Smart Grooming Review - Super Shine

Happy bank holiday Monday everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend with your horses.

I certainly have and I got to use some new products, so I was in my element.

A couple of weeks ago I did a review on Smart Groomings Leg and Body Whitener so I had a play around with that again on our Shetland Millie as unlike our ex racehorse Beanie, she has white on her body and she has feathers so I wanted to see how it fared on those. As well as using Smart Groomings Super Shine on manes and tails! 

I got Millie in from the field and, to begin with, her little jockey (My niece) Francesca gave her a brush over to remove dried on mud and start from a relatively clean pony.

First I thought i'd try the new Super Shine I'd been sent earlier in the week. Millie has a lovely long soft mane but does enjoy rubbing it into the mud, like all Shetlands, so I shampooed it and brushed the tangles out.

I rubbed it dry with a clean dry towel and left the rest to dry naturally in the wind. It was still slightly damp here so to act as a anti tangling agent, I put a pea sized amount onto the palm of my hands, rubbing it over both palms equally and then ran my hands and fingers through her mane to cover as much as I could with the product.

As you can see it dries beautifully, tangle free and somewhat fluffy. It doesn't stick and clump together like some finishing oils, lovely result and I was really pleased.
I used Super Shine on Millie's mane as she is an M&M that shouldn't be plaited for the ring. Do not use this product on a horse or pony you have to plait up as it makes it extremely silky, therefore your plaits wouldn't stay in! And that is not what you want when you're trying to get your neatest tight plaits!

I also put a small amount spread evenly on a clean dry cloth and rubbed it over Millie's body. She was being turned out that evening so if she did roll in the mud, it wouldn't stick to her! And low and behold, it didn't and brushed off instantly without leaving any dusty brown marks on her.
Great product and works for ages.Even today after being out all day she's still dirt free as the formula of the products keeps working days afterwards expelling dust and dirt.

I also wanted to try it on Millie's tail. Unfortunately with mares, she has got a urine stained tail. The disadvantage with a Mountain & Moorland pony is you have the leave them quite Au natural which means we can't cut her tail too short. The downside to this is that a long tail does get muddier and more likely to be wee'd on.

First I just washed her tail with normal shampoo and then a bit of conditioner.

It did come out quite white but still unfortunately horse wee does stain tails, especially those that are white or have white in them, as you can see it does still have a yellow tinge to it, so I thought i'd see how the whitener did in her tail.

While Millie's tail was still wet slightly I dampened a sponge and dipped it into the whitener and spread it through the strands of white tail only. I also found dabbing the tips of my fingers into the whitener and spreading it through the white tail hair helped also.

Look how lovely it turned out! This is after it had dried. To seal in the whitener and also make it soft and smooth I put a pea sized amount of Super Shine into my hands, rubbed it in so it was evenly coating my hands and ran them through the tail. Millie's tail didn't tangle up at all and keep a clean fluffy appearance!

When Smart Grooming put my review on their Facebook I noticed quite a lot of people asking how the whitener works on feathers, so while I had my shampoo's out I hosed Millie's 4 white socks and gave them a clean with some whitening shampoo and tried the whitener on her feathers. Same as I did with B's short hair socks, I damped a sponge and dabbed it sparingly into the powder to just coat the sponge and brushed it over the fur, and in circular motions worked the powder into Millie's longer fur. Here it is, slightly wet but with the whitener on -

Here she is - All clean, soft and shiny! (Note - she naturally stands on a mounting block, she is in no way made to do that. It's self taught and she came to us doing it. Maybe she likes to see a bit higher than her natural 10 hands 2 inches?)

The final verdict, lovely products that really work. They have good, clear instructions how to use them that make them easy to use and they work amazingly well! They're also multi use products, so you can buy one products that has more than one purpose. Better than buying 1 product for every little thing, it saves a fortune!

The whitener isn't just for legs, it can be used on short or long hair, use on the body and even a tail! I'd highly recommend it for all horses, especially greys and piebald/skewbalds!

If you use the whitener on a tail, make sure to finish it with a silicone based shine/softening product to make it soft and clump free as the powder does make it quite matte in appearance.

The Super Shine can be used after bathing to act as a finisher. Ladies, we use oils on our hair after washing to help it dry shiny and tangle free, well that's what Super Shine does for horses! 

You can also add it to a cloth to rub over the horse or ponies body to expel dust and dirt after bathing, as well as just before you go into the ring to give that final finishing shine!

We had a lovely day yesterday and won, not once but twice! Lead Rein Pony and Ridden Mountain and Moorland. Not bad for Francesca's first show and my first attempt at lead rein showing! Thank you so much to Smart Grooming for your wonderful products. There are a lot of big name products out there but Smart Grooming will be the ones we use from now on!

(See Millie's tail soft, white and flowing in the wind.. because she's worth it!)