What do you do with muddy legs?

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Mary Poppins

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What do you all do when you bring your horses in and they're legs are covered in mud. Do you wash them off or leave them to dry on their own? Mixed reactions at my yard with regards to what's best ::rolleyes:
 
leave to dry then roughly brush off and once a week give a good wash with warm hibi-scrub water then cover in baby oil.

at least thats what i will do when we get mud (am a lucky so and so and can still turn out in joddy boots at the moment!)
 
I wouldn't wash them with hot water as I don't want to wash the mud into open pores, but I always rinse them off with cold water - BECAUSE they get mud rash if I leave the mud on!!

I rinse them with a watering can, or slow hose so its not too hard on the legs, then dry off with a clean towel or straw from the bedding, and then leave them in a deep straw bed that allows air and warmth to circulate. Seems to be the thing that works best with our horses with mudrash...

Edited to add, if I leave the mud to dry off, it is still wet in the morning with our deep clay mud!
 
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Leave it to dry and brush it off. Or leave it to dry and only brush it off when I'm riding if I'm being totally accurate. Unless there is a reason to suspect something ominous of course.

I always got told washing it off just increased the chance of mud fever. Don't know how true that is as I've never had a horse with it but I figure leaving it on is like a nice soothing mud pack for legs!
 
I would always leave to dry overnight in a nice straw stable. Normally in the morning there isn't much mud on their legs as it has come off in the straw, and you can brush off the dry mud.

At the posh yard I was at we washed the horses legs with a warm shower, then all the horses had thermatex leg wraps to dry off. None of them ever got mud fever, bar one who arrived at the yard with it and was managed differently.
 
Pig oil and sulphur. Was dubious at first but this stuff really works. I have a hairy with LOADS of feather and this is brill, comes in at night covered, practically all gone by morning and nice white legs left behind. Provides a great barrier against moisture and helps prevent mud fever, no need to wash and cause unnecessary problems. Love it :) now he just gets a hoof rinse lol.
 
Leave them muddy, as I don't ride in the week. Will hose off on a friday eve for riding on saturday. Then on saturday I put liquid paraffin on the clean dry legs to put back any moisture, and provide a barrier to the mud :)
 
Am interested to see what people do, I always thought the thing to do was to leave it and brush it off myself. Will be interested to see if this is the way people do it!:)
 
The mud where we live is quite sandy (and not clay), so we are lucky! We let their legs dry and then it brushes off very easily a few hours later. We've not had any cases of mudfever that I can remember at our yard.
 
My boy has just had his legs clipped so i've been hosing his legs off when he comes in. His legs are only really muddy cuz we have to walk through where the digger has been going in and out of the field so its quite deep but wet mud and is easy to hose off. I've got a mud guard ointment to start applying to protect his legs too.
 
I hose it off. The only time my horse has had mud fever was in summer when she went onto completely new long grass 24/7 which she doesn't normally do. She has done 2 winters with me hosing her feet and legs off and has never suffered any problems - although our fields are not usually that muddy, just enough to get their hooves filthy, and occasionally their legs.
 
I solve this problem by having horses that live out 24/7. :D

Never have any mud related problems, though the paddock is very very muddy already (they can get out of the mud in the main field or onto concrete). When I want to ride then I just brush off any dry mud... needless to say we never look that clean when we ride at this time of year as I just scrape the wet mud off hooves with a hoofpick and quickly towel the worst off.
 
I always leave them.
I dont think my horse would appreciate having his legs cold hosed in the winter and once you start messing around with them, that's when the problems start like mud fever.
 
I leave it to dry and then brush off if riding the next morning.

I don't think hosing off has any benefits - most of the people I see doing it don't do it thoroughly enough/do it in the dark so they're just blasting grit and mud into the legs with an icy cold hose. :confused:
 
I usually wash them at the weekend with hibi scrub and get them very clean. Leave them over night to dry and then apply mud guard before turning out in the morning. Don't do anything during the week but brush the mud off when it is dry. The mud guard forms a protective barrier and makes brushing the mud off much easier. Fingers crossed have had no problems so far.
 
Hose them. I am a mean person so if theres mud right up the legs then i'l hose right to the elbow and the bottom :o ... My boys legs were hosed every day and never had any problems.
 
I would never use Hibiscrub!It kills all the normal healthy skin bacteria, and creates a vacant breeding ground for mud fever.
 
When our horses had to be in at night we never washed the mud off. We would put Thermatex leg wraps on and use our hands to crumble the worst of the mud off in the morning.

They live out 24/7 now and we use pig oil and sulphur. Brilliant stuff.
 
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