOTE=VA_Hunter_Aside;8071479]
I will definitely try this method. Thank you![/QUOTE]
It really does work! Here are some before and after pictures from another forum where I learned about this method. It’s pretty unbelievable the results after using it on my TB who had a yellow/brown tail from being left stained before I bought her.
[QUOTE=All_the_Shenanigans;8071500]
It really does work! Here are some before and after pictures from another forum where I learned about this method. It’s pretty unbelievable the results after using it on my TB who had a yellow/brown tail from being left stained before I bought her.[/QUOTE]
:eek: W O W ! ! ! That is an amazing before and after, holy cow! Ok, I know what I’m doing this weekend! :yes:
[QUOTE=Hunter Mom;8071101]
Y’all aren’t giving me any hope![/QUOTE]
Coth. Hope? Bahahahaha. Honesty? Sure.
My grey is filthy and he likes it that way. I scrub lots. Luckily he also likes being fussed over.
First, is a marathon, not a sprint.
The grey I ride is white and a pig to boot. Do a LOT of currying with each ride and use a pimple mitt on the legs. I try to wash his tail once or twice a month with Lucky Braids shampoo in the winter and keep at it with Lucky Braids whitening spray each time I ride.
When show time comes, I’ll give him a bath a day or two in advance, use the whitening spray on his tough spots and tail. I make sure it really gets a chance to sit and work. Then I give him a bath the day of the show.
That’s it. I don’t use anything else. He practically glows and his coat and tail don’t dry out. It’s really not that bad if you keep up with it.
Pray. Lolololol
No but really keep his stall crazy clean and curry curry curry, and wash legs after any ride to get dirt off and don’t put him up until he’s entirely dry and spray with show sheen so stains come off easier and don’t set. Keep tail clean and before a show bag it to stay clean in the trailer, because they like to poop on them and proceed to rub their poop butts on the back of the trailer… Ask me how I know…
They aren’t any harder to keep clean. They are harder to make LOOK clean.
Keep a blanket on them consistently and forget about the spots until show day. Lol Quic silver is my go to.
Lots of resources and previous threads asking the same question! There aren’t that many tricks really, its just a lot of work. I put a few tips in to a post I did about keeping my gray clean:
http://thestudentrider.blogspot.ca/2015/01/flashback-show-ring-ready-turnout.html
Whitening Shampoo
Cowboy Magic Waterless Shampoo
Green Spot Remover
Sheets, more sheets, and more sheets.
Showsheen.
Cowboy Magic Detangler & Conditioner.
Body Clipping
Prayers to any god you can…
Possible sacrifice to the grey/white horse gods…
Very impeccably cleaned stalls at shows & sleazy’s.
AND A LOT of hydrogen peroxide and alcohol.
That’s the only remedy I had for this beast… Who LOVED mud.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=321856615483&l=ee994cf63c
[QUOTE=comingback;8071719]
First, is a marathon, not a sprint.
The grey I ride is white and a pig to boot. Do a LOT of currying with each ride and use a pimple mitt on the legs. I try to wash his tail once or twice a month with Lucky Braids shampoo in the winter and keep at it with Lucky Braids whitening spray each time I ride.
When show time comes, I’ll give him a bath a day or two in advance, use the whitening spray on his tough spots and tail. I make sure it really gets a chance to sit and work. Then I give him a bath the day of the show.
That’s it. I don’t use anything else. He practically glows and his coat and tail don’t dry out. It’s really not that bad if you keep up with it.[/QUOTE]
The Lucky Braids shampoo and spray is totally worth it. We have a Tobiano paint with white legs and tail. We were using QuicSilver which definitely whitened but also dried out her coat and made it seem like she got dirtier, faster (or at least the stains were harder to get out). The Lucky Braids shampoo is ultra concentrated and it works with the coat’s natural oils - after a good bath with that stains mostly just curry/brush out fairly easily, those that don’t I use the spray and a damp cloth.
I don’t work for the company I’m just thrilled with the product. Never seen anything like it. Good luck!
The grey horse that I leased last summer was outside all summer. If he was in a stall for a few days, he would get exponentially dirtier than being out. It didn’t help that he is 17.2HH so it is hard for him to poop in one spot and lay down in another - especially when we went somewhere and the stall was 10X10.
I curried before and after rides. I do not like to bath them to much since it is bad for their skin, so when I did bathe, I would use regular concentrated shampoo on most of him and whitening shampoo on the spots. Whitening shampoo first, then regular shampoo, then rinse, then whitening again on the spots that didn’t come out the first time. Read the directions on the whitening shampoos - most say leave in for 5 min for a reason. While I was leaving that in, whitening shampoo on mane and tail.
