For all you grey owners out there

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RachelB

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Searching for tips on how to get my muddy brown poo-stained (aka grey) horse clean for dressage on Sunday, I stumbled across this...
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/8373/whitehorse.html
It might just make you chuckle!
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So true!!! i used to own a grey and he was a nightmare! the most ingenious thing i ever found was a block (made out of the kind of stuff you stuff floweres in -oasis i think- it literally just carved the dirt and stable stains straight off!
I havnt seen them for sale for a long time though-its been 5 years since i have owned a horse~!
 
I'm a cheerful bay owner... I don't envy you...

hehe... though I don't spend my time riding... I spend my time with binoculars trying to spot the brown horse in the brown field...
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Owners of bays and chestnuts are more cheerful, and spend more time practicing skills other than scrubbing. Like riding.

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EC
 
i have my first grey and while I love him to bits, his coat has to be THE most depressing thing in my life atm (which I know is a good thing in one respect)

I can spend hours trying to remove stable stains from his quarters and Im not sure his stomach will ever be white again. The only time he stayed clean was when we were on another yard and they had a warm water equine shower. I was told that warm running water over stains for long enough does remove them (and to forget even trying with a bucket). They did appear to be correct as my boy was transformed into a beautiful white horsey, just like all the others of the yard!

Now im back to reality... we have a cold water hosepipe which wont help and I have a stained horse
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Very apt!
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I have just realised, for the first time in about 6 years I don't have a "grey" horse, one has a bit of white on her but she's a very fussy creature and even walks around puddles so she's clean.
My poor hunter used to have to have a bath every Friday before hunting, we'd be lovely and gleaming at the meet, first field we'd be back to dilute brown and I'd be wondering why I ever bothered, but they look SO good when they are sparkly.
 
I used to have a grey Section A - I still have the pony but we have admitted defeat and she is now known as the chocolate coated pony!
 
eeek ... I bought my first grey back in March, he is however the darkest of iron greys atm ... please tell me it'll be years before he goes white
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Has anyone actually found anything that truely does work? I mean HONESTLY works? :P

I use very hot water with a cup full of savlon and some stain remover on his quarters. Theres no doubt it eases them... but it doesnt remove them completly.

I bathed his lower legs, stomach and flanks week before last with the Oster whitening shampoo and same thing... his legs came white.. his stomach stains lifted but they werent gone completly and the same with his flanks. I really did scrub him too! (well not his tummy too much because its sensitive)

Ive heard about using a small amount of white vinegar in the hot water but havent had much luck with that.. again it lessons them but they dont go.

Im honestly starting to think that the greenish patch on either side of my boy's flanks is there for life.
 
Nah, wait for his summer coat to come through, he'll be two shades lighter, then it's the start of the slippery slope to whiteness!
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My arab was dapple grey when I bought him, 4 years later he was pure (technically) white with chestnut spots, he was born chestnut so I wonder if he'd lived he'd have reverted to his original colour?

Vanish......liquid or soap, used it all the time.
 
Slippery slope Ben_and_Jerry's!
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In seriousness, I think how fast they white out varies... Ive seen some be basically white at 7 or 8 years old. Mine is 13 now and is still quite strongly marked but he's fleabitten grey. He also goes considerably darker in the summer
 
lol, very true.

I have half black (good) and half white (bad). I don't even bother trying to keep him clean now, he'll only come in the next day filthy again! For shows its a bottle of shampoo and a scrubbing brush lol
 
Bugger!!
Oh well, hopefully by the time he has gone white I will have won the lottery or married a millionaire and can afford to pay a groom to clean it!
 
I have found that wash, shampoo and at the shampoo stage get a handfull of washing powder and rub into coat where the stains are. Then Poof by majic they disappear. Unfortuantely my horse creates a swamp monster look and only a pneumatic drill call get the blasted mud off.
 
Now! That reminds me of something and brings me to a question.

I used to groom for a showjumper and she swore by washing her horses in Dreft washing flakes (the clothes washing things). It wasnt just her grey and piebald... they were all done in dreft. I have to admit, it DID bring the horses up white and I had a spotty horse at the time that I used dreft on also.

My grey now however seems to have quite sensitive skin. I once made the mistake of using washing up liquid on him (upon the advise of a friend) and caused oedema's on his sides (felt absolutly terrible might I add).

Since this, Ive not dared use anything other than horse shampoo on him but have often thought back to my groom days when they were all washed in dreft.

Anyone else use washing flakes on their horses to make them white again? :P
 
I always use the non-biological, if I don't come up in lumps then I dont think my horse will (I am also allergic to biological washing powder). For Grey tails I give them a scrub in net whitener (the stuff you soak net curtains in to make them white again) this brings up yellow/green tails back to white.

Then after all that I think booking the horse in for a scotch guard sounds like a plan
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I thought I was the only person that did that, thank god i'm not! I have just sold my beautiful Few spot! I used to use dreft on him! I had to be careful with his skin but it worked wonders on his tail!! That dreamcoat blue shampoo for greys is great and instead of chalk to cover up stains on legs, use the white shoe cleaner you can get for trainers, it works really well and brushs straight off but doesn' rub on everything like chalk does!
 
Those groomers stones work on dry poo stains, for wet ones use baby wipes. Dreamcoat for greys is good for all over washing. My grey only gets washed for the occasional show but always comes up nice.
 
I sympathise but at least your grey will be clean. My friend scrubs her grey boy before a competition, whereas I give my dk bay/black girl a tickle with a flicky brush.

After a particularly sucessful dressage test a friend gave her a big pat - clouds of dust enveloped all of us
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...very embarrassing
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PMSL, yep definately symathise, I have a grey whose legs are yellow/orange for most of the year!!!!!!

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Regional greys!
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Where I lived in Devon grey horses had a reddish/pink tint, in Wales they were grey tinted!
 
I am utterly mad. I have two greys and a tri-coloured who is white on his legs and bum (when he's clean!). Pre-competition days are just horrendous!!!

My husband, on the other hand, has a dark bay - as he's always telling me - far less work involved!

For that extra special grey tail, I use Vanish Oxy Action (stuff in the bright pink tub) as part of my final wash of the tail. Looks amazing!
 
I used to own a flea bitten grey mare, who never ended up green or brown. Occasionally I'd have to brush mud off her, but nothing major...

I found out that she used to belong to someone who never groomed her (until she decided to sell her, then she paid someone £10 to get the horse clean for her!), dunno if that had any bearing on how clean she kept herself!
 
i have a leopard spotted mare and a chestnut when i go up to the field on a night i am left with a chestnut and a bay impersonator i swear she does not want to be white at all mind you my chestnut is not much better although you cant tell he has changed colour he manages to get about an inch of mud all over him and don't even talk to me about his long mane the clumps of mud that collect in it..... i could build a mud hut!!!! it makes you think why do we have these bl**dy horses (wouldn't be with out them both little monsters) shame they are both scared of water and wont let me bath them i should just give up but i will definately try out some of the things you lot do!!!might help me
 
LOL very funny!
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. Hmm just made think of my girl standing in her stable tonight, one side of her face is green the other is brown! I have tried using babywipes and warm water but the baby wipes just go green!
 
My No.1 criteria for buying (not that I do much) is NOT GREY. I have two dark bays (a tad greasy now and again but easy to sort) a liver chestnut (again, simple) and a bay roan. Roans must be the easiest ponies to keep clean EVER.

Other than that, the jetwash down the local Shell garage!
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(Had a grey once - never again - and very funny article.)
 
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