Drying a Horse Properly After a Wash

The quickest route to a properly dry horse is sweat-scraper first, towel second, then a spell walking or grazing before any rug goes anywhere near him. Reach straight for a cooler over a soaking coat and you trap moisture against the skin — particularly through the legs, heels and feather — which does more harm than good. Get the water off in stages, pay extra attention to the parts that stay damp longest, and you'll have a properly dry horse well before he has any chance to get cold.

Get the bulk of the water off with a sweat scraper

Run the scraper with the lie of the coat rather than against it — neck, shoulder, barrel, then quarters. Held at a shallow angle and pressed firmly, it throws off a surprising amount of water, and doing this properly before reaching for a towel saves a good ten minutes of drying time later on. Work in sections so you don't skip a leg or a flank, and give the scraper a shake between passes rather than just smearing the water about the coat. Start at the poll and work back and down rather than jumping about the horse at random — it's quicker, and you're less likely to miss a strip along the spine or a patch behind the saddle area. On a horse with a good covering of coat, expect to go over each section two or three times before the water stops running; on a finer-coated type, once is often enough. A rubber scraper is kinder than a metal one on a thin-skinned horse, and a second one kept purely for the tail lets the flat edge draw water down the length of the hair in a single smooth pass.

Towel off, then sort out the mane and tail

A scraper won't reach everywhere, and this is where a proper towel or chamois earns its keep. Rub the face, poll and ears with something soft and dry — plenty of horses are headshy about this, so go steady around the eyes — then work down the backs of the legs, under the belly and in behind the elbows, where water tends to sit and linger. Brisk towelling does double duty here: it lifts moisture and gets the blood moving, which helps keep a freshly washed horse warm while the rest of him finishes drying. Don't forget the crest under a thick mane, or the poll area if he'll be back in a headcollar soon — both trap water against the skin and are easy to miss with a quick once-over. Keeping a second, dry towel purely for the head and ears means you're not transferring cold, sodden fabric onto the most sensitive part of him.

Tackle the tail while it's still wet, rather than waiting for it to dry into a solid, tangled rope. Working from the bottom up with your fingers, easing out knots as you go, is far kinder on the hair than dragging a brush through it cold. A light mist of Release Spray Conditioner through the length of the tail and along the mane makes this considerably easier — it adds slip so you're not tugging at wet hair, and it leaves a bit of protective shine behind once everything has dried out properly. Two or three light pumps along each side of the tail is usually plenty; beyond that, you're better off working it through with your hands before it drips everywhere. The same light spritz through a damp mane, worked through with your fingers rather than a comb at this stage, keeps the hair lying flat as it dries instead of drying kinked or standing on end.

Walk off, then choose the right rug

If the weather's kind — no biting wind, a bit of pale sun — hand-walking or a spell of in-hand grazing lets the air do a good deal of the remaining work before any rug comes into the picture. Movement keeps him warm from the inside while the coat finishes drying naturally, and it's a gentler way to bring a bathed horse back down than standing him tied up in a draughty yard waiting for the last of the damp to lift. Ten to fifteen minutes is usually enough to take the edge off the wet without asking too much of a horse who's already stood about for a bath. Keep half an eye on him while you walk — one who starts shivering, or whose ears go cold to the touch, needs a rug now, not in another ten minutes.

Once he's towelled and the worst of the wet has gone, a breathable cooler or fleece rug is the next step — one designed to wick moisture out to the surface where it can evaporate, rather than trapping it against the skin. Fitted over a still-damp coat, it works with you rather than against you. Check underneath it every twenty minutes or so during the first hour, because a cooler that's done its job needs swapping for a dry, ordinary rug rather than being left on to go clammy itself. In genuinely cold conditions, a lightweight rug underneath the cooler, or simply layering a second cooler on top, holds warmth in without stopping the wicking action underneath. Feel along the neck and behind the shoulder rather than judging by the rug itself — that tells you far more about whether he's actually warm and dry than touch on the fabric alone.

Choosing products that rinse clean helps too

A shampoo that rinses out fully, such as Revive Shampoo, leaves less residue sitting in the coat to hold water and slow evaporation — which makes the whole scraping-and-towelling stage that much more effective. If the skin looks a touch tight or flaky once he's completely dry (not unusual after a bath, especially on a horse prone to dry skin), a light application of Repair Cream over the affected area helps settle it back down. That's a grooming step for ordinary post-bath dryness, not a treatment for anything more serious.

Legs, heels and feather hold water longest

Legs, heels and any feather stay wet longer than anywhere else on the horse, simply because there's more hair there and gravity's doing its work too. Towel them properly rather than a quick flick. On a feathered leg, part the hair with your fingers and dry right down to the skin, not just across the surface, or you'll leave a damp layer sitting underneath that never quite airs out on its own. The girth groove and the area behind the elbow deserve the same attention; they're easy to skip past and slow to dry unassisted. Stable bandages over clean, dry padding can help draw out any last dampness once a leg is towelled rather than sopping — but never bandage straight over a wet leg, or you'll simply seal the moisture in against the skin for hours. On a heavily feathered horse, a hairdryer on a cool setting, used carefully and only if he's happy with the noise, speeds this stage up considerably.

Cold weather, and where the damp likes to hide

Bathing after dark or in genuinely cold weather calls for a bit of forward planning. Where you can, wash under lights in a warm stable rather than out in the yard, and have the scraper, towels and rugs laid out and ready before you start, so there's no standing about half-wet while you hunt for a dry towel. Prioritise the scraping and towelling stage more heavily than usual, get a rug on sooner rather than later, and check him every hour or so until you're satisfied he's properly dry underneath, not simply dry on top. A horse in full winter coat takes noticeably longer than a clipped one, simply because there's more hair to hold the water, so budget extra time rather than rushing the last stages. If your yard has access to a solarium or a warm drying area, it's worth using after the scraper and towel stage rather than instead of it — radiant heat dries the surface quickly but does little on its own for a sodden girth groove or a damp patch buried under thick feather.

• Underneath a thick mane, right at the crest
• The dock and the base of the tail
• Backs of the pasterns and the heels
• The girth groove and behind the elbows
• Inside the ears — easy to miss with a quick towel