Rinse body, rinse mane and tail. if going to a show, show sheen tail, rump, legs - it does help keep the stains out. As soon as we get to the show, he almost always poops in the trailer and leaves marks on his leg/tail. Immediate water takes care of that. I blame the marks again on his huge frame and not having as much room in the trailer.
Its been a while since I’ve groomed or owned a gray (first one was a gray and all the rest have been bay, oddly enough!), but green spot remover and/or alcohol and whitening shampoo are essential grooming tools for shows!
Body clipping is probably the best tip I can give you. Anytime their hair gets remotely long, clip it off. I had one I clipped once a month in the summer. It makes it easier to give them baths because they dry faster. The shorter hair keeps dirt and stains from sticking and you don’t mind covering them up a little bit longer than you would a darker horse. It just makes managing a grey that much less time consuming for you and the horse.
After that, I recommend good diet and good grooming to keep their hair coat slick. Other than horse shows, I do not bathe that much more often than normal, maybe a little bit of spot cleaning and tail washing to keep stains from setting in. I might wash a grey or white tail more often than a darker color, but not obsessively so. I try to find a balance between keeping stains at bay and drying out their skin.
[QUOTE=beowulf;8071203]
solution… get a bay :lol:[/QUOTE]
Ditto!!
I gave up on cleaning him up. He’s 17.3 and I don’t have the energy, especially when he’s a pig.
That’s really impressive. I may have to try it on my Appy. 
[QUOTE=All_the_Shenanigans;8071500]
It really does work! Here are some before and after pictures from another forum where I learned about this method. It’s pretty unbelievable the results after using it on my TB who had a yellow/brown tail from being left stained before I bought her.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=All_the_Shenanigans;8071202]
I have four greys (yeah, yeah I know) and frequently show all of them. I get a lot of really gross looking tails (poop, pee, mud, you name it) and nothing works better than Goop + White 'N Brite.
Make sure you purchase the white cream goop, not the orange/gritty stuff.
Slather it on when the tail is dry and dump copious amounts of White 'N Brite on top.
Rub it in vigorously everywhere, particularly the ends, and leave it sit till you finish washing the rest of the horse.
Rinse out the Goop & WNB concoction and use liberal amount of conditioner, I just use the $1 per bottle cheap stuff.
Rinse conditioner out and spray with Show Sheen
Stand back and look in awe.
I promise it really works. I’ve never had any problems with purple tails and I only have to wash them right before shows. If the tail is really bad it might take two rounds of Goop & WNB before it really gets white, but the results are much better than what I’ve had with just liquid blueing or any other shampoo.[/QUOTE]
The White 'N Brite link didn’t work. Are you talking about the Vetrolin shampoo?
Thanks.
[QUOTE=beowulf;8071203]
solution… get a bay :lol:[/QUOTE]
That would be my solution! You couldn’t give me a gray horse for free, I’m obsessive about grooming and it would just drive me crazy.
Alright, I don’t own a gray, but my horse is a good 90% white.
My tips?
BABY WIPES - they do a pretty good job of removing urine and manure. I curry the offending area, then brush, then scrub well with baby wipe (until they stop picking up “color”).
CLEAN stall - I clean mine every evening in addition to the cleaning my stable provides. Makes it less likely that my mare will use a pile of poop as a pillow. Also, bed heavily - makes it more likely piles will be buried under shavings - urine will sink to the floor.
Clothing -my horse wears something year round. Blankets in the winter, sheets in the spring and fall, and fly sheets in the summer.
Don’t let stains “set in” - get after them with baby wipes, or spot clean in the wash rack if needed. I have been known to “wash” just one patch of my horse.
I’m relieved my horse isn’t the only one who absolutely LOVES to get poop on his ears and right above his eyes. Logistically, I just find this so mysterious. I SWEAR he’s smiling at me when I see the stains on his ears.
I am CONSTANTLY cleaning his stall at shows.
But like my name says, I cannot resist the grey’s siren song! 
I swore I wouldn’t ride another paint a few years ago because the one I had had “too much white on him” and was such a hassle to clean. Naturally my last three regular horses have been a grey paint and then two white-grey ponies. :rolleyes:
The one who’s not showing lives in a sheet 24/7 except when he’s being ridden. He’s got some yellow bits on his legs but I’ll start working on those once it’s a little warmer.
I just took the other one to a show last weekend and she got an hour of shedding our her gross yellow winter coat, yellow legs clipped, diluted QuicSilver bath all over + basically powerwashing with the hose + QuicSilver slapped right on her legs & tail and left for a looooooong time. She went to bed wearing a sheet, a sleazy, a tail bag, and all four legs wrapped to keep them clean - don’t be afraid to make them look absolutely ridiculous! If no one laughs at your horse on the way back to the, you probably need to cover her up more. She still managed to get a stain through the sleazy, so I left some time before my ride to go back over that with a rag & more diluted QuicSilver as I find that quicker than using the green spot spray.
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