My horse has lovely shoulder rubs as of recently. I have been treating them and he has a shoulder guard on now. With that being said, I need to figure out how to mask them for the beginning of show season. He’s a chestnut and he’s clipped. Any luck with Supreme Products Make Up or Shapley’s Show Touch Up? I keep reading that they both are a weird orange color. If so, any recommendations on anything else to try?
Last year we had snow and ice well into April. Even with a shoulder guard my horse had some rubs from blankets. Fortunately, he’s a roan, so Shapely’s white, carefully blotted on, did the trick.
I would try experimenting a little, maybe even with blending a couple of colors. Don’t spray directly on your horse. Spray onto a soft cloth and blot it on. So you’re kind of breaking up the rubbed patch rather than plastering over it completely.
Trust me, a blanket rub-- while not desirable— looks better than weird orange blobs.
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Ah, that special time of year!
An oddly colored pony in my barn got them and we used a hot towel compress (mostly just for fun, but to clean the area) and then applied Equiderma lotion. Significant improvement pretty quickly. I know it’s not exactly what you’re looking for, but it works!
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Honestly, with the number of horses I see at shows with shoulder rubs (big venues too, WEC/WEF), I wouldn’t worry about it. I mean, they bother me and I want my horse comfortable, but specifically for showing I don’t think it’s a big deal 
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I haven’t tried the makeup, but it’s really obvious on the Arabs we had at one barn - they slap that stuff on thick though 
. Might be worth trying some at home where you can wash it off (the stippling on method with a towel that someone suggested above is probably best). Equiderma lotion is magical and might make a big difference.
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Thank you! I’ve been doing Equiderma for a while but I’ll definitely try the hot compress! I switched to Bag Balm recently to see if that helped more than the Equiderma. I might just have to ask the photographer to edit the pictures that I purchase lol.
Late to the party, but equiderma ointment has been exceptional at putting hair back on some really nasty wounds for me.
Also, my best prevention for blanket rubs has been the religious application of showsheen on the area in question. My mare is difficult to fit, and while I’ve managed it with her winter gear fairly well, fly sheets… not so much. But she has sweet itch, so she needs a sheet. Her shoulders always got rubs. I hated the idea of a shoulder guard for a fly sheet, they’re already so hot as it is.
The last two summers I have managed to keep her rub free, in the exact same fly sheets, and the only thing I changed was spraying the points of her shoulders with show sheen after every ride, before I put her sheet back on.
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OP/Others - which Equiderma product exactly helps promote hair regrowth? Any other product recs?
Not only does my guy have rubs from a blanket, but he also beats himself up and has little areas missing hair on his face, legs, etc. I put some coat defense on those spots - not sure if that will help stimulate hair growth.
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Thanks for this tip. I’m going to pass it along at the barn and start using it on my horse. It’ll be an experiment. (It’s definitely less goopy, and requires less of an explanation, than slathering KY jelly or Astroglide on his shoulders, which I’ve done in the past).
I use the Wound Ointment on any scrapes, small/shallow wounds. It did a fabulous job helping the hair come back around my mare’s gaping neck wounds this winter (I have a thread for that if you care to see).
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One thing about showsheen is that it can be incredibly drying to the skin, which can damage the hair and lead to more breakage. I’ve had better luck with the pink conditioner stuff (no idea the name, I always google horse pink stuff when I need to reorder it). It keeps the hair and skin conditioned, and promotes regrowth while also keeping the hair smooth under a blanket to prevent rubs.
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Fascinating! Today I mentioned the Show Sheen suggestion to my trainer, and she said she’s had some skin issues with too much Show Sheen. Instead, she also recommended the “pink stuff” that comes in a concentrate. In fact, she had some mixed up in a spray bottle and I used it today on my horse.
I think it’s the Healthy Hair stuff sold on Schneider’s site.
It’s not as slick as Show Sheen. It just makes a light, soft coating to the hair.
That’s what we in my barn refer to as the pink stuff. The only word of caution is that it can build up and feel oily from the lanolin if you use it too frequently. It also depends on how much you dilute it too of course.
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As a kid I had a bay horse that got those and I used to rub in dark “foam” hair coloring from a spray bottle and it covered them up nicely
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Ooh! That might be a fun solution to try. At home. Before trying it at a show.
For the future I keep my horses in those satin shoulder guards during blanket season and have never had a hint or a rub or lost mane. Those are BY FAR the best protection against rubs— much better than the Lycra kind.
Get a Bossy Bib to go under your horse’s blanket…you’ll never have rubs again.
I think Weatherbeeta is also making something very similar. They are so much better than shoulder guards.
A lot of brands are making these now, pretty inexpensively and IMHO they all work just as well as the Bossy’s Bibs…
I second this. I had one of the standard spandex shoulder guards for my mare and she wound up with more rubs from the guard than she did from her blankets. I switched it out for a Bossy’s Bib and have had great success. I was worried that it would slip and slide around since there is belly band but it does a great job of staying in place, even if it doesn’t get looped into her blanket closures. She’s a wee little one so none of the domestically available versions of this type of guard fit her, so I very much appreciate the wide range of sizes that the Bossy’s Bibs come in. It was expensive, especially with international shipping, but totally worth it.
