Why grooming?

Why grooming?

For our first edition of HQ Focus, we decided to dive into the topic of grooming. Our reason for this is simple – grooming is one of the most important skills you can learn when caring for horses, and many of us haven’t mastered it yet! 

Aside from making our horses look clean and smart, grooming has many other more important benefits.

Firstly, it provides an excellent opportunity for bonding between horse and human. It allows you to see how your horse responds and reacts to stimuli and, perhaps more importantly, to you. Through the process you will also learn where your horse likes to be touched, and where he doesn’t like to be touched. Once you know the ‘normal’ for your horse, you have a great reference point from which to work in the future, particularly if you are worried that something might be wrong. 

Secondly, grooming provides a great opportunity for you to check your horse’s whole body for anything out of the ordinary. Grooming allows you, for instance, to notice any swelling, heat, lumps, bumps or injuries. Anything unusual may be a sign that something is wrong and invariably, if something is caught earlier, the outcome will be better. 

On top of this, grooming has the additional benefits of keeping the skin in good condition and improving circulation and muscle tone through the pressure and release of brushes against large muscle areas. 

Ultimately, we can’t afford not to be performing this technique on our own horses at least once a week. In South Africa, many of our horses are fortunate enough to have dedicated grooms who do the daily recommended grooming, but it is still worth doing the task yourself once a week for all of the psychological, physical and health benefits listed above. 

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