# Revive Shampoo vs Reluxe Mane & Tail Shampoo: Body Wash, or Hair Wash? > Revive body wash and Reluxe mane and tail shampoo compared: what each one does, when one alone is enough, and how they fit together on bath day. - **URL:** https://piaffehorse.com/compare/revive-shampoo-vs-reluxe-maintail-shampoo/ Revive Shampoo is Ferro's everyday whole-body wash, built on plant oils and magnesium so it's gentle enough for regular use on skin and coat alike. Reluxe Mane & Tail Shampoo is a more targeted wash, built with castor and jojoba oils to detangle and condition mane and tail hair — which is thicker, coarser and takes more of a beating than body coat ever does. Most horses in regular work do best with both, one for the body and one for the hair, though each stands perfectly well on its own when only one area needs attention. ## Two Shampoos, Two Different Jobs This exact question comes up for most owners the first time they stand at the wash bay holding two bottles, wondering where to start. [Revive Shampoo](/product/revive-shampoo/) is the everyday whole-body wash — plant oils and magnesium worked into a gentle, restorative formula that cleans skin and coat from poll to tail without stripping the natural oils out. [Reluxe Mane & Tail Shampoo](/product/reluxe-maintail-shampoo/) is built for a narrower, tougher job: the thick, coarse hair of the mane and tail, which behaves nothing like the fine hair over the ribs or quarters, and needs castor and jojoba oils to detangle and condition as it cleans. Neither one is trying to steal the other's job. That's rather the point. ## Why Mane and Tail Hair Needs Its Own Approach Body coat hair is short and fine, lying flat against skin that's constantly producing new oil and shedding cells. Mane and tail hair is a different animal entirely — longer, coarser, slower-growing, and far more prone to snapping, matting and drying out at the ends. A shampoo tuned for gentle skin cleansing doesn't automatically carry the slip and conditioning power to work through a thick, wind-tangled tail without a fight at the brush. That's why Reluxe Mane & Tail Shampoo leans on castor and jojoba oils rather than the lighter plant-oil-and-magnesium base in Revive. It needs to coat each strand, ease out tangles, and leave the hair pliable enough to brush without shredding it. The body, meanwhile, needs something else entirely: a wash that lifts sweat, arena dust and everyday grime off the skin's surface without disturbing the coat's natural barrier. Strip that barrier too aggressively, day after day, and you end up chasing the very problem you were trying to avoid — a coat that looks flat and dry, heading toward a [dull, lifeless coat](/conditions/dull-lifeless-coat/) instead of a glossy one. Revive's magnesium and plant-oil base is designed to clean without that stripping effect, which is exactly why it suits frequent use across the whole horse. ## Where Revive Shampoo Excels Revive is the wash you reach for on an ordinary bath day, after a sweaty schooling session, or simply as part of a weekly routine to keep skin comfortable and the coat carrying a healthy shine. It rinses cleanly, works into a proper lather without needing much product, and doesn't leave behind the greasy residue that heavier, oil-dense formulas can if you use them too often over large areas. Because it's mild enough for regular use, it suits every coat colour and type — bay, chestnut, black, dun, it makes no difference. It's a body product first. Nothing stops you running a little through the mane and tail in a pinch, but it isn't formulated to tackle the tangling and dryness that longer hair develops on its own. ## Where Reluxe Mane & Tail Shampoo Excels Reluxe earns its keep on the parts of the horse that take the most mechanical abuse — swished at flies, dragged through hedgerows, rubbed against stable walls, and brushed (sometimes carelessly) more than any other part of the coat. Castor oil adds richness and a bit of weight to fine or wispy manes, while jojoba oil, being chemically close to the horse's own sebum, conditions without leaving hair flat or over-oiled. Used as a regular mane and tail wash, it keeps hair manageable enough that detangling turns into routine maintenance rather than a battle, and it helps guard against the breakage that comes from brushing dry, friction-damaged hair. It isn't meant as a full-body wash, though. Run a mane-specific, oil-rich formula over the whole coat on a warm day and large areas end up feeling heavier than they need to — simply not what it's built for. ## Do You Actually Need Both? For most horses in regular work, yes — though not necessarily every single time you pick up a hose. Think of it less as two products competing for the same job, and more as two products splitting one bath day into its natural halves: body and hair. On a full bath day, Revive across the body followed by Reluxe worked through the mane and tail covers both bases properly, with each formula doing the part it's actually designed for. Plenty of situations call for just one. Doing a quick sponge-down after a hack, taking sweat off the girth area and quarters, doesn't call for the mane shampoo at all — Revive on its own handles that in minutes. Equally, if the mane and tail have picked up shavings, sap or a stubborn tangle while the body coat is clean and dust-free, a spot wash with Reluxe on just the hair is quicker, and saves you running a full bath you don't need. These two products aren't a bundled ritual you have to perform together every time. They're tools for whichever part of the horse actually needs attention that day. ## Fitting Both Into One Bath Day A sensible order, when you're doing the full job, is body first and hair second. Wet the horse down, work Revive through the coat in sections, rinse thoroughly, then move to the mane and tail with Reluxe, giving it a minute or two to sit in the hair before rinsing so the castor and jojoba oils can actually get on with conditioning rather than being sluiced straight off. Rinsing is where most bath days go wrong, incidentally — leftover product sitting in a thick tail is a common reason a mane looks lank the next day. For a fuller walk-through of the whole process, from wetting to final rinse, the [how to wash a horse step by step](/guides/how-to-wash-a-horse-step-by-step/) guide covers the order of operations in more detail. Frequency matters too. Revive is gentle enough for weekly use, or more often during a busy competition season, without drying the skin out. Reluxe doesn't need to go on quite as often unless the mane and tail are taking heavy wear — twice a week through a muddy, fly-heavy summer stretch is a reasonable rhythm for many yards, easing back once things quieten down. ### A Quick Note on Skin Health Both of these are cosmetic grooming products, not treatments. If you notice persistent scurfy patches, crusting, hair loss in clumps, open sores, or a mane and tail getting rubbed raw despite good grooming and fly control, that's worth a call to your vet rather than a change of shampoo. Conditions like mud fever, rain scald, sweet itch or mite infestations need proper diagnosis and treatment, and no wash, however good, will fix an underlying skin problem on its own. ## So Which Should You Choose? If you only ever wash one area and want a single all-purpose product, Revive Shampoo is the more versatile choice — built for repeated use across the whole horse, and it suits every coat colour and type. If your priority is specifically a mane and tail that tangles, breaks or dries out, Reluxe Mane & Tail Shampoo is the more targeted tool, and it'll outperform a body wash on that job every time. Most owners in regular work end up using both, simply because a horse's body and its mane and tail genuinely need different things. Keep Revive in rotation as your default body wash, keep Reluxe on hand for the hair, and let each one work where it's strongest rather than stretching either beyond its job. For a related comparison covering deeper, less frequent mane and tail conditioning, see [reluxe mane & tail shampoo vs refresh mane & tail cream](/compare/reluxe-maintail-shampoo-vs-refresh-maintail-cream/). - https://piaffehorse.com/product/revive-shampoo/ ## [Revive Shampoo](https://piaffehorse.com/product/revive-shampoo/) $320 [Add to cart](/compare/revive-shampoo-vs-reluxe-maintail-shampoo/?format=md&add-to-cart=28) - https://piaffehorse.com/product/reluxe-maintail-shampoo/ ## [Reluxe Main&Tail Shampoo](https://piaffehorse.com/product/reluxe-maintail-shampoo/) $490 [Add to cart](/compare/revive-shampoo-vs-reluxe-maintail-shampoo/?format=md&add-to-cart=26)