Smart Grooming Review - Smart Mane &Tail thinner, the Multi use tool

It's been rather a long time since I did a smart grooming review, naughty me!

Then again the Tattersalls sales have started and horse aren't going to transport themselves, that's my excuse anyway!

So where was I? Oh yes, my very favourite horsey company Smart Grooming. Georgie and I aren't brand ambassadors for nothing, we genuinely do believe in these unsung heroes and their wonder products. Showing season may have ended but I well remember getting up at 4am to plait, wash and spruce and their wonderful products make it quicker and easier to get your horse show ring ready. 

A little while back they sent me a couple of mane and tail 'Smart Tails'. Sadly I haven't been able to try it on Beanies tail yet but I will - Georgie keeps beating me to it and I'm not there to take any photos. Saying that, in the mean time I have had to thin out his name, so rather than pull his mane (which often makes horses head shy, or reluctant to be plaited because they always think you're going to yank their hair out) I'd see how the Smart Tail worked. 

You what I'm talking about, you're mid-way through the perfect plait, but you have to pull it tight to get it to stay in..only for your horse to have other ideas and shake their head, or fidget. So, I tried to Smart Tail on thinning out his rather thick mane, which has a tendency to get pretty heavy in the middle.

First of all it was given a good wash and shampoo. Then conditioner was put in and that was brushed through, making sure to remove all the tangles. Now it was nice, soft and tangle free it was towel dried to remove most of the water, then I brushed the mane onto the 'wrong side' so the underside of his mane was now on the outside. Then with a Medium thickness Smart Tail I brushed it lightly through the mane to remove some of the thickness.

By doing so I wasn't removing big lumps of hair from the root like I would do if I was pulling the mane, which could leave you with a patchy thin mane. And that is absolutely not what you want! It took out some of the weight and thickness, without taking too much out. That's the beauty of having the different teeth and blade strengths.

Without taking too much hair out, I evened out the entire mane until it was one uniform thickness, thus eliminating a thick middle mane and the subsequent golf ball plaits that would have resulted if I didn't thin it.

All the while not pulling the hair from the root, and not damaging the hair follical - It's all very well in the summer when you horse has lovely thick aerated hair follicals, but come mid-winter when you horse has a neck cover on 24/7 and you've got suffocated hair frolics (making the hair more likely to die and fall out) and rubbed patches, then you'll wish you hadn't pulled it so vigorously all summer!

The result, a nice even thickness, and because you're not hurting your horse it means they're less likely to fidget and pull away from you every time you come to plait, and when you do need to plait up, your plaits are even and uniform in size.

To finish, take your thinning scissors and give the ends a trim to make your mane all one length, without it being dead straight.

The Standard Smart Tails come in course, medium and fine and are £15 each 

I even spotted Smart Tails in my local tack shop - Gibsons Saddlers in Newmarket. Oh and some whisker trimmers too!

The 'yellow handle range' (above) Smart Tails are £22 and come in course, medium, fine and super fine.

Or if you're feeling like splurging then the wooden handle 'professional range' of Smart Tails are £30 and also come in course, medium, fine and super fine.

All can be found in the new Smart Grooming Site - Totallysmart.com

Smart Grooming Review - Coat Sheen

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend with your horses?

I had a very busy one with Francesca's 3rd birthday party Saturday morning, a Polo tournament Saturday afternoon and then showing yesterday at Houghton Hall Equestrian Centre.

Sadly it was not to be our day, with the judges preferring Hacks to Riding horses. Beanie is the epitome of a riding horse - He's a nice 16.2 with sturdy muscular legs with a nice amount of bone, and very equal in this proportions. 

But Georgie and I couldn't fault him so we're not disheartened. He was a perfect gentleman giving the judge a lovely ride, he went off beautifully and smooth in his transitions and wasn't pulling and was soft and buttery in his mouth. He was a pleasure to groom and get ready yesterday and was so affectionate and sweet (not sure it was just cause I had polo's in my pocket or not! haha) not tugging me around and being pushy! Such a good lad! 

Talking of grooming I got to use my Smart Grooming tools again - This time I used Coat Sheen. I've had this for a couple of weeks now and used it before but only now has it been sunny and dry when we've been out and I wanted to wait to show the true level of shine it creates!

Our class was the very last one yesterday so after a lovely lay in and giving Beanie a chance to chill out and graze on the grass, we got him in and due to the lovely warm weather he had a bath! He's a very water happy horse so loves them as you can see, covering Georgie in bubbles while washing his tail. Pesky flies!

After giving him a good clean with baby shampoo and getting the ingrained oil and dirt out of his coat he was squeaky clean!

We allowed him to dry naturally in the sun shine, meaning his coat dried nice and flat. Once he was fully dry I got my coat sheen and positioned the bottle about half a foot away from his body (so not to get too much in one place, but to make sure it evenly sprayed his coat) I sprayed the sheen directly onto his flat lying coat. Once he was evenly covered I brushed it in with a goat hair brush like this one. It gently works the coat sheen into the coat slightly under the top layer, allowing it to lift out the other colours in the coat.

This was taken just as we were leaving and wow, he is shiny huh!? He's a very copper orange chestnut as you can see, and coat sheen really makes his coat shine!

We worked hard to get B as beautiful and shiny as possible with perfect plaits and white legs. Smart Groomings products work together to compliment each other and have more than one use which is partly why I love using them so much! 

I was really excited to see another competitor with a tub of leg and body whitener out yesterday making her horses legs sparkly white! I hope these reviews have been helpful and if there is anything else you'd like me to try, so let me know! 

Until next time

S x

Smart Grooming Product Review - Leg and Body Whitening Powder

A couple of weeks ago the lovely people over at Smart Grooming and Clippersharp sent me some things to try out. Obviously I've been dying to try them but until today we've been jumping in the mud, but I finally got to try them yesterday. 

The first thing I tried was this pot of Leg and Body Whitening Powder. B has 3 white socks that we wash before competitions, and usually use chalk to finish them off before going into the show ring.

I must admit that I have used other leg whiteners before but wasn't all that impressed. I've used spray on whiteners but that was just very sticky and clumped all the hair together which didn't look natural. We usually use chalk which works well but covers you, the horse and everything else in a thin layer of dust! Not what you want with a nice clean horse now covered in fine chalk dust. So with an open mind I was keen to try this powder out. 

Firstly I off washed B's legs with whitening shampoo to remove the ingrained dirt and mud (B does love to wade in muddy puddles) and start with a 'blank canvas' as it were. His nice clean legs below -

I then dampened a sponge as suggested and lightly dipped one end into the powder. I wasn't quite sure how much to use so I just covered about a quarter of the sponge with a thin layer of powder. I then began gently rubbing it over B's white legs. He has quite a straight transition into his chestnut fur into his white socks so I used a square sponge so that I could really make sure I accurately covered only the white sock and didn't get any of the powder onto the rest of his legs. Its good to use the corners of the sponge to get into corners and little edges accurately without smudging.

The powder goes a long way so use sparingly to avoid caking the fur. It will stick together a little, but don't worry that will go once it's dry.

B's legs after applying the powder to slightly dam legs.

I then left it to dry out slightly, then put clean travel boots over the top to avoid getting any dirt, poo or anything else on his now immaculate white socks. This saved time at the show as this job was already done!

Once at the show and B was unloaded and his boots taken off, his legs had completely dried. I brushed the excess powder off, which will also de-clump the hair making it look nice and natural, and slightly fluffy.

Ta Dah! Look how white they are! I was honestly really shocked with how good the results are.

Unlike chalk which goes EVERYWHERE, this whitening powder doesn't at all. Because you dampen the sponge slightly and apply it, it creates a very light paste which easily and thinly spreads over the horses coat.

Well I am absolutely converted and will loath to use chalk ever again. This pot will last for ages as you only have to use a small amount, a little goes a long way. It also slightly coats the skin under the coat lightly making the area looks super white! 

This product does exactly what it says on the tin (well tub, but you know what I mean) and the instructions are spot on. It's easy to accurately apply so you can get it exactly where you need to without making the dark fur stained with white. It makes the coat 'dazzling' white, and doesn't become cakey and sticky.

It also won't break the bank, at only £11.95 for a 1KG tub!  (Now at a special price of £9.95 on 22/4/15) Compared to other high end showing products this is really reasonable! 

If you have a horse who is either a white grey, has white socks or any other white patches you want to whiten for competitions then stop what you're doing and buy some! Link above

I have another Smart Grooming product to review when we have B's full summer coat we watch out for that! 

Really pleased with yesterdays result and qualified for Thoroughbred and Retired Racehorse Championship at Aintree Racecourse. Thanks for the help on making B look gorgeous Smart Grooming 

Sophie x