One of my horses does not like his head messed with let alone sprayed with a hose 
Any suggestions on how to get the greasy crud off? His coat is shiny but the skin underneath is crusty from sweat and dust.
The damp facecloth wipe he gets after each ride is not cutting it.
I like mixing rubbing alcohol or witch hazel with water, to better cut the grease as well as promote faster drying.
I second the witch hazel. It’s magical. Also soothes fly bites and irritations.
Saline solution also works pretty well too.
My mare is pretty sensitive with her face as well. I have been known to rub her face over with a large and very damp sponge soaked with baby shampoo (the no tears variety). And then I use a separate sponge of just water to rinse her off.
I also towel her face dry, which she really likes because she likes having her face rubbed on.
Try really warm water, almost hot and a well wrung out face cloth. Go over the face once, then ad a tiny bit of shampoo to the cloth and go over it again. “Rinse” the soap out the same way, with the warm water and face cloth. This has worked for me on this who hate the feeling of drips and trickles on their face.
Almost hot as said above. Not hot. Horses can not tolerate heat to the same degree we can.
No hot water at the barn so I’ll have to try the witch hazel.
Baby wipes and a jelly scrubber
I like baby wipes too
wipe - turn inside out - dry -
works great and washable …
I always have a supply of clean old socks at the barn …
Easy and accurate cleaning like around eyes and in nose and ears.
Just teach him to lower his head. Once he gets that, use a hose with a fine mist sprayer and mist high and let it drop onto his head and stop the instant he lowers his head the slightest bit. He’ll quickly learn to lower his head to make the mist go away, and will then accept his head getting misted. You can progress to lightly spraying his head or using a wet sponge once the horse understand that the way to make the annoying thing go away is to lower the head.
You need to get over catering to what your horse “likes.” You are not doing anything that causes harm or pain, and your horse needs to learn to deal with it. How do you clip his head etc? If he ever gets a cut on his head that you need to clean, you’ll have a tough time getting him to cooperate since then you really may be causing a bit of pain. Best tackle it now and be done with it.
Don’t spray him in the face - that is just unpleasant! As mentioned, use warm water - bring a bucket of hot water out to the barn and cut it with cold water to make it luke warm - much more pleasant. No one likes cold water on their face.
I use a mitt, but a wash cloth works too. I also use a light (very light) spray, right at the top of the forehead, and rub and rub - the horses usually learn to kind of like it. You have to be careful to not spray in their ears or eyes, and rub it so it doesn’t go pouring into their eyes. Eventually, most horses become more tolerant to the process - but I’m always aware, keep it civilized, don’t blast them with cold water in the face.
Also let them be a bit playful with the water - drizzle it in the mouth, make it fun.
I’ve seen too many horses that have become head shy because of being blasted full force in the head with cold water - once it gets in their ears a few times, they have a hard time forgiving…
What worked for my horses to get them used to having water sprayed on their faces - letting them graze while spraying the forehead lightly with the hose.
The more you do it the better they get. I found it helpful to approach the head from the neck, with the nozzle set on stream, not on spray, so that the flow was more gentle, or take off the nozzle and just have a gentle flow, not a high-pressure torrent of water. Then I hose off the lower neck, work my way up with the nozzle next to the horse (even letting the hose lay against the skin which works well if you don’t have a spray attachment/nozzle) as I wash with the other hand. When I reach the upper neck and ear area I just let a quick drizzle wash over the poll onto the face. Even if they toss their head (which they will) you just ignore it and keep on washing with the other hand holding a rag, quickly running it over the forehead down the front, sides, etc. One or two more douses with water and you have enough to do the job. So basically, you just matter-of-factly wash them and don’t stop because they fidget or avoid, but you do give the one concession that you make the face rinsing quick so that it doesn’t become a big, unpleasant (for both of you) fight.
Oh, I also didn’t tie my difficult horse when bathing because I didn’t want to get into any unpleasantness with her pulling back and feeling trapped. Instead I made her stand, by doing the thing where you don’t stop the water on them until they stop fidgeting and backing or moving. It worked really well and she learned quickly to behave. (Although I am a bit klutzy with holding the hose, a lead rope and a rag. I usually ditch the rag until the rodeo is over and just hose them). Also, if you hose them for a while on a hot day, they eventually realize they are enjoying it and then you can start the sneaky quick over-the-poll rinses.
It’s kind of like handling their ears when you get a horse that doesn’t like having his ears touched: you touch the ear quickly while grooming, maybe run your hand or brush along it every time and then you increase the handling and touching each time you groom and pretty soon you have a horse which cocks his head and groans with pleasure when you massage his poll, pull on his ears and scrape the bugs and itchy things out.
I like Palm Beach’s mist technique too.
Cowboy Magic makes a waterless Green Spot Remover that is great for cutting through the face crud. I used it on my (bay) horse’s head all the time. Even though it’s waterless, I would wipe down with a damp cloth after using it.
I use MalAcetic shampoo on a pretty damp wash cloth, let it sit in the face while I wash the rest of the horse, then wipe thoroughly with a clean pretty damp wash cloth.
Ditto to not spraying a horse in the face with the water hose — I don’t give a rat’s patoot if every racing barn in the world thinks they need to do that to the race horses. I would love to jerk the hose out of someone’s hand and see how they like sprayed in the face----
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