Mud daddy- help please

[scats]

About 3 christmases ago, my parents got me a mud daddy, having seen my friend use one to wash her horse down when we were out and about at farm rides.

I put it away for the remainder of the Christmas season… and promptly forgot about it.

A few weeks ago I had a light bulb moment that I want to turn my little spare stable into a sort of horsey spa area. Unfortunately the hose and water supply is on the other side of the yard, but I remembered I had my mud daddy.
I simply want to use it for washing legs/tails/manes (I recognise it wouldn’t be good for full baths) but my attempts at getting the thing to work involved a pathetic trickle of water and me looking very confused and eventually giving it up as a bad job.

I realise it’s not going to have fire hose capabilities, but I’ve heard other people use them to wash legs and tails.

If anyone uses one, can you talk me through, as if I’m an idiot, how to get it working?

 

[Barton Bounty]

You fill the bottom with warm water, i usually fill half hot and add cold as required, you then pump the middle handle to put pressure into the hose and squeeze the trigger and the water comes the wee brush and away you go. Just keep pumping the middle handle when the water stops running

 

[MissTyc]

Mine is quite weak but with the hot water trickling through the little brush on the end of the hose, it lifts most stains very easily, much better than my normal yard cold hose which has better pressure. Give it some extra pumps for more pressure, maybe, but they're not like a hose - more a wet wash!

 

[scats]

Hmm, is it unlikely to be any use for a thick welsh tail?

 

[Pen]

I love my Mud Daddy. Its the 12 litre one and I use it to wash feathery legs and have used it for a pony body wash. Make sure the lid/handle are screwed on tight and that its fully pressurized by pumping the handle until you cant do it any more.

 

[Sandstone1]

I have the dog version. Just fill with warm water, pump the handle til it has pressure and press the handle on the brush. Its not a strong flow but it works to get mud off dogs. Dont know about the horse one but guess same principle.

 

[Reacher]

Thankyou for making think I need a new gadget!!

(Owner of a filthy welsh d tail)

 

[Sossigpoker]

Why not get a gas powered camping shower instead (if you have a water tap that is)?

 

[scats]

Why not get a gas powered camping shower instead (if you have a water tap that is)?

I was hoping to be able to use something I’ve already got rather than get something new.

Thanks all. I’ll try it again later on and report back.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I doubt that a mud daddy would be up to coping with a full Welsh tail. I dunk muddy tails in a bucket of tepid water and swish them about. I’ve got a special narrow but tall tail bucket for the purpose!

ETA From a post a post of mine last year.

I'll kick off with a simple hack. I'm in my mid 60s and have three horses.

Today was tail washing day x 3. The vet is coming out tomorrow for routine stuff, and I do like my neds to be reasonably presentable for her.

Red buckets are horse washing buckets - colour coded to tell OH to go and find his own buckets for washing non equine manky stuff . I've treated myself to a smaller but still tall bucket for tails, which I can hold up to my chest height even when full of soapy water to dunk a whole tail and dock in. I can't easily lift a full size bucket up that high any more.

View attachment 107265

The last year has been hard for me energy wise with two bouts of Covid and other temporary issues, and I've had to rethink how to care for my horses.

Please share your own tips and hacks .

 

[Apercrumbie]

I'd go for a bucket wash personally.

 

[splashgirl45]

Also make sure the spray part is switched off as you will pump for ever if it isn’t . I’ve got a mud daddy that I use for the dogs and it’s quite good as long as you have it fully pumped up. I sometimes have to pump it again as I’ve got 3 dogs to do and the little ones have muddy bellies as well as legs

 

[Rowreach]

Mine is utterly useless, and Mud Daddy were equally useless when I complained about it. I was particularly annoyed because my kids bought it for me a few years ago, when they really couldn't afford it.

As well as only producing a trickle, it's a terrible design, being so unwieldy when it is full.

 

[Nicnac]

I've now got the knack but it's taken me a while. I have a large one and fill with hot water from tap and wheel out to yard. Pump like a mad woman and it starts slow but seems to speed up in terms of pressure. I do tails in a bucket but find MD good for legs and spot stains especially using brush.

 

[scats]

So I did manage to wash a Welsh tail (well, part bred, but it’s thick) this evening with it in my spare stable that I’ve turned into my horsey washroom.
It doesn’t exactly rush out but the trickle was enough to get the tail washed (with the help of a bucket) but rinsed only with the mud daddy. Definitely a slower process but it was far less stressful than usual because I didn’t have Polly screaming from the barn that we’d left her, so that was good.

It was good for scrubbing the bit of mud off her feet and coronet band.

I reckon I can wash legs with it and it’s proven it can do a tail. Polly’s will be no problem as it’s much finer.

They definitely aren’t as powerful as they make out though!

 

[Cinnamontoast]

You need to pump like an Olympic champion but then I find it quite effective on dogs. I don't think I would have tackled a mud slathered horse with it, mine needed a full force hose (obviously not on sensitive areas!).

 

[SEL]

So I did manage to wash a Welsh tail (well, part bred, but it’s thick) this evening with it in my spare stable that I’ve turned into my horsey washroom.
It doesn’t exactly rush out but the trickle was enough to get the tail washed (with the help of a bucket) but rinsed only with the mud daddy. Definitely a slower process but it was far less stressful than usual because I didn’t have Polly screaming from the barn that we’d left her, so that was good.

It was good for scrubbing the bit of mud off her feet and coronet band.

I reckon I can wash legs with it and it’s proven it can do a tail. Polly’s will be no problem as it’s much finer.

They definitely aren’t as powerful as they make out though!

So muddy feather is probably a no then?

 

[scats]

So muddy feather is probably a no then?

I reckon it can be done. I did her very thick tail by focusing on bits at a time.
I think feather might be easier because you can sort of use the brush head to help (I did this with the tail aswell).
It certainly didn’t do a bad job and her tail this morning looks absolutely as good as it does when I use the hose (in fact I’d argue that it looks better because I took extra time with it).

I think it probably requires a bit of a knack which I’m sure I’ll figure out. Being able to wash horses down under cover and out of the wind is going to be a game changer for me, so I’m quite positive about it.

 

[Coblover63]

Is the red valve tight? Only asking because I recently bought one for our dogs and was unimpressed with it's power until my husband strolled by and told me that the valve was loose! He tightened it up and bingo!

Incidentally I did email MudDaddy to ask if only 5 jets of water from the brush head is normal and was told yes

 

[Rowreach]

Is the red valve tight? Only asking because I recently bought one for our dogs and was unimpressed with it's power until my husband strolled by and told me that the valve was loose! He tightened it up and bingo!

Incidentally I did email MudDaddy to ask if only 5 jets of water from the brush head is normal and was told yes

They told me that the pathetic trickle pressure was plenty for washing a horse and that it would not be good for the horse if it was stronger. Clearly they don't know about hosepipe pressure

I think the product is disappointing, overpriced, and misleadingly advertised, but I do understand that from the OP's pov it solves a problem.

 

[LEC]

It’s rubbish… I wanted it to wash a fairly clean horse with warm water and gave up and just went back to kettle and bucket topped up with cold.