Do you own a Grey? Or maybe a blingy bay?

If so there’s a good chance you’ll be facing the same battle as me this show season! There is nothing worse than spending an entire day before a show or competition washing, scrubbing and meticulously combing to wake up 4 hours before you need to enter the ring only to find your darling pony has managed (through the 6 layers of rugs and the stable boots you applied) to cover themselves in saw dust and manure. Or if you’re like me and your horses live out all year with no option of a stable the night before they’ve simply returned themselves to their previous state with no time to rewash. Nightmare!

If this is you, I may have found a great addition to your Fatmax, show box or tack room in the form of a spray from Carr Day & Martin (a favourite of her majesty the late Queen Elizabeth II I might add). The product is Stain Master aptly labelled in Green to conquer those dreaded green stains we all know an love to deal with. The instructions suggest it can be used as an immediate spot cleaner only requiring a damp cloth to wipe off. I must admit I was slightly dubious but I’ve come away from the experiment hoping my next show morning may be slightly less stressful with this in my kit. We can all hope right? 

I’ve tested it for you on our daughter’s grubby grey show pony, Storm Boy, who lives for dust and mud and refuses to remain clean despite my best efforts and constant pleading with him. He immediately knew something was up and went for one last roll in his favourite dust patch just for added effect, little did he know this time he was actually helping me out with his insistence he must be Bay and not Grey!

Having not had a bath in a month he was especially disgusting but as this is a spot cleaner meant for stains and not general dirt I ignored most of him and went for the hocks, knees and that random patch on his hip he manages to turn green when he puts in enough effort to roll right over his (currently rather round) gut. Following the instructions I shook the can before use, sprayed directly onto the green patches (its purple by the way our favourite colour), scrubbed it in slightly with my fingers and then wiped it clean with a damp cloth. Now I must admit I got a little carried away the first go and over sprayed requiring a bit more than a damp cloth to remove the spray but I still didn’t need to reach for the hose, a properly wet cloth did the job. And I have to say that knee is completely free of any traces of green staining. Call me impressed.

Learning from my previous mistakes I continued with the other patches only applying one spray and wiping with a damp cloth. I will say the first method was more effective however one spray and a wipe did remove 95% of the staining and given we are working with month old stains and a decently dirty pony I believe this will be magic on a horse that was washed the day before.

I will make this the first step in my show morning routine to ensure the hair has ample time to dry but I am excited to now have a fast working weapon against green stains that only requires 5 minutes and is probably a job that Show Dad or an older child can manage while I continue pulling my hair out over missing ties and number holders.

If you’d like to add Carr Day & Martin Stain Master to your arsenal of Grey Pony cleaning power click here

I have also made a video on this showing the results of the above experiment that can be found on all of our social media channels Facebook, Instagram, TikTok & Pinterest