Now, a feature of all animal shampoos is that they rinse faster than their human equivalents. My horse shampoos say they can be used on dogs. Can dog shampoo be used on horses (note: it’s hypoallergenic and fragrance free)? What makes “horse shampoo” horse shampoo, anyway? (aside from aforementioned clean rinsing quality, common to both)
I don’t know the difference. I do know that some peole use horse shampoo on thier hair. I suspect that there isn’t much of a difference between horse, human, and dog shampoo (not the flea shampoo, of course).
There is nothing wrong with a human using flea shampoo. It’s just such a pain trying to open all those itty bitty bottles.
Geez, I wonder what strange planetary alignment keeps bringing these soap related questions?
Well anyway, as far as horse shampoo’s go their main benefit is that their made for horses, in other words real simple stuff. No added perfumes, no balsam, protein, vitamin E, collagen, coloring etc. and without this added stuff horse shampoo rinse out really well and dissolve dirt and oils great…
A little TOO great. See, unlike a horse’s coarse hair, without some kind of lipid (natural fatty oils) your hair would get to be all dry and brittle and nasty.
Most of the folks who prefer horse shampoo (my grandpa uses one called “Tail and Mane”) because it dissolves better in mineral rich well water (I also suspect they don’t shampoo every single day or that they condition separately afterwards).
Finally, dog shampoo is fine on horses, especially clean rinsing ones like “Top Paw”.
People will pay a lot of money for dog shampoo. Using dog shampoo on a horse would be very expensive. (I use suave on my dogs for $1.00 a pop and it works just fine. I used to show dogs, and they looked great in the ring). I do like Mane and Tail for my horse. It does a good job and gets off fast, which is a benefit for the not-so-bath-loving horse.
Inky, I think if I never used conditioner my hair would get pretty dry anyway even with human shampoo. Maybe it depends on how oily one’s scalp is. And actually, now that I think about it, most of my cowgirl friends don’t use the shampoo, they use the rinse-
popoki5 – the question was prompted by a sale at a local pet store of such proportions that the premium dog shampoo would be cheaper than horse shampoo of similar volume. Since I’m showing, and the white loves the mud, I thought… “hey can I use that?”
Its true though – the list price was like $7 for a bottle that wouldn’t last more than 4 applications for a retreiver size dog. Outrageous.
With a big hairy Newf, a “designer” dog shampoo, or a hypoallergenic one, adds up to about $15 a wash!
He has dry skin, and we must have tried every dog & human shampoo there is, with little improvement (didn’t try Main & Tail though, perhaps I will).
My vet recommended, believe it or not, Joy dishwashing liquid! It is a grease-cutter, and the ph is perfect for dogs. You just need to be sure and rinse thoroughly. Best part- Costco has it for about a buck a gallon it seems like.
We give our dog horse supplements for his joints, because he’s so big. The dose is just a little smaller.