Alan Davies knows all there is to know about how to present a horse in tip-top condition with a pristine coat. He’s the man behind Valegro’s shine, Utopia’s gleam and all the other immaculately turned out horses from the yard of dressage superstars Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin. The Alan Davies grooming brushes range was created by him to help every rider, including you and I, help their horses look their best. Below Alan shares the daily grooming routine he uses to achieve his high standards, and you’ll find out more about his grooming brushes too.
Spending time pampering your horse with a decent grooming session will work wonders for their coat and your bond. This is how to groom your horse, Alan Davies style…
1 Stimulate circulation
To get started, arm yourself with a rubber curry comb, which Alan uses to brush all over his horses, including their legs.
“In winter, a rubber curry comb encourages the coat to come through, and in summer, it keeps the oil working through,” explains Alan. “A rubber curry comb also stimulates the blood flow through the muscles and warms them before you ride. This is really helpful if your horse spends a lot of time in the stable.”
Use a rubber curry comb over your horse’s body in small, circular movements. This brush will make light work of dried-on mud. Alan likes to gently use a curry comb to remove any grease and matted hair under leg bandages after exercise too.
2 Draw out dirt
Once you’ve given your horse a good brush with the rubber curry comb, swap to a flick brush.
“My Mr Flicky brush has long bristles that go deep into your horse’s coat,” says Alan. “I use this brush all over the coat to bring any dirt from the horse’s skin to the surface.”
Use this sort of brush in short, sharp, flicking movements to bring any dust to the surface. It will also get rid of any hair that your rubber curry comb may have released.
3 Brush away dust
You can probably see a lot of dust and dirt on the surface of your horse’s coat now, and you’ll want to remove it.
“For the next step, use a body brush all over your horse. This gets deep into your horse’s coat and eliminates any dust and grease from the skin. It also gives a good shine,” advises Alan.
Brush all over with a body brush in short, sweeping movements. Get rid of any excess dirt from your brush by regularly giving it a scrape with a metal or plastic curry comb.
4 Tame the mane and tail
For magnificent manes, Alan suggests the following process:
- Comb through with a wide-tooth comb
- Comb the mane to the wrong side of your horse’s neck to brush through the underside
- Brush the mane back to the right side, checking for any tangles
- Dampen down lightly to keep the mane in place.
Pointers from Alan for tremendous tails:
- Don’t brush tails too often so as to preserve the tail from becoming too thin
- When brushing, gently use a wide-tooth comb and pick out any shavings or straw
- If you’re faced with a tail that’s particularly muddy and/or tangly, wash it first and apply a mane and tail detangler to make it easier for the brush to pass through it. This will reduce the amount of damage to the tail hair.
Alan Davies Grooming Brushes
The ‘Alan Pack’ is sold by Eqclusive and consists of the following brushes all packed away in a handy grooming bag. It retails at £149.99* with worldwide shipping available, and can be purchased here.
The ‘Alan Pack’ is pictured
Mr Flicky
This brush is used to remove dust residue and shavings from a horse’s coat, mane and tail.
Polisher
This helps to make a horse super shiny by removing any final traces of dust from their coat.
Mr Glossy
This brush has very soft long horsehair bristles to give your horse the final once over and help achieve maximum shine.
Face Brush
Most horses will love this, a small brush with soft but effective natural horsehair bristles that’s easy to use on your horse’s sensitive face.
Quarter Marker
If you’ve dreamt of creating quarter marks as good as Valegro’s, now you can with this easy to use brush.
Stud brush
The Stud brush is a hoof pick that has been cleverly designed to thoroughly clean stud holes and frogs.
Unique All-rounder
This is a rubber brush that helps to remove horse hair from rugs and numnahs.
“This set of brushes will enhance the shine on an already well-groomed horse,” says Alan. “My pack will help you turn your horse into a show-ready horse maximising their shine without the need of using sprays.”
*Price correct at time of publishing. Main image of Alan with Valegro: copyright Your Horse Library/Sally Newcomb
