Handy Barn Items for Grooming and Health

• Scrub brush for removing mud from your horse (and thereby saving your better, more expensive brushes for finish grooming).
• Plastic kitchen scouring pads ("scruffy pads") for removing dried sweat and mud from thin-skinned equines.
• Cheap, yard-sale towels for a zillion uses, including final grooming/polishing, applying fly spray to faces, rubbing alcohol on legs, wiping slimy bits, and keeping dust and mold off tack.
• Turkey basters for rinsing mouths and cleaning sheaths.
• Turkey-basting brush for applying hoof conditioner.
• Empty dishwashing-liquid bottles for applying liniment.
• Disposable razors for removing bot eggs.
• Vaseline for polishing faces.
• Baby oil for cleaning sheaths and udders, and detangling manes and tails.
• Hair brushes, especially heavy rubber ones, for grooming manes and tails.
• Hairspray and gel for taming flyaway mane hairs.
• Unscented, alcohol-free baby wipes for cleaning the inner ear, around the eyes, in the nostrils, and under the tail.
• Large, heavy-duty plastic detergent bottle for a horse toy. (Fill with pebbles, cap tightly, and hang in your horse's stall.)
• Lightly sweetened breakfast cereal for horse treats.
• Utility knife, hung near your hay storage area (always with the blade retracted), for quick-and-easy hay-bale opening.

This article first appeared in the May 2001 issue of Horse & Rider magazine